ALTHOUGH Saturn and Mars can still be glimpsed low in the south after sunset, looking like quite faint 'stars,' and Venus is starting to creep up into the twilight sky too (it will be a dazzling sight in the sky at Christmas), if you want to see a really bright naked eye planet you need to get up a couple of hours before dawn. Then you'll see the mighty planet Jupiter shining brightly in the east.
Earlier this year Jupiter was a very bright object in the evening sky, but it has now passed into the morning sky. To the eye it looks like a very bright blue-white 'star,' shining with a steady light. Through a pair of binoculars you'll see up to four of its family of 63 moons, looking like tiny specks of light close to it. A telescope is needed to see its swirling storms and dark belts of cloud.
On the morning of October 27, look to the east to see a beautiful thin crescent Moon shining to the upper right of Jupiter in the hours before dawn.
Stuart Atkinson
Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal
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