On the night of October 8-9, 2022, the Moon will come close enough to the brightest planet in the autumn sky — Jupiter. Perhaps you already saw the Moon last night and not far from it a very bright luminary. On the net, I met a lot of questions about this: "What is the star next to the Moon?"
Jupiter is not a star, but a planet. True, this is the largest planet in the family of solar planets — Jupiter exceeds the Earth by more than 10 times in diameter and more than 300 times in mass. And its dense cloudy atmosphere reflects sunlight very well — that's why it is so bright. Moreover, now it is relatively close to the Earth, because a few days ago (September 27, 2022) the Great Opposition of Jupiter took place. Of course, the Great Oppositions of Jupiter are not as significant as the great oppositions of Mars — the red planet has a significant spread of distances in oppositions, while Jupiter has a very minor one. But still, it's nice to realize that this gas giant is now in a special way towards us. And one more thing — the Great Oppositions of Jupiter are not so rare — they happen once every 12 years (for Mars — once every 15/17 years).
This coming night, the Moon will pass just 2 degrees south of Jupiter. Both luminaries will fit within the field of view of binoculars, a tube, or even a small telescope. The moon will be almost full — phase: 98.5%.
Jupiter will also have a full phase — the other one cannot be seen from the Earth. The brightness of Jupiter will be -3m, the angular diameter is 50" — it does not happen more over. Everything that concerns Jupiter will be record-breaking this and the coming nights — and the distance too — 595 million km — is actually record-small.
All illustrations gotten
using the Stellarium program
Publication author
Andrey Klimkovsky
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