"This Week's Closest Meeting Of Two Planets, and:
Jupiter At Its Biggest, Brightest And Closest Since 1987"

Scheduled air date: 1998 Sep 07-13

Mercury and Venus are within one-half degree (the apparent size of the Moon) of each other this Friday and Saturday mornings.

Jupiter is at opposition on September 15th.  On this night, Jupiter can be seen rising at Sunset, crossing the meridian at about 1:00 am (midnight without Daylight Saving Time), and setting at Sunrise.

Just after Sunset on September 15th, a steadily-held pair of binoculars can reveal three of Jupiter's moons to one side of the planet.  (Shown at high, telescopic magnification.)

If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc.