Sky watchers in the Lowcountry are in for a treat with a big ol’ planet showing up on Monday night. Jupiter will be closer to Earth than usual on September 26th, and will appear the biggest in the night sky as we’ve ever seen.
According to NASA, this will be the nearest the largest planet in our solar system has been to Earth in nearly sixty years.
At 10 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, September 25th, Jupiter will make its closest approach to the Earth since 1963. It will then be 367,413,405 miles away. This may not seem exactly “close,” but Jupiter is so big and bright that it’s not only easily visible with the unaided eye, but through a small telescope magnifying only 36-power, it appears as big as the moon does to the unaided eye.
Scientists say Jupiter will appear bigger and brighter because it will only be 367 million miles away. That’s almost half the distance the planet is from the Earth at its farthest, at 715 million miles.
Experts say the best place to get a view of Jupiter on Monday will be a highly elevated spot in a dark and dry area.
