See the final first quarter moon of 2022 join Jupiter in the sky tonight (Dec. 29)

[Admin]

Pick up a pair of binoculars to examine the half-lit moon and Jupiter as it passes by.

See the final first quarter moon of 2022 join Jupiter in the sky tonight (Dec. 29) : Read more

 

[rod]

"At the same time, the moon and Jupiter will reach conjunction, the point where they share the same right ascension. They'll also appear to be at their closest point together in the night sky, called an appulse. Look for Jupiter to the northwest of the moon — the two celestial bodies will be separated by 2 degrees and 18 minutes."

Weather at my location for tonight looks good so I plan to go out and view Jupiter and the Moon using my 90-mm refractor telescope. Too far apart to see both but easy to change altitude and azimuth back and forth using the Telrad to quickly target and enjoy views of both.

 

[MikeCollinsJr]

When will see the mw on TV?

 

[rod]

mw on TV I am not familiar with. However, I can see the nearly First Quarter Moon in the sky now so if clouds remain free in my area as forecast, I should enjoy some excellent lunar observations using my 90-mm refractor telescope this evening.

 

[rod]

Some good viewing tonight. There is much to see, in our solar system, and beyond --Rod

Observed 1815-1930 EST/2315-0030 UT. First Quarter Moon 30-Dec-2022 0121 UT or 2021 EST 29-Dec-2022. I enjoyed some excellent time under the sky tonight. I viewed 25x, 71x, and 129x observations using my 90-mm refractor telescope. TeleVue 40-mm plossl eyepiece, TeleVue 14-mm Delos, and TeleVue 1.8x Barlow lens along with Moon filter, #58 green filter (Jupiter and the Moon), and #23A red filter for Mars. M42 and M45 lovely at 25x and 4 stars in the Trapezium distinct along with the large arc of nebulosity visible. About 1830 EST, a polar orbiting satellite moved south, just passing Jupiter's position. I estimated the apparent magnitude 1.0, it was bright but not as bright as Jupiter. The Sky & Telescope Jupiter and Mars tool worked well. At Jupiter using 71x with green filter, I could see cloud belts, the northern region shaded and some in the south polar area too. 3 Galilean moons on the right side (mirror reverse view) and one on the left side. The Great Red Spot was visible but small at 71x. The GRS transited Jupiter central meridian near 2239 UT according to the December issue of Sky & Telescope, so visible when I looked. The Mars profiler tool showed the central meridian at Mars at 1815 EST or 2315 UT, 321 degrees. Syrtis Major distinct on Mars at 129x using red filter. Mars angular size about 14.9 arcsecond. Jupiter angular size about 39.59 arcseconds. The Virtual Moon Atlas showed the lunar diameter 31.92 arcminute. I did like the green filter view of the First Quarter Moon, that is fun. Very good crater relief and details visible along the terminator line at 71x. You can use Sabine crater, Moltke, and Maskelyne crater to form a triangle and zero in on Apollo 11 landing area. Armstrong crater is there, Aldrin, and Collins. They take high power to see though, usually near 200x for my telescope. When I went out to observe, the Moon and Jupiter a bit more than 6-degrees angular separation in the sky according to Stellarium 1.2. Skies clear, temperature 4C tonight.