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, the solar system’s largest planet, reaches opposition on 10 June in the constellation of Ophiuchus (the Serpent Bearer) and is visible low in the southern sky of the UK through the night. Observers with small to medium aperture telescopes can see a number of shadow transits of Jupiter’s Galilean moons and view the planet’s Great Red Spot throughout June.
Observers in the British Isles and western Europe with a clear sky low to the east around 10pm local time on Wednesday, 27 January can see the rising 18-day-old waning gibbous Moon in a close conjunction with Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet. Jupiter draws steadily closer to Earth and grows in apparent size over the coming weeks.
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