Moon, Jupiter will put on a rare show Monday night
The moon and the planet Jupiter will be just less than one degree apart, which won’t happen again until 2026.
Photograph by: DAVID DICKINSON , DAVID DICKINSON
OTTAWA - Monday night brings the best chance in years to see two of the brightest objects in the sky posed side by side.
The moon and the planet Jupiter will be just less than one degree apart, which won’t happen again until 2026. That distance will be about the width of your little finger, held out at arm’s length.
The exact moment of closest approach will be 11:30 p.m., because the moon actually shifts position (from right to left) during the night.
So far, mostly clear skies are forecast. And the two will still be close together (though not as close) on Tuesday night, just in case.
Astronomers call a close approach like this a conjunction. It hasn’t any real significance other than putting on a good show. The two bodies only appear close together as Jupiter is hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth and the moon is usually less than 400,000 kilometres away.
This week’s moon isn’t quite full; it’s called gibbous, or more than half visible, but less than full.
North Americans have a good vantage point: the pair will be visible from the early evening onward, fairly high in the sky to the southeast (early evening) and south (later in the evening). Jupiter changes position very slowly in the sky, but the moon moves about 12 degrees each 24 hours, in a 360-degree orbit around Earth. For the past several days, it has appeared to the right of Jupiter, moving steadily closer. On Tuesday night, it will be to Jupiter’s left, but still fairly close.
Jupiter is the largest planet. It is not always visible to us, depending on whether Earth and Jupiter are on opposite sides of the sun. But for now it looks like a star, easy to find because it is brighter than any star. The only other planet that can shine as bright is Venus, and it’s currently visible only in the early morning.
tspears@ottawacitizen.com">tspears@ottawacitizen.com
The moon and the planet Jupiter will be just less than one degree apart, which won’t happen again until 2026. That distance will be about the width of your little finger, held out at arm’s length.
The exact moment of closest approach will be 11:30 p.m., because the moon actually shifts position (from right to left) during the night.
So far, mostly clear skies are forecast. And the two will still be close together (though not as close) on Tuesday night, just in case.
Astronomers call a close approach like this a conjunction. It hasn’t any real significance other than putting on a good show. The two bodies only appear close together as Jupiter is hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth and the moon is usually less than 400,000 kilometres away.
This week’s moon isn’t quite full; it’s called gibbous, or more than half visible, but less than full.
North Americans have a good vantage point: the pair will be visible from the early evening onward, fairly high in the sky to the southeast (early evening) and south (later in the evening). Jupiter changes position very slowly in the sky, but the moon moves about 12 degrees each 24 hours, in a 360-degree orbit around Earth. For the past several days, it has appeared to the right of Jupiter, moving steadily closer. On Tuesday night, it will be to Jupiter’s left, but still fairly close.
Jupiter is the largest planet. It is not always visible to us, depending on whether Earth and Jupiter are on opposite sides of the sun. But for now it looks like a star, easy to find because it is brighter than any star. The only other planet that can shine as bright is Venus, and it’s currently visible only in the early morning.
tspears@ottawacitizen.com">tspears@ottawacitizen.com
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Original source article: Moon, Jupiter will put on a rare show Monday night
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