Jupiter will be closest to Earth in nearly six decades on Monday night, according to A new version From NASA – There’s a good chance you can see the fifth planet from the sun shining in the night sky from San Francisco Gulf area.
This is because Jupiter will be in opposition, which means it will be on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, which happens every 13 months and makes the planet appear larger in the sky than at any other time of the year, John Reese said. a support astronomer at the Lake Observatory on Mount Hamilton in SFGATE in an email Monday morning.
But this year is not like the others: Jupiter will be closer than usual at about 367 million miles away, added Ben Bowers, astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Auckland. The last time the planet was this close to Earth was in 1963.
“Because this opposition is closer than most, it’s going to be a little brighter,” Burse said. “For people looking at Jupiter through a telescope, Jupiter’s disk will have its largest apparent size, a size that cannot be seen from Earth.”
The planet will rise as the sun sets and should appear by 7:45 pm PT, although it can be felt by 7:00 pm and will gradually become more visible throughout the night. At around 1 a.m., Reese said, it will move south before reaching west around 6:15 am.
“Visually, Jupiter would appear to be a very bright star,” Reese said. “It must be one of the brightest objects in the night sky.”
Saturn and Mars will also be observable on Monday evening, and if you have binoculars or a small telescope handy, you will be able to see three or four moons of Jupiter in Galilee. Jupiter has 53 moons that have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union, but according to NASA, up to 79 have been discovered in all. The four that should be visible are the largest and brightest and are called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – or the Galilean satellites, which received their name after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first observed them in 1610. There is also the possibility that you will be able to see this Jupiter spotting scope if you have a fixed mount or tripod.
All this provided that The fog is recedingsaid David Prosper, director of the Night Sky Network at the Pacific Astronomical Society of San Francisco. Unfortunately, the viewing conditions will not be ideal.
“If you had cloud cover last night, you’ll probably get it again tonight,” Roger Gass, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told the phone over the phone. “It looks like the summer-type Stratos pattern will last from tonight until tomorrow, as the clouds run inside tonight into the nighttime hours as we maintain a fairly solid navy layer. … It wouldn’t be suitable for stargazing or looking at planets, that’s for sure. “
However, if you’re looking to peek into the night sky, the higher the altitude, the better. He suggested Mount Diablo or Mount Tamalpais as potential prime-time viewing sites with the warning that clouds may arrive later in the night.
But the good news is that although Jupiter will be closer to Earth on Monday night, it will remain similar for the next few weeks, so the scenario on Tuesday or later in the week probably won’t be much different, he said.
Gass added that foggy conditions are expected to develop in the second half of the week. For now, it’s worth a look.
“It must be an incredible sight,” Prosper said.
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