The Mountain Messenger

Night Sky

TweetShare

Moon and Jupiter Together While the Lynx Hides Out

Moon-Jupiter.jpg

Tonight, as dusk fades into darkness, the Moon and our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter, will appear very close (2°31´) to one another within the constellation Aries. The pair will reach their highest point in the sky around 6:30 p.m. and will continue to be visible within the frame of binoculars or the naked eye until they vanish over the western horizon shortly after midnight.

Unfortunately, this conjunction will be happening while, according to the National Weather Service, clouds are expected to cover 80 percent of the sky during this period.

Meanwhile, a very faint constellation, the Lynx (a bobcat for us), renowned in the ancient world for having keen eyesight, has started to become visible in the sparsely populated region of the sky between Ursa Major (the Big Dipper), Gemini (the Twins), and Cancer (the Crab). Skywatchers, it has been said, must have the “eyes of a lynx” to locate the zig-zag line of stars comprising this co...