On Saturday evening (October 8), local weather conditions permitting, you can enjoy a view of a waxing crescent moon hovering near the ‘King of the Planets’ Jupiter.
Both will be sited about a quarter high in the east-southeast part of the sky as darkness falls. The Moon, which will be less than 24 hours from full phase – 99 percent illuminated by the Sun – will be just below and to the left of Jupiter, at a distance of about 4 degrees.
To eat how wide is 4 degrees, your clenched fist held at arm’s length is approximately 10 degrees. So Jupiter and the Moon will be less than half a fist apart on Saturday night. In addition, the moon is half a degree wide. However, due to an optical illusion, the moon actually appears twice as large as it actually is to our eyes. While the distance between the moon and Jupiter should appear to be equal to eight lunar latitudes, when you see them in the sky Saturday night the two will appear much closer – perhaps less than half the predicted “eight”. Moon’s distance” distance.
Related: Night Sky, October 2022: What You Can See Tonight [maps]
And yet you don’t really need the Moon to identify Jupiter; it easily attracts attention all by itself. With Venus currently deep in the Sun’s glare and out of sight, Jupiter has taken on the role of the brightest object in the night sky, aside from the Moon.
At the moment Jupiter is the second brightest object in the night sky and does not set shortly before 6:00 am local daylight time. As the twilight fades, the bright stars of early autumn soon join them. For example, if you see the Moon and Jupiter on Saturday, don’t miss one of the landmarks of the sky, the Great Square of Pegasus.
Jupiter is perhaps the best planet for amateur astronomers to observe; Viewers with the smallest telescopes, or even binoculars held steady, will be able to identify its bright moons, and its disk displays more illuminated surface than all other planets combined.
For those with large telescopes with an aperture of 6 inches or more, the cloud belts are easily visible, as well as the famous Great Red Spot (GRS). a huge storm that has been raging on the planet for several hundred years.
A keen planetary observer, Christopher Go from Cebu in the Philippines, has shared with Space.com an absolutely incredible image he took recently (August 27) of Jupiter with a QHY462C camera that clearly shows the Great Red Spot , which crosses the disk of the planet .
Mr. Go notes: “Transparency [atmospheric clarity] was very bad, but there was excellent seeing [a very steady image]!”
And one last thought, if clouds block your view of the Moon and Jupiter on Saturday, don’t worry, they’ll be back together on Friday, November 4th.
If you’re looking for a telescope or binoculars to observe the moon or the planets in our solar system and don’t know where to start, our guides to the best binoculars deals and best telescope deals can help right now. And if you’re interested in taking your skywatching photography to the next level, don’t miss our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and visiting professor at New York University Hayden Planetarium (opens in new tab). He writes on astronomy for Journal of Natural History (opens in new tab)the Peasant Almanac (opens in new tab) and other publications. Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and further Facebook (opens in new tab).
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