Category Archives: Planets

Jupiter is UP!!!

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Tuesday 1/14

Tuesday 1/14

Jupiter becomes extremely easy to spot over the next few days as the Moon moves on by it in the East. Tonight (Monday) Jupiter is the brightest “Star” in the East below and to the left of the Moon. Tomorrow the Moon gets even closer – being a tad to the right and below it.

Extra credit question! When you look at Jupiter… do you notice what is different about it when you compare it to any of the other stars in the area (not it’s brightness)?

Jupiter is Back. JUPITER is BACK!!

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Look to the east at 7pm and you will be treated to the wonderful view of the King of the planets rising – none other than Jupiter (actually my favorite planet to view through a telescope… yes… even more than Saturn).


Images from Stellarium

Earth Selfie Time!

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The folks over at JPL have commanded the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn to turn it’s cameras back towards the Earth today. From between 2:27 and 2:42pm PDT Cassini will be positioned behind Saturn… and the Earth will be positioned perfectly below the rings. Although the Earth will only be several pixels across it will still represent one of the iconic photos capturing our home in the cosmos.

Here is a video tour showing both the Saturn system – along with Cassini. At around the 59 second mark this shows approximately what Cassini will see when it takes our photo.

note: Original video provided by Southern Stars (makes of Sky Safari apps for iOS, Android and OSx). The video was slightly edited by LookUpTonight to include some additional text information during the video.

Further information on the event

http://thedaytheearthsmiled.com/
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/waveatsaturn/