Look up at the eastern sky for the next few nights, right after sunset, and you will see what appears to be the brightest star in the heavens. But it’s not a star, it is the planet Jupiter and its moons. Not for 47 years, since 1963, has Jupiter been this close and on September 20 2010, it will only be 368 million miles away and won’t come this close to us again until 2022.
The "Opposition" is when 2 celestial bodies are on opposite side the Earth. And right now, the Earth is passing directly between the Sun and Jupiter.
I took this photo from our driveway on 09.15.10 at 8pm with my handy dandy little Canon Rebel. It blew me away when I realized that not only did I capture a photo of the planet Jupiter, but its moons as well.
I used a tripod, plan ol’ telephoto lens, worked with my settings and time exposure a little and was easily able to get this shot. Not forgetting that I used my photo shop to crop and enlarge the image. But this is a shot that anyone can get! The planet Jupiter is so close and so bright; I would encourage everyone to at least try for themselves.
And to top it all off, another photo of our moon!