The Sky this Week, September 27-October 3

“The Sky This Week” appears every Tuesday. It is written by Ian Clarke, Director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College.  The planetarium offers regular educational presentations about the stars and the skies; there’s something for early elementary through adults. Field trip requests are welcome. NOTE: field trip request form for Fall 2022 is now live, and the schedule of free public shows has been posted.

If you’ve been looking at the night sky lately, you know it’s hard to miss the brilliant planet Jupiter. Currently wandering through the constellation of Pisces, Jupiter rises around sunset and is in the sky through the night. Right now Jupiter is essentially opposite the sun in the sky, a planetary event that astronomers call “opposition.” (The exact date was September 26.)

jup opp

As you can see in the diagram, opposition occurs when an outer planet lines up with the earth on one side of the sun. This brings the earth and planet closer together than at any other time, meaning that that planet is brighter than at any other time.

Because the orbits of the planets are elliptical, not all oppositions for a given planet are equally close and bright. During this opposition Jupiter is about 367 million miles away, compared to 373 million miles at its last opposition in 2021.

That may not be a huge difference, but it’s still the closest the two planets have been since 1963.

jup 9pm
The Sky this Week, September 27-October 3 6
+ posts

Ian Clarke is the director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. In addition he has taught introductory astronomy labs and first-year writing there for over 30 years (not necessarily all at the same time). He was educated at Biglerville High School, the University of Virginia, and the University of Iowa. He lives in Gettysburg.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x