The moon is in its waxing gibbous phase. That’s when it looks egg-shaped; but give it a couple of more days and it will be all the way round and full. Last night it appeared nearby the planet Jupiter, what astronomers call a conjunction. It looks like the two are right next to each other, but of course, they’re not, it’s just a line-of-sight effect. Jupiter is several hundred million miles away, while the moon is just a scant 240,000 miles from us. That’s why we can easily see the moon’s rough features using just a pair of binoculars, while even a pretty good-sized telescope will only show you the banded atmosphere of Jupiter plus its moons appearing as tiny, star-like objects nearby. Now if you missed last night’s view, that’s okay, you can find them again this evening, except now the moon is a bit further east, below and to the left of Jupiter after sunset. To the right of the moon is the star Spica, in the constellation Virgo the Maiden.
Mon May 8, 2017 MOON AND JUPITER
