Jupiter, Moon rise north of east

Event Date: October 4th
Time: 10:30 PM


Brief

   I feel as if I have taken a hiatus from Jupiter over the last few weeks, so will come back to it for today and tomorrow's entry.
   Starting late this evening, look for the giant planet on the rise not far east of the waning, gibbous Moon.  Both are near the Hyades, with the Moon closest to the star Epsilon Tauri, making up part of the open cluster.  Since the Moon is moving about one diameter-per-hour east, being about 1/2º, it will spend the rest of the night and early morning gaining on Jupiter; getting close to it as we see both set in the western morning sky. 
   Here are both displayed low in the east-northeast, with their orbits showing as well.  I left the ecliptic out this time to avoid confusion with one too many lines.

click on image to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.

Detailed

   At the time above, the Moon (unlabeled) is about 7º away from Jupiter.  As we can see from the orbits, it will pass south of Jupiter by a small amount, not occulting it.  This will remain the case over the next few years, as the Moon's descending node (arrow to the upper right) moves a little further west each time it comes close to Jupiter.  Although Jupiter is in retrograde right now, it is moving west too slowly for us to witness an occultation.  Keep an eye on the pair however with each time the Moon gets close; once they both reach the Moon's ascending node, we can look forward to occultations again seen in different parts of the world with each encounter.  For now, enjoy them as a close "couple".  Even though the Moon is seen about 40 times the angular size of Jupiter, the planet's diameter is dozens of times that of the Moon.  Of course, with the Moon only about 239,000 miles away as a mean distance, Jupiter is over 400 million miles away from us!