Gemini and Jupiter - 1
During the winter of 2013/14, the planet Jupiter is visible as a brilliant white star in the constellation Gemini. Over the course of several months, Jupiter' position slowly changes against the background stars of Gemini.
The image above shows Jupiter in Gemini a three weeks after the giant position reached opposition on January 05. To the left of Jupiter are the stars the Castor and Pollux.
Jupiter's distance is currently 4.30217 AU from Earth and 5.20252 AU from the Sun. Since Jupiter is at opposition, it appears opposite from the Sun in the sky and it rises at sunset. Jupiter is visible all night long but it is highest in the sky at midnight. The 2014 Ephemeris for Jupiter gives the celestial coordinates and distance of Jupiter for every day throughout 2014.
Gemini is a Zodiacal constellation otherwise known as the Twins. It is one of the 48 Greek constellations originally described by the 2nd century astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (Wikipedia). Gemini remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (Wikipedia).
For an almanac of other interesting sky happenings for each year, see Calendar of Astronomical Events.
Technical Details
- Object: Gemini and Jupiter - 1
- Date/Time: 2014 Jan 29 at 03:11 UTC
- Location: Bifrost Astronomical Observatory, Portal, AZ
- Mount: Losmandy G-11 German Equatorial Mount
- Lens: Nikkor AI 50mm f/1.8
- Camera: Nikon D800
- Field of View: 39.5° x 27.0° at 19.3 arc-sec/pixel (web version: 154 arc-sec/pixel)
- Exposure: 60s, f/2.8, ISO 3200 and 60s, f/2.8, ISO 1600 with Cokin A830 Diffusion Filter
- File Name: GEM14-1002w.jpg
- Processing (Adobe Camera Raw): Vignetting & Distortion Correction, Noise Reduction, White Balance, Curves
- Processing (Photoshop CS5): Curves, Opacity (with diffusion image)
- Original Image Size: 4912 × 7360 pixels (36.2 MP); 16.4" x 24.5" @ 300 dpi
- Rights: Copyright 2014 by Fred Espenak. All Rights Reserved. See: Image Licensing.