Jupiter at Opposition

On Saturday, December 7, Jupiter will reach opposition while it gleams brightly between the horns of Taurus and a palm’s width to the left (or 7.5 degrees to the celestial northeast) of the bright star Aldebaran. At opposition, planets rise in the east at sunset and cross the sky all night long before setting in the west at sunrise. Jupiter will be at its minimum distance from Earth for this year of 380.1 million miles (611.8 million km) or 34 light-minutes, boosting its brilliance to magnitude -2.8. Viewed in a telescope, the planet will display a generous, 48.2 arc-seconds-wide disk striped with brown equatorial bands. Around opposition, Jupiter and its four large Galilean satellites frequently eclipse and occult one another, and cast their round, black shadows on the planet – singly and in pairs. The Great Red Spot will cross the planet’s disk for a few hours on every second or third night.