Live coverage: NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter

NASA’s InSight spacecraft plunged into the rarefied atmosphere of Mars at a speed of more than 12,000 mph Monday and braked to a gentle touchdown, setting the stage for a two-year surface mission to probe the planet’s deep interior.

Jupiter is two months past opposition on 10 August, so you need to be looking low in the southern sky of the British Isles around sunset if you wish to catch the solar system’s largest planet at its best. If you time it right and the weather obliges, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot makes multiple appearances while the planet’s Galilean moons play hide and seek. Welcome to our August 2019 Jovian observing guide.

Jupiter may be two months past opposition, but it’s still big, bright and high to the south before 9 pm from the centre of the British Isles. The Galilean moons, their shadows and the Great Red Spot are all on show — plus mutual phenomena of the moons.