Anyone Excited about Jupiter Tonight?

I am just curious if anyone here is a bit excited about Jupiter tonight as it is somewhat a bit of a historical event. I sure hope some folks have their telescopes out and capture some cool things.

I can't help but feel some sort of odd "Anticipation" type feeling. For what? I don't know. Maybe just planetary energy I am picking up on? Don't know for sure. I do know I have seemed to be blessed with a type of knowing, if is tarot reading or seeing someones aura, or just all the sudden getting hit with a " I think this is whats going to happen" type of thing.

In other words, my radar is on and it is buzzing. Hard to ignore a sign after you have heard it and felt it, and come to know it during your life.

All I can say is I really hope folks have their cameras and scopes out tonight... Me thinks someone is going to capture something quite spectacular!

reply to post by yigsstarhouse


I'm certainly impressed by Jupiter tonight as it's pretty obvious in the sky.

Pray tell what is so significant about it otherwise.

reply to post by JohnJasper


pray tell?

im not at all up to date or have any knowledge about the stars but,i am going to

i sjupiter that bright starlike object ?

reply to post by JohnJasper


I may be wrong, but if I am correct in simple terms, Jupiter is closest to the earth tonight then its even been in a long long time... It should be huge

reply to post by yigsstarhouse


Not the best for viewing to be honest...but cool none the less...

Watched it last night, and that was 72 hours prior to the full "brightest moon" ...23rd
But alas...I'm not properly edumacated..with the stars..to own a real scope...but was nice with 12x 50mm....Ziess binos
I think the moon will make it less spectacular....than the finger nail moon image.. I have from the 80's...
Then, Jupiter was brighter than the moon....and looked to be hanging only a tiny bit off the bottom tip of the almost "new moon" dark...

what supposed to happen?(edit-nevermind just seen your other comment) have you seen this-
verbsap.wordpress.com...

What excites me about this article is that it explains with binoculars you will be able to see all of Jupiters Moons!

blogs.discovermagazine.com...

So you’ve probably heard that tonight, Jupiter is as close to Earth as it’ll get in many years. While this is true, and pretty cool — and I certainly don’t want to damp enthusiasm for anyone wanting to go outside and see it! — I want to make sure you understand what this means.

First of all, this whole thing is happening because Jupiter is at opposition: that is, it’s directly opposite the Sun in the sky. A better way to think of this is that the Earth is passing very nearly directly between the Sun and Jupiter, so from the Earth we see them on opposite sides of the sky. At this point, the Earth is as close to Jupiter as it can get for that particular orbit. Both Earth’s and Jupiter’s orbits are slightly elliptical, so sometimes Jupiter gets a bit closer to us at opposition than other times; this year is the best in decades. It’s about 590 million km (355 million miles) away. That’s still a pretty long way!

But Jupiter is a big planet, 140,000 km (86,000 miles) across, almost 11 times wider than the Earth! It’s also a whitish color, so it reflects a lot of sunlight. Its size, reflectivity, and close distance together make it a very bright object in the sky. If you go outside any time after sunset tonight you’ll see it in the east, a luminous beacon glowing brilliantly.

However, some people have been saying that tonight is the best night to see it, and we won’t get a chance to see it like this again for years. Shades of the Mars Hoax! In reality, it doesn’t matter if you go out tonight, or wait a few days. While technically Jupiter is closest right now, it’s not like it’ll be a lot farther away tomorrow night. Here’s why.

Jupiter takes about 12 years to go around the Sun, while Earth takes one. So we can assume Jupiter isn’t moving at all for the moment. If Jupiter, the Earth, and the Sun all lie on a line tonight, then tomorrow night Earth will have moved a little bit off that line (so will Jupiter, but much less). Using a little trig, I was able to figure out that the distance the Earth has moved away from Jupiter in one day is about 23,000 km (14,000 miles).

That’s not a whole lot compared to Jupiter’s vast distance. Adding an additional 23,000 km is really a piddly amount. Even with a big telescope it would be almost impossible to measure any difference!

