Skypatterns Skytalk

For those of you who haven’t already been watching it, Jupiter is the second brightest luminary in the sky now, second only to the Moon. Look to the east, and there it is!

The stargazers have been out in numbers, looking through their telescopes, watching this planet as it’s been hit with many asteroids. What a stellar show!

Earth-Jupiter encounters happen every 13 months when the Earth laps Jupiter in their race around the sun. The Earth and Jupiter do not orbit the sun in perfect circles, they are not always the same distance apart when Earth passes by. On Sept. 20th, Jupiter was the closest;75 million km closer than previous encounters and will not be this close again until 2022.

It’s wonderful to look into the sky in the evening and know what you are looking at. This one is easy, head east, and WOW!