Jupiter at opposition

This January Jupiter will be at opposition  (when it’s opposite to the Sun relative from Earth). Jupiter will be well placed for observation, lying in the constellation Gemini, far above the horizon for much of the night. Although the seeing conditions were not good lately with a lot of vibrating air I managed to capture our biggest planet on December 29th and January 7th.

The first is an animation of 13 frames captured over a short time span of 25 minutes. You can see the moon Io rotating around Jupiter and getting eclipsed by the giant planet just before it moves behind the planet’s surface.

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The second picture was shot on January 7th at 23h15m. Seeing wasn’t terrible. Anyway, some details are clearly visible.

More details can be found on the Jupiter page.