Saturday, March 16, 2013

Moon meets Jupiter on March 17


On Sunday March 17, look high in the west  for the moon, just shy of 1st quarter. It glows below the bright planet Jupiter. This provides a juxtaposition of giant, but distant Jupiter against the much smaller — 40 times smaller — and much closer moon. Jupiter lies over 2000 times farther than the moon! All of this results in Jupiter appearing starlike while the moon shows an impressive orb.

If you look at Jupiter through steadily held binoculars, you will see one starlike object slightly above the planet and two, maybe three below it. These are its Galilean moons which sizes are on the same order as of our moon. 

Four moons in one evening!

Such is our view from Earth...

No comments: