The planet named after the king of the gods in Roman mythology is visible all night long right now, rising in the east at sunset and setting in the west at sunrise. Jupiter is also as close as it’s been to Earth in over a year. This week, it’s around 382 million miles away, which is close for Jupiter. It’s by far the brightest star-like object in the early evening eastern sky. You can’t miss it no matter how much light pollution you have. The 88,000-mile-wide giant of our solar system lies between the horns of the constellation Taurus the Bull, just above Orion the Hunter.

(Mike Lynch)

Just over a week ago, Jupiter reached what astronomers call opposition. It’s dubbed that because just like a full moon, Jupiter and the sun are more or less at opposite ends of the sky as the Earth lies between the sun and Jupiter. When any planet beyond the Earth in our solar system reaches opposition, they are also at their minimum distance. Earth and Jupiter enter the opposition position every 399 days or a little over every 13 months. That’s because it takes Earth slightly over 365 days to make one complete orbit of the sun while Jupiter takes 12 years to make its much larger solar circuit. So, in the year it took Earth to circle the sun, Jupiter only made it 1/12th of its way around it. Earth takes a little over a month to catch up to where it’s again in line between the sun and the king of the planets.

If you have super eagle eyes, there are times when Jupiter looks like it has tiny little appendages on either side of it. These are Jupiter’s four largest moons. You can see them much easier with a small telescope or even binoculars as they orbit Jupiter in periods of two to 17 days. They resemble tiny “stars” on either side of the great planet. Sometimes you can’t see all four because one or more might be hiding behind Jupiter or camouflaged in front of it.

With a telescope, you can also easily see some of Jupiter’s brighter cloud bands on the planet’s disk. Jupiter is mostly a big ball of hydrogen and helium gas. Still, in its outer atmosphere, methane, ammonia, sulfur and other gases create multi-color cloud bands. There are two darker bands of clouds on either side of Jupiter’s equator that are the easiest to spot.

Storms are also circulating in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, with the biggest one called the Great Red Spot, three times our Earth’s diameter. This giant hurricane-like storm has been raging on Jupiter for hundreds of years. Despite its moniker, the Great Red spot isn’t all that red but much like a pale pink. It’s hard to spot it on Jupiter’s southern hemisphere unless you have a moderate to large telescope and super clear conditions. It is also not always visible because of Jupiter’s rapid rotation. It whirls around on its axis once every 10 hours, so the Red Spot is facing away from our direction half the time. A really handy app for keeping up with the Red Spot and Jupiter’s moons is called “Jupiter’s Moons.”

If you’re going to view Jupiter and try to see it through a telescope, the key patience. First, wait until Jupiter has risen at least 30 degrees, or about a third of the way from the horizon to the overhead zenith. This week that happens around 7 p.m. You want to wait that long to let it rise above the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere near the horizon. It’s also good practice to take long, continuous views through the eyepiece whenever you have your telescope on any of the planets. That’ll give your eyes a chance to get used to the light level within the eyepiece, and you’ll also have a better chance of catching clearer views of Jupiter through the ever-changing clarity of Earth’s atmosphere.

Get used to seeing the king of the planets in our night sky as it’ll be visible the rest of winter. While you’re gazing at it, know that over a thousand Earths would fit inside Jupiter!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

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