Hey...What is that bright object?

As many of you who read this know my wife and I are early risers.  Very early risers to many.  Recently, upon our early morning awakening, my wife asked in confirmation, "Is that bright object Jupiter?"  Well "yes it is" was my reply!  I went on to explain that in a few weeks, Jupiter would be in opposition to Earth and thus causing it to get so bright in the sky.  It was a quick explanation and I think I'll give a quick blog post explanation to y'all. 

First...just what is opposition?  It is when an object (planet) is opposite of the sun in our sky.  When that occurs, the superior planet (a planet whose orbit is outside of earth's orbit around the sun) is closest to the earth and therefore appearing very bright as the reflected light travels a shorter distance to us earthlings.  In addition, opposition places the planet at its highest point in the sky at midnight...opposite of the sun.  So with the darkest skies and the reflected light traveling through the least amount of earth's atmosphere, the planet will be quite bright!

So tonight, June 10, Jupiter will be in opposition of the earth.  For the next several nights, if you are up and it is clear, take a gander at the king of the planets.  If you are so inspired, you might even see a moon or two of Jupiter with a good pair of binoculars or simple telescope.  Opposition is the best time to do this; however, an opposition near the summer solstice is not the best opposition.  You see, the night time ecliptic is low in the sky during our summer.  In the day, the sun is obviously climbing higher and higher in the sky until the summer solstice on June 21 at 11:54 am.  On that day, we here in Harrisburg will have the "noon" time sun at about 73.5° high in the sky.  Conversely, at midnight, the highest Jupiter could be is about 26.5° assuming it is directly on the ecliptic path.  But if the opposition occurred in the winter, Jupiter, or any superior planet would be much higher in the sky!  The same is true about the full moon.  Tonight, "midnight" occurs just a tad after 1:00 am when the sun is farthest below the horizon.  Here's a graphic showing how short dark night really is near our summer solstice!

So where should I look?  South...and you won't miss both Jupiter and Antares, the heart of the scorpion.  Funny enough, Jupiter is actually in the constellation Ophiuchus (o-Fee-uh-cuss).  This is what has become known as our 13th zodiac constellation as the moon, sun, and planets spend more time technically in the region of the constellation of the snake handler as opposed to the scorpion!  In fact, it only takes the sun 1 week to travel through Scorpius.  Ophiuchus is not very bright and in our light polluted skies, it is very difficult to locate.  However, Antares (not Mars) is easy to locate along with the 3 stars above.

Below is a map showing the ecliptic and the short amount of time the sun spends in Scorpius...you see the blue line is where the sun, moon, and planets travel in the sky.  And also note how skinny the area is of Scorpius where the blue line crosses through.  Thus, the wanderers spend more time with the snake handler than with the scorpion!

 

OK...gonna roll.  I just thought I'd mention the astronomical opposition of Jupiter to y'all and for those of you that are often awake after midnight, look south to see those two bright heavenly bodies.  Here is a tune that can accompany your viewing!  Enjoy!

Smitty

AA:  Jupiter reaches opposition June 10 this year.  It is when the planet is closest to the earth and therefore appears very bright in the sky.  The next opposition for Jupiter will be July 14, 2020 and Jupiter will actually be ~12 million miles closer than tonight!  Look south to locate the very bright planet (white) and the not quite as bright red giant star Antares to its right.  Antares is 600+ light years away while Jupiter tonight is about 35 light minutes from earth!  That's kinda funny...at least to me!