2022 July 8

Jupiter rising for northerly observers

John Rogers

Jupiter is now 2 degrees north of the equator, and rising around midnight, and as we are past midsummer it is rapidly getting higher in the morning sky for northern hemisphere observers.  So this is an ideal time for BAA members to start observing it.  The Jupiter Section would welcome your images or drawings.  If you take good images or drawings, or if you want to be added to our emailing list, please use the ‘Contact the Director’ option on the Jupiter Section web site.  If you post good images of Jupiter on the BAA Members’ pages, please notify the Director as well, to ensure your post is not missed.

News about current phenomena is posted frequently on the Jupiter Section web pages, under ‘Jupiter in 2022-23’ using data from amateur images, and under ‘Results from Juno (2022)’ using images from the Juno orbiter.  Two new reports have just been posted there, presenting Jupiter’s present phenomena as viewed by amateur observers (‘Jupiter in 2022-23: Report no.2’) and by NASA’s Juno orbiter (‘JunoCam at PJ42’).  New reports are announced to our email list and also (among other things) on the ‘BAA Jupiter Section’ Facebook page.

This opposition, on Sep.26,  will be particularly favourable as Jupiter will be near perihelion so its apparent diameter will be large.  The main interest at present is in the North Equatorial Belt, which had become very narrow, and is now undergoing a strange kind of revival whose outcome is uncertain; ongoing observations are needed to follow what is happening.  Here is a recent map; more information is on the Section web pages.