Jupiter rising; zoomed with Galilean Moons

Event Date: November 14th

Time: 7:00 PM

Brief

Jupiter's elongation is 160º west of the Sun this evening, rising at 6:05 local time.  It is soon to reach opposition very high in the sky, in Taurus and seen near the Hyades star cluster.  We saw it moving in prograde motion past the Hyades during the late spring and early Summer months, while now, we see it coming back towards it while we catch up with Jupiter in orbit.  The planet is also slightly brightening, as we come closer to it, currently with a magnitude of nearly -2.8, and an angular size of 48 arc-seconds.  This angular size isn't quite that of Venus at/near inferior conjunction.  Jupiter's diameter is more than 11 times that of our "twin", so appears almost at big despite being on average, somewhere between 6-7 times further from us than Venus.

   Here is the planet seen near the Hyades while rising, shortly after the end of astronomical twilight in image one, while image two is a zoom in, to show its angular size compared to the field of view (1/2º, or about 100x magnified).

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

Detailed

   As shown in image 2, I unlabeled Jupiter,  However, I did so for the Galilean Moons; the biggest and brightest that we can see, first observed clearly by their namesake astronomer.  Unlike the stars near Jupiter, a faster motion of the Moons--particularly Io and Europa with their smaller orbits--made it clear to Galileo that they were indeed objects other than 5th magnitude stars.  As we see these Moons move in their different sized orbits, they sometimes appear very close or far from each other.  They go behind the planet becoming occulted, and sometimes, they are shadowed (eclipse) when the Sun's angle has Jupiter cast a shadow on them.  As seen above, as is often the case, we see them nearly in line with each other.  Depending how straight we are looking at Jupiter towards its equator (0º latitude), that can determine how much of a line we see the Moons.  It also depends on whether they are about to transit (go in front of) Jupiter, or on either contact of eclipse.  If you see them completely out of line with Jupiter, that means that they are at different positions in their orbits, and our angle of viewing Jupiter is far enough away from the ecliptic for such to show.