Posted on 06/05/2019 7:25:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin
NASA has a message for space lovers this month: Look up. The largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, will be clearly visible June 10 and to see its biggest moons you'll only need to grab a pair of binoculars.
NASA said the gas giant is at its "biggest and brightest this month" and will be visible all night. The planet will reach opposition, the annual occurrence when the Jupiter, Earth and the Sun are arranged in a straight line, with Earth in the center. So, mark your calendars for Monday, as it will be the best time of the year to see it.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Bright and doesnt twinkle. It follows the same path along the sky as the sun. It’s pretty easy to spot.
Wait, if earth is directly between the sun and Jupiter, won’t that cause a jovian eclipse?
We got our son a telescope several years back. All the dots become a little bigger. Ohh ahh
Down in MS (Gulf Coast) we have lots of cloud cover for the duration...
I remember seeing that in the theater.
:: to see its biggest moons you’ll only need to grab a pair ::
Hmmmmmmmm....
For it to be annual, that means Jupiter never moves.
Well, sure... it will definitely block out a small percentage of the sun for any Jovians staring at the sun at that moment.
Kind of like a basketball placed 4 times further from you than the Sears Tower will block that out for you.
Distance of earth to sun - 93m mi...
distance of Jupiter to the sun - 484m mi... (5.2 times more distant)
Earth's diameter - 7900 mi...
Sun's diameter - 866,000 mi... (109 times larger)
Hahaha! I know what you are talking about. Stars are kinda boring. The moon is the most fun to look at - you can see features, especially along the line of sunlight and dark (terminator).
Fortunately, when my Mom bought me a used telescope as a kid, one of the eyepieces had a “zoom”. Get a planet (dot) in the lens, and zoom in to see the rings - Hey! That’s Saturn! See if you can find a zoom - makes it a lot more fun than having to change the lens and re-find the object.
Well, exactly annual, OK, but no matter where Jupiter is, there is one time each year when the Earth gets right between the two.
Yes, since Jupiter orbits the sun in just under 12 earth years, it is in opposition approximately once every 13 months. The earth gets right between the sun and Jupiter and there is nothing Jupiter can do about it.
I was so excited to bring out my telescope to check it out but the forecast is cloudy weather and rain all week. That is what one gets living in Central VA.
He must have had eyes like Schiff's
He appears to be demented.
Good site, thanks
Not sure why (perhaps traffic, perhaps the software), but this one seems to work better:
https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php
This one will also let you create a negative for printer-friendly prints (won’t cost an arm/leg) and other options. Check out ‘printer greyscale. That’s sort of a big deal if you’re heading to the hills where there’s no reception and you want to print the night sky for viewing.
I have a pair of astronomical binoculars. Just took it out and we saw Jupiter along with two of its moons. Pretty cool.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.