Jupiter will be its closest to Earth in nearly six decades on Monday evening, according to a NASA press release – and there’s a good chance you could see the fifth planet from the sun shining brightly in the night sky of the Las Vegas region. San Francisco Bay.
This is because Jupiter will be in opposition, meaning it will be opposite Earth to the sun, which happens every 13 months and makes the planet appear larger in the sky than at any other time of year, Jon Rees, a support astronomer at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, told SFGATE in an email Monday morning.
But this year is not like any other – Jupiter will be even closer than usual at around 367 million kilometers, added Ben Burress, an astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland. The last time the planet was this close to Earth was in 1963.
“Because this opposition is closer than most, it will even be a little brighter,” Burress said. “For people viewing Jupiter through a telescope, Jupiter’s disk will be at its largest apparent size – as large as it can ever be seen from Earth.”
The planet will rise at sunset and should appear around 7:45 p.m. PT, though it may be noticeable as early as 7 p.m., and will gradually become more visible throughout the night. Around 1 a.m. it will move south before setting west around 6:15 a.m., Rees said.
“To the naked eye, Jupiter will look like a very bright star,” Rees said. “It should be one of the brightest objects in the night sky.”
Saturn and Mars will also be observable on Monday night, and if you have binoculars or a small telescope handy, you might see three or four of Jupiter’s Galilean moons. Jupiter has 53 moons that have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union, but up to 79 moons have been detected in total, according to NASA. The four that should be visible are the largest and brightest and are called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – or the Galilean satellites, which got their name after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first observed them. times in 1610. There is also a chance that you can see Jupiter’s bands if you have a stable mount or tripod.
All of that is on the condition that the fog stays out, said David Prosper, administrator of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Night Sky Network in San Francisco. And unfortunately, the viewing conditions will not be ideal.
“If you had cloud cover last night, you’re probably going to have it again tonight,” National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Gass told SFGATE by phone. “It looks like a summer-like stratus pattern will persist this evening through tomorrow, with clouds racing inland this evening through overnight as we hold in place a fairly stable…. It won’t be good for stargazing or planet-watching, that’s for sure.
That said, if you’re trying to see the night sky, the higher you are, the better. He suggested Mount Diablo or Mount Tamalpais as possible early evening viewing locations, with the caveat that clouds could arrive later in the night.
But the good news is that while Jupiter will be closest to Earth on Monday evening, it will remain at a similar proximity for the next few weeks, so the view on Tuesday or later in the week probably won’t be too different, Burress said. .
Gass added that the foggy conditions should dissipate in the second half of the week. For now, it’s worth a look.
“It should be a gripping sight,” Prosper said.