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wonderful pair of objects in the evening sky. You can't miss them. They'll be the brightest objects in the sky.
• Throughout the Americas this evening, the moon and Jupiter snuggle up especially closely. In fact, if you're in the right place in South America, you can watch the moon occult - cover over - Jupiter for up to an hour or so this evening. Click here for more information on this lunar occultation of Jupiter.
• Tomorrow morning (January 22), at 5 a.m. Central Time in North America, the moon will be at apogee - its farthest point from Earth for the month. At apogee the moon will be 405,311 kilometers (251,849 miles) away. Even so, the moon - our closest celestial neighbor - very much remains in the Earth's backyard while Jupiter lodges in the farther reaches of the solar system.
• Jupiter looks starlike to the eye, and the moon looks bigger. But, in fact, Jupiter is much bigger than the moon and only appears starlike to our eyes because it is so much farther away - more than 1,600 times farther away than tonight's moon. The moon lies about 1.35 light-seconds from Earth at present. In stark contrast, Jupiter looms about 37 light-minutes away.
• If the giant planet Jupiter were at the same distance from us as our moon, it'd take about 40 moons lined up side by side to equal the diameter of Jupiter. More amazing, perhaps, Jupiter's disk would exceed the lunar disk by some 1,600 times.
• It's with good reason that Jupiter enjoys the king planet status.
• Bottom line: Let the moon be your guide to Jupiter, the fifth planet outward from the sun and the king of the planets, on the night of January 21! As seen from the U.S. and Canada, the moon and Jupiter appear closer together this evening than they will again until the year 2026.
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