So if you go out tonight, or tomorrow, or in October, by eye you won’t see any difference. But don’t let that stop you! Even through a pair of binoculars Jupiter is a magnificent sight: you can easily spot its four big moons, first discovered by Galileo almost exactly 400 years ago, and you can even spot one of Jupiter’s dark bands on its cloud tops (the other disappeared months ago, but may reappear any time).

As an added bonus, Uranus is not far from Jupiter right now; I spotted it easily the other night using just my binoculars. It appears as a pale bluish-green star near the bigger planet. Star charts for this aren’t easy to find, but I went to YourSky, put in my latitude and longitude, then clicked on the link for Uranus in the planet table displayed. That might help.

So maybe the bad news is you can’t see any difference in Jupiter tonight and tomorrow night, but if you go and see it tonight you’ll know it’s a teensy bit closer than it was yesterday, or will be tomorrow. And the good news is that if it’s cloudy where you are, it won’t matter much to wait a few days! In fact, in a few weeks Jupiter will be up higher at sunset, and easier to observe earlier. So this is win-win!

Get outside when you can and take a look at this mighty planet, and remember that even though it’s so far away, it’s still an incredibly bright and beautiful sight in the night sky.

2010
The year we make contact??

What is going to happen, Dave? Something wonderful...




My God, it's full of Stars.

look at Jupiter through my 6in reflective telascope last night and it was sweet! seen its 4 moons and the dust rings. I was not up late enough to see the spot that was on the other side.

reply to post by Rustami


that link explained less than i understood before reading it. something happened in 2008? a gamma ray burst? how does that have to do with the jupiter thing tonight? really curious not rude here..

reply to post by rebeldog


she said "Hard to ignore a sign after you have heard it and felt it, and come to know it during your life." and the GRB080319 in Bootes(also known in older history as the Shepherd by some sources) constellation was claimed the most luminous event in history and only one known visible with the naked eye, lot of cool info on that one if i remember these things correctly

wow those were some great links and awesome analogizes. Obviously I am not a astronomer, just someone that likes to look up! I still cant help but have a sense of excitement or anticipation.Just not sure why I feel so attuned this evening...

Thanks for the excellent work spelling out some perspective for us folks!

I'm actually photographing it at the moment (only with a 300mm lens).
The moon is washing it out really and I can't see any moons?

I'll post a couple if anyone is interested?

reply to post by UKWO1Phot


I B,
@you and earth2- funny avatars!

reply to post by yigsstarhouse


I had heard about this during last week. I forgot till I saw your thread. Now I feel like I better be watching or I just might be the one to miss what ever might happen. Then you guys would be all bent at me. Soooo......

Ima watch out for Jupiter rising in the east tonight. Bino's and digi cam and video set for recording and I will cover
from Apple valley, Ca. I better get in the shower now so I can be ready with some of my best apparrel.
Will be ready to assume role as earth's ambassador if needed and if not a target, hope to make a good impression.

Oh that's my alien invasion speech where is my speech for near earth asteroids and planets? HONEY!!

Have fun everyone!

reply to post by randyvs


lol-is this what she's looking for "Oh, you have made me very angry, very angry indeed!" for the near earth's right?

Didn't know about this. Took my telescope out and checked it out as soon as I read it. =)

I look at Jupiter alot. I love the little speckles of moons around it. Tried to watch it with an 4mm occular. Kinda hard though. My telescope are not wide enough to reflect enough light to make the image sharp. Works wonders with 12.5 mm though, but then it is still kinda tiny. But still awsome to see.

I usually look at Jupiter, but also the moon and the Pleiades which are one good lookin star cluster. Just love it.

Originally posted by UKWO1Phot
I'm actually photographing it at the moment (only with a 300mm lens).
The moon is washing it out really and I can't see any moons?

I'll post a couple if anyone is interested?

I would love to see some pics indeed! Bring em on

Im in the north texas area andI went outside a few minutes ago and looked to the east, and I think I saw it. It was the brightest star in the sky. Pretty cool stuff. It looked like it was trailing the moon. I wish I had a telescope or atleast some binoculars.

reply to post by yigsstarhouse


Grrrr can't get to my media since they've changed the site... I don't get the top menu buttons showing in firefox..