Hello All!

An All-Nighter with Planet Jupiter

Stop what you're doing and mark your calendar:

When: Sunset on April 7, 2017 to sunrise on April 8, 2017

What: Jupiter at opposition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrTZTA9v3dc


Head to the backyard with your telescope at dusk for a rare evening with planet
Jupiter. In fact, you can spend all night long with the gas giant. It will be
"at opposition" - opposite the sun in the sky, with the Earth in between.
Jupiter will be especially dazzling. This is its closest approach to Earth in
2017, making it appear at its largest and brightest. And since it only happens
every 13 months, you'll have a long wait for your next big date.

But on this occasion, as the sun dips below the western horizon, you and
Jupiter will just be getting started. The planet will be rising in the east. By
midnight, Jupiter will be beaming overhead, outshining most of its competition
in the night sky. It will be well placed near Spica, the brightest star in the
constellation Virgo, but will easily upstage even this heavenly body.

Aim your scope at the life of the party - the view will take your breath away.

"With Jupiter so close, the view through even an inexpensive telescope will be
great," says Brian Day of NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual
Institute. "You'll see the planet's cloud bands and storm systems, and you can
even watch its four largest moons, called the Galilean moons, change position
as they orbit."

Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto will appear as bright pinpricks of light,
with their positions moving noticeably near Jupiter throughout the night. While
these moons looks calm from a distance, they are actually very active! Io,
Jupiter's innermost moon - is the most volcanically active body in the solar
system. There are oceans of liquid water seething beneath the crusts of ice
encasing Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Right now, NASA's Juno spacecraft is orbiting Jupiter too. Since summer 2016 it
has been returning incredible images with never before seen resolution, of
Jupiter's atmosphere. With the previous Jupiter mission, Galileo, ending in
2003, many years passed between these two missions and much happened in our
continuous exploration of the solar system.

"During the years between the Galileo and Juno missions, we depended on
telescopes such as Hubble as well as amateur observations," notes Day. "And the
amateur astronomer community really stepped up! They're constantly monitoring
Jupiter's atmosphere and have even reported new storm systems on the planet.
Some of the images they have taken are pretty amazing. You'd swear they were
taken from orbit."

Amateur astronomer Damian Peach has the opposition highlighted on his calendar.
He says "My own imaging plans are already underway for this apparition using
primarily a 1 meter telescope located near Las Campanas Observatory in Chile."

If it's cloudy on the night of April 7, don't despair. Jupiter will still be
close over the following weeks, only about 3 percent farther away a month after
Opposition. As Jupiter appears higher in the sky each evening and the nights
grow warmer, this spring should be a great time to keep watching the giant
planet.

An all-nighter with Jupiter will be a great opportunity to hone your own
skills. Don't miss it!

For more news about bright objects in the night sky, stay tuned to
science.nasa.gov


Regards,

Roger 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+ W10 (1607)