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Brilliant Jupiter rides high in Taurus
- Jupiter will reach its long-awaited opposition on 7 December and lie in Taurus with a declination of just over 22 degrees.
- Jupiter offers an oblate disc some 48.1 arc seconds across, very impressive and larger than any other planet.
- Grab a pair of binoculars and Jupiter will show a small, perceptible disc, which spans a very impressive 48.1 arc seconds.
- Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is its most famous feature, which is a long-lived storm found in the planet’s South Tropical Zone (STrZ) for possibly 350 years, but it’s shrinking.
- Turn a telescope on Jupiter and be able to enjoy some of the exciting and fascinating moon events that happen every day.
- The moon's orbit planes coincide with the plane of Jupiter’s equator, thus they can always be found within a narrow band east or west of Jupiter.
- Jupiter's speedy rotation period of under 10 hours means virtually the whole of Jupiter’s observable surface is available to observe on a single night this month.
- The Great Red Spot should be close to Io on 10 December in the late evening, 3 nights following opposition.
- Jupiter’s next opposition is on 10 January 2026 in Gemini, equally favourable.
- Observers will able to scrutinize Jupiter's dynamic cloud-tops; it will remain above 30 degrees in elevation between 5.30pm to 2.30am.
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