Tonight’s sky is dominated by Jupiter and the waning gibbous moon. You can see them in the east by mid-evening tonight. Rising about two hours after sunset at mid-northern latitudes, Jupiter and the moon shine in front of the constellation Aries the Ram, yet the bright moonlight will probably make the Ram difficult to see tonight. (At temperate latitudes in the southern hemisphere, the moon and Jupiter rise three to four hours after sunset.)
The moon will leave the constellation Aries after a few more days, but Jupiter will stay in the vicinity of the Aries stars for many months to come. Use Jupiter to locate the Ram’s head and to see this constellation in all its starlit majesty on a moonless night.
The moon was full several nights ago, so a portion of the moon’s edge has slipped back into the moon’s own shadow. It is hard to tell, but the moon is slightly less bright tonight than last night. Jupiter, on the other hand, is increasing in brightness as it heads towards its closest approach to Earth for the year just next month.
Jupiter's Red Spot. Image Credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Jupiter, the moon, and all the other objects in the sky appear to slowly drift – more or less from east to west – as night passes. This westward drift of the stars is akin to the sun’s westward motion during the day, and, as with the sun’s motion, the stars’ motion is due to Earth’s spin beneath the sky.
Image Credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video
The moon also moves in front of the stars, however, and you can see the moon’s motion if you watch carefully. A sharp-eyed observer who compares the relative positions of the moon, Jupiter and nearby stars at, say, 10 p.m. tonight – and then looks again just before dawn – will notice the change. The distant stars appear in a “fixed” pattern relative to each other. Over a single night, the same is essentially true for Jupiter. But because the moon is so close to Earth – and circumnavigates our sky once a month instead of once every 12 years like Jupiter – the motion of our companion world is obvious after only a few hours. In fact, the moon appears to move its own diameter eastward in just one hour. So after six hours – or in the course of a single night – the change in the moon’s position is easy to notice.
What is the most distant human object from Earth?
Jupiter, being farther from Earth than the moon, appears to move more slowly than the moon. While you cannot easily detect its motion over just a few hours (or usually even over a few days), it does move. If you carefully plot its position tonight on a star chart, and compare it to a similar plot in a month or two, the change will be easy to see.
September 2011 guide to the five visible planets
In fact, astronomers of past centuries were originally able to rank the planets by distance based on the speed of their motions in front of the fixed stars. For example, Jupiter is brighter than Mars – but brightness doesn’t always mean proximity to Earth. In the case of Jupiter, the planet is bright because it is so big! Yet Jupiter moves more slowly than Mars in front of the “fixed” stars. So early astronomers assumed that Jupiter was more distant.
The moon moves faster than any other natural astronomical object, which makes perfect sense for our closest neighbor in space.
Me, my friend and our telescope is ready. But there are clouds everywhere……!! ;(
Just got home from work great site of Jupiter
Just got home from work great sighting of Jupiter
A friend of mine many years ago made an “exact” replica of Galileo’s telescope that he first viewed Jupiter with. He recently lent it to me and instructed me to view Jupiter as Galileo did. It looks exactly like pictures of the original and this guy is meticulous. Damn clouds.
Take heart. The clouds will go away. Maybe not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow night. But they will go away. Jupiter and the Moon may not be as close, but they wlll still be there, too.
Could we have seen the fireball in the uk, that the americans saw last night?
Haley, no, sorry, not a chance. However, it is possible to see meteors any night from any where. But there is no chance that anyone in the UK could see whatever they saw in Nevada/California/wherever on the US West Coast. The Earth would have been in your way.
Many thanks for the confirmation. Complete novice regarding the night sky, but must have viewed my first meteor last night and it was very beautiful, im hooked. :)
is tonight the best night to see Jupiter
What a beautiful sight. Thanks to my family for showing me this lovely view.
feel great to belong to Mother Earth from where I can watch Jupitor and moon so close.and thanks to the lovely per son who reminded me to watch this wonderful sight.
Actually the best time to observe Jupiter is usually thought to be at opposition, which is as I recall, October 28 this year. However, the Moon will pass Jupiter again on the evenings of October 12 and 13, and again on November 8 and 9!
I came out of the movies and wow!!! I
Ha! I looked at Jupiter thru binoculars and saw its moons!
Wow, that must be some *really* good binocs!
You don’t need binocs to see Jupiter I see it right now I would post a pic but I don’t know how , however it is on ky Facebook !
Hey Guys
I thought u might be interested in some video’s I made recently of Jupiter and it’s moons :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFjSGJZXiVA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqWgSJCjhKc
& there are some more on my youtube ;)
Alicia, I checked out your video of Jupiter. Nice. I could see Jupiter as well as, I think, 3 moons. But I don’t get the references to UFOs, Nibiru and such. Certainly there is no evidence for that kind of stuff. It’s Jupiter with the bright Moon to the left.
ahh, okay well it stems from my own personal experiance, lot’s of people are mistaking stars like Jupiter, Canopus and others as UFO’s and of course this crazy Nibiru, Elenin etc, these video’s I originally made as a reference for people who are trying to figure out what they are seeing. It’s just that when I researched all these stars I was unable to find star / planet video’s labeled correctly I found hundreds of vides labeled colorful star, UFO? etc, lots of questions on youtube with not many answers, anyway the series has been sucessful I’ve helped a few people work out what they are seeing so that is all that matters. I just stumbled on this page so I thought Id drop some links for those who are interested :)
Alicia, and I hope you will continue to come back. Generally, planets are easy to identify, as long as you know the date, time and direction. But individual stars are, for me at least, difficult because they are, in general, so faint. You are absolutely right that there are many folks out there who cannot ID what they are looking at, and unfortunately many of them jump to conclusions and assume some quite odd things. Anyway, it’s good to have another resource to help set the record straight. Thanks for your help.
I am fortunate to live north of the golden gate in mill valley, California. Jupiter is unobstructed right now, one moon lower left, two upper right. Very clear and beautiful. Using Swift Observer binocs, 11×80 – some light pollution from s.f., but Jupiter can handle it!
Wow, Nick, you *are* fortunate! So close to one of my favorite spots, the Muir Woods! But don’t you get the ocean fogs or do the coastal hills protect you?