Have you seen Jupiter tonight?

[cakeorwine]

Lovely view. Look at the moon and at about 7pm from it, you will see a bright light - and apparently that's Jupiter.

11 times the size of Earth and about 558 million miles away!!

Thanks OP - have just been out for a gawp and it’s beautiful. I don’t know anything about Jupiter but glad I’ve seen it.

The sky is amazing tonight. We stopped in the lay-by before you reach our town (before the street lamps start) about 45 minutes ago and I wish my phone took better night pictures , the sky was stunning, so clear

@Naptrappedmummy not a Scooby! I just know this part of the astrophysics!

Thanks op. I had no idea but looked out of the window after seeing your post and saw it. It looks like a spider. Beautiful!!

So clear, thank you for the reminder, I wanted to take a photo for my youngest

You can see Jupiter every night

There is plenty of evidence that stars and planets as described by NASA are not real. Realistically it is unlikely that we can see objects millions of miles away. Much more likely that these objects are close and local. A bit controversial I know but look at some YouTube videos of how a lot of things NASA says are just plain impossible. We are lied to in so many ways that I am quite sceptical really.

Good view tonight, with a decent scope or binoculars you can also see ganymede.

earthsky.org/space/why-dont-planets-twinkle-as-stars-do/

Basically, stars are a lot further away.

According to DS2 "planets don't twinkle because they're so much closer than stars so they appear bigger and the light is less disturbed"

@PatriciaHolm and @BearSoFair that makes perfect sense - thanks!

Thanks OP, I saw it and wondered what it was!
Something down the road in Walsall according to a pp...

Ahh the party pooper has arrived.

Yes. DS thought it was about 30m miles away. We were both "oooooo!" when we found out it was 500m.

It's quite amazing to think how long it took the light to travel to us.

And good maths for children.

No, but I have seen Uranus 😁

Ohhhh I do love a childish joke. Thank you OP, it’s been a long day and that’s ended it perfectly for me 😁

I had to get out of bed and go in the garden to look, so glad I did! 🤩

How is that being a party pooper 🙄 if you can see the stars on any other night, you can see Jupiter too. More nights to enjoy the view

Yes, we saw it because its position adjacent to the moon and its brightness was so unusual. I assumed it was probably Venus but we were on our way to somewhere and I didn't think of it again until I saw this post. Jupiter! Wow!

But not usually that close to the moon.

I just stuck my head out of the window and Orion and Sirius are very bright & clear and we are in suburban zone 6 so don’t usually get visibility like tonight.

No you can't - more often than not it's too cloudy.
But tonight there's not much cloud here, I've just been to the back door with the binoculars to have a look.

A few years ago we got the birdwatching scope and tripod out and were able to see a moon or two.

Right. And what is ‘Jupiter’, according to the conspiracy theorist sages of YouTube?

@LakeWoebegon

How disappointing. I loved those books.

Wow, I saw it and wondered what it was. It was so bright! Right by the moon.

Jupiter! That's amazing.

It really is a lovely sky. Of course it has to be below freezing though