In a few days, on September 26, largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, will be in opposition. This means that it will be aligned with the Earth and the Sun and you will be able to admire it throughout the night, brighter than ever in 2022. Why? Because this year, its opposition coincides, in a few hours, with its shortest distance from our Planet. In fact, on September 25, the gas giant will have reached the closest point in its orbit to Earth. Only about 590 million kilometers. This hadn’t happened since 1963!
How to observe Jupiter?
Therefore, it is an excellent period to observe Jupiter. With the naked eye, of course, and/or with an instrument if you have one. If this is not the case, perhaps you know someone who has a telescope or telescope, or there is a structure near you that offers viewing evenings to the public (astronomy club, astronomy center, some planetariums, etc.). Otherwise, one solution is to point at the giant planet with a pair of binoculars, it works great, then you’ll see its four largest moons (out of 79 known): Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callsito. You will also notice that this luminous point usually visible to the naked eye in the sky becomes a small disc (a sphere actually) where you can distinguish, guess, bands of clouds.
“We have never seen Jupiter like this! “: Unpublished images taken by the James-Webb telescope
So these days Jupiter it is shown in the slightly larger than usual eyepieces, to the delight of curious and amateur astronomers (beginners or confirmed and heavily equipped) and the photos will rain down on social networks…
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