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Ephemeris: 01/18/2024 – A quick guide to Jupiter for the small telescope

January 18, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, January 18th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 5:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:14. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:43 tomorrow morning.

Jupiter is the largest planets and is generally the largest appearing planet in a telescope. Venus appears a bit larger than Jupiter only for about four months when it’s the closest it gets to us. There’s always something going on with Jupiter and its 4 Galilean moons which appear to shuffle back and forth from one side to the other of the planet. Jupiter has cloud bands which run parallel to its equator and to the plane of the moon’s orbits. And it has the Great Red Spot, but that spot is not easily visible in small telescopes. Back in the 1950s it was big and brick red. It is since lost a great deal of its redness and size. The moons can hide behind Jupiter or in its shadow or cross in front of the planet. Tonight Jupiter will appear below and right of the Moon.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Over this evening (January 18, 2024) Europa and Io will be approaching Jupiter and Io will pass Europa to duck behind Jupiter in occultation just before Jupiter sets for us. Callisto will be moving towards Jupiter also, but slowly. Ganymede will be moving a little bit away, being near the furthest extension of its orbit. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Naked-eye planets, Observing, Planets Tags: ,