Jupiter will be the closest it’s been to Earth in nearly six decades on Monday night, according to a news release from NASA — and there’s a good chance you’ll be able to see the fifth planet from the sun glowing in the night sky from the San Francisco Bay Area.
That’s because Jupiter will be at opposition, meaning it will be on the opposite end of the Earth from the sun, which happens every 13 months and makes the planet appear larger in the sky than any other time of the year, Jon Rees, a support astronomer for the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, told SFGATE in an email Monday morning.
But this year isn’t just like any other — Jupiter will be even closer than usual at about 367 million miles away, added Ben Burress, an astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland. The last time the planet was this close to Earth was in 1963.
“Because this opposition is closer than most, it’ll even be a bit brighter,” Burress said. “For people looking at Jupiter through a telescope, Jupiter’s disk will be at its largest apparent size — as large as can ever be seen from Earth.”
The planet will rise as the sun sets and is expected to appear by 7:45 p.m. Pacific time, though it could be perceivable by as early as 7 p.m., and will gradually become more visible throughout the night. At about 1 a.m., it will move in a southerly direction before setting in the west at approximately 6:15 a.m., Rees said.
“By eye, Jupiter will look like a very bright star,” Rees said. “It should be one of the brightest objects in the night sky.”
Saturn and Mars will also be observable on Monday night, and if you have binoculars or a small telescope handy, you’ll be able to see three or four of Jupiter’s Galilean moons. Jupiter has 53 moons that have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union, but as many as 79 moons have been detected in total, according to NASA. The four that should be visible are the biggest and brightest and are called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto — or the Galilean satellites, which received their name after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first observed them in 1610. There’s also a chance you might be able to see Jupiter’s bands if you have a stable mount or tripod.
All of this is provided that the fog stays away, said David Prosper, a night sky network administrator with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in San Francisco. And unfortunately, viewing conditions won’t be ideal.
“If you had cloud cover last night, you’re likely going to have it again tonight,” Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told SFGATE by phone. “It looks like a summer-type stratus pattern will persist tonight into tomorrow, with clouds racing inland this evening into overnight hours as we keep a pretty steady marine layer in place. … It won’t be favorable for stargazing, or planet-gazing, that’s for sure.”
That said, if you’re trying to catch a glimpse of the night sky, the higher you are elevation-wise, the better. He suggested Mount Diablo or Mount Tamalpais as possible viewing locations in the early evening with the caveat that the clouds may roll in later at night.
But the good news is that while Jupiter will be closest to the Earth on Monday night, it will remain at a similar proximity for the next few weeks, so the view on Tuesday or later in the week likely won’t be too different, Burress said.
Gass added that the foggy conditions are expected to clear up in the latter half of the week. For the time being, it’s worth taking a look up.
“It should be a striking sight,” Prosper said.