Jupiter viewing?

[dave1978]

I use Stellarium to give an idea of what is available to see, however Jupiter is always below the horizon until say 3 or 4 am. I have advanced the programme several months to see when Jujpiter will be visible at a better time but its always below the horizon. My question is when or if Jupiter moves round to be visible during the earlier evening? is it months & months away or longer?

[Cloudgazer]

Have you put your location into Stellarium correctly? Jupiter is low but is above the horizon and viewable (rising in the south east) from about 2:00 in the morning onwards.

Scott

[SteveL]

Middle of May, it will pass due south at about 2.30am

Middle of June, it will pass due south at about 12.20am

Middle of July, it will pass due south at about 10.05pm

All of them will be approx 15-16 degrees above the horizon. So, its getting "earlier" every day (`im waiting fr it too... its easier to wait in he evening than it is to get up early, only to find its cloudy )

[James]

How far north area you? For me (51^o North ) Jupiter is rising about 1am - 2 am ish. but unless you're up in the Shetlands or further north it should be visible in you have a clear southern horizon.

[dave1978]

Im at 53 North.

So Jupiter never gets high in the night sky? its always low to the horizon. Problem is that there always seems to be a lot of haze lower down towards the horizon, i was hoping that some time during its orbit it would be higher up and more visible like Saturn at the moment!

[James]

It will be, its just going to take a while. I think Jupiter tends to move around the zodiac at very roughly one constellation per year so as Jupiter is currently in the Ophuichus/Scorpius area it'll be Sagittarius next year, Capricorn the next and so on. Eventually it'll be in Aries/Taurus/Gemini/Cancer/Leo and therefore be fairly high up.

[regulus]

Planned to maybe have a binocular peek at Jupiter early hours this Saturday just passed. Not likely to rise very high above the horizon this year, unfortunately. Was clouded out by 11pm!

Better viewing tonight,a bit breezy around Nott'm.

Had a good look at Mizar directly above tonight, split it easily with my WO scope. Awkward viewing angle. :shock:

[lunator]

Jupiter is very poorly place this year.

You can see it but the image won't be great as you will be looking through a fairly thick chunk of atmosphere.

It will be a couple of years before viewing from the UK will be good.

Cheers

Ian

[regulus]

Saw Jupiter rising last night, went to bed a little after midnight, looked at stellarium. Didnt sleep brilliantly, got up & had another look! :shock: At 3-20am it had risen more than I had expected, viewed it through bino's, moon was decending well towards the horizon.

[John]

I've just popped out and caught Jupiter very low down in the SE in a gap in the trees on that horizon. With my ED80 I could see the 4 Galilean moons (Callisto, Io, Europa and Ganymeade in order of distance from the planet - closest 1st). I could also make out 2 equatorial cloud bands plus one dark zone south of the euatorial region.

It's really nice to see Jupiter again and the angular size of the disk is pretty impressive at 150x in the ED80. It's just a pity that it won't get very high in the sky this year which means that the detail that can be seen will be limited.

John

[dogfish]

I'm so jealous. I'm at 55 degrees north, so suspect I'll not have a good view at all and the SSE view is not great from my back garden. I've never seen it (being a noob still) and I can't wait for my first view. Heading to Yorkshire in July (not very far south, I know) so I may have to wait until then.

Still, I'm having the boys round for a game of poker on Friday, so I'll be up 'til the wee small hours and will try and have a look then. Wish me luck (with Jupiter, that is, I'm fairly confident about the cards)

Cheers, Martin

[proflight2000]

I remember reading in here a few weeks ago that for the next few years Jupiter will not be good to view anyway. I heard the same about Saturn, something about its turn which will make it hard to see the rings for a while.

[CH]

Obviously location makes a difference, here in south Turkey Jupiter appears over the Greek island of Simi (South) just after midnight. It continues climbing up to 50 odd degrees (as you look at the sea) It's pointless observing it early here as you look through a lot of mush until it gets higher.

To give you an idea it gets a lot higher than the moon in this pic.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m83/cliveh/DSCN2630.jpg

However , win some lose some; Saturn is difficult to observe being right overhead.

[John]

I heard the same about Saturn, something about its turn which will make it hard to see the rings for a while.

The rings are gradually tilting so that by 2009 they will be edge on to us and only visable in the largest of scopes and then only as a thin line. This wed pages explains it nicely:

http://celestialdelights.info/saturn/sweetspot.html

John

[regulus]

I'm so jealous. I'm at 55 degrees north, so suspect I'll not have a good view at all and the SSE view is not great from my back garden. I've never seen it (being a noob still) and I can't wait for my first view. Heading to Yorkshire in July (not very far south, I know) so I may have to wait until then.

Still, I'm having the boys round for a game of poker on Friday, so I'll be up 'til the wee small hours and will try and have a look then. Wish me luck (with Jupiter, that is, I'm fairly confident about the cards)

Cheers, Martin

you should get a look at it in the early hours, quite large & bright.

Looks a bit as Venus does by eye, not quite as bright but non twinkle.

Viewing not brilliant just now in general, atmosphere.