2024, January 1-7: Bright Jupiter in Evening Sky

January 1-7, 2024: Bright Jupiter is visible in the southeast after nightfall.  Find its moons through a binocular and Great Red Spot through a telescope.

Bright Jupiter in Evening Sky
Chart Caption – 2024, January 4: Jupiter is in the southeast after sundown, near Hamal and Menkar.

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24

Jupiter’s Visibility

During early January, bright Jupiter is in the southeastern sky during the evening.  It is the brightest starlike body in the sky after sunset. The planet does not move far against the celestial backdrop this week, so look toward the southeast for the bright star, over halfway up in the sky.

Jupiter is slowly moving eastward in front of Aries, over 11° to the lower right of Hamal, the Ram’s brightest star, and over 14° to the upper right of Menkar, part of Cetus.

Extend your hand and make a fist, with your thumb on top.  The distance across the fist from thumb knuckle to pinky knuckle is approximately 10°.  The referenced stars are about one fist from Jupiter.  During the next several weeks, watch the planet move toward an imaginary line from this stellar pair.

Hamal is about the brightness of the Big Dipper’s stars, while Menkar is dimmer.  From urban and suburban areas use a binocular to see the stars through the outdoor lighting’s veil.

Jupiter’s Moons

Jupiter and its largest moons.
Photo Caption – This “family portrait,” a composite of the Jovian system, includes the edge of Jupiter with its Great Red Spot, and Jupiter’s four largest moons, known as the Galilean satellites. From top to bottom, the moons shown are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The Great Red Spot, a storm in Jupiter’s atmosphere, is at least 400 years old. (NASA Photo)

With the binocular, if held steadily, up to four of Jupiter’s largest moons are visible.  Find them at different spots on either side of the planet each night.  The changes in their orbital positions can be spotted across several hours.

The Great Red Spot

Jupiter
Photo Caption – Jupiter (NASA Photo)

Through a telescope, the Jovian Giant’s Great Red Spot is visible at the center of the planet in the southern hemisphere.  Here are Central Standard times when it is visible at center stage this week:  Jan. 1st, 2:05 a.m. and 9:56 p.m.; Jan. 2nd, 5:47 p.m.; Jan. 3rd, 11:35 p.m.; Jan. 4th, 7:26 p.m.; Jan. 6th, 1:13 a.m. (low in western sky) and 9:05 p.m.; and Jan. 7th, 4:56 p.m.  This occurs only twenty minutes after sunset in Chicago.

On the evening of the 6th, the shadows of moons Europa and Ganymede are visible below the Red Spot about thirty minutes before it is in its best viewing location.

This week step outside to spot bright Jupiter in the southeastern evening sky.

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