Event Date: September 24th
Time: 5:54 AM/5:34 CDT*
Brief
Jupiter is still about a year away from its best declination. However, while in Taurus, it is still very high in the sky at transit, a little more than 21º north of the celestial equator; 74º at transit, as seen from our latitude, and at/near zenith as seen from Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and some other island countries at/near the 21º latitude mark. At those locations, Jupiter doesn't spend quite as much time above the horizon each day as it does at our mid-northern latitude. The first image shows the planet at transit from our location. Both the altitude and celestial grids are shown.
Time: 5:54 AM/5:34 CDT*
Brief
Jupiter is still about a year away from its best declination. However, while in Taurus, it is still very high in the sky at transit, a little more than 21º north of the celestial equator; 74º at transit, as seen from our latitude, and at/near zenith as seen from Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and some other island countries at/near the 21º latitude mark. At those locations, Jupiter doesn't spend quite as much time above the horizon each day as it does at our mid-northern latitude. The first image shows the planet at transit from our location. Both the altitude and celestial grids are shown.
Detailed
As I have shown several times, the more north we go on our globe, the longer a northern hemisphere planet or star is visible, declination pending as well. Now that days at the north pole have the Sun below the horizon for about the next 6 months, and other latitudes north of the arctic circle are experiencing twilight skies, anyone braving those super-cold conditions have Jupiter low to the horizon all hours of the day. Since 90º minus 21º equals 69, and the arctic circle's latitude is about 66.5º, that only gives a few degrees that Jupiter is not above the horizon. At latitudes closer to our equator however, we see less of Jupiter as a result of less dark hours in comparison to seeing the planet from the arctic circle. However, it is seen getting much higher in the sky.
For the second image*, I searched for a location very close in latitude to the declination of Jupiter, so we could see a transit extremely close to zenith. That location is Aguascalientes (hot water?), Mexico, and the altitude at transit is 89º 58.3' for Jupiter. At 21º 53' in latitude, this puts the viewing location at 1' 41" north of the latitude where Jupiter would be seen at zenith, which would be a little over 100 miles south. Both grids show again, and by using the altitude one, we can see that Jupiter is nearly in the center of the circle which traces out an altitude near zenith.
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| click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp. |
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