Jupiter between the horns of Taurus

Jupiter will be at opposition on Saturday Dec 7 at 21h by Universal Time.

Here is the evening scene for an American location as the planet climbs to 10° above the eastern horizon.

See the end note about enlarging illustrations.

Jupiter is shining at magnitude -2.8, meaning (in the logarithmic system used in astronomy) that it is sending us about 3.4 times as much light as Sirius, the brightest star.

As explained on the first page of the “JUPITER” section in the Astronomical Calendar, Jupiter travels around the sky in almost exactly 12 years, so spends those years in successive constellations of the zodiac – roughly, since those 12 constellations along the ecliptic  have different widths. Jupiter’s 2024 and 2025 abodes are Taurus and Gemini, the northernmost part of the ecliptic. So this 2024 opposition is as far north as declination 22.1°. (The star cluster M35 is near the northernmost point of the ecliptic.)

The time of our scene is only about 2 hours after the instant of opposition, so you can see that Jupiter is close to the point we mark as the “anti-Sun,” 180 degrees from the Sun.

Around the time of opposition, Jupiter is at its nearest to us and largest in the telescope.

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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.a post after publishing it.  If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version. Or, if you click ‘Refresh’ or press function key 5, you’ll see the latest version.