Breaking news: something has impacted on the planet Jupiter.
There isn’t any confirmation of what it is was yet but my money’s on a small asteroid, probably no bigger than a mile across.
Anyway, for anyone with a telescope, this site details when the spot is visible. All times are in UT so subtract 5 hours for Eastern Time and 8 hours for Pacific. I know I’ll be looking up. It’s times like this that I’m glad I have a relatively big ’scope.
If you’ve noticed lately, Jupiter and Venus are pretty close in the sky right now and soon after the Sun sets you can see them in the south-eastern sky. The Moon is hanging out nearby. What most people don’t know is that it is possible to see Venus during the day. It’s hard but with the Moon nearby, you’ll have a good point of reference.
First, find the Moon. It’s also up, cresent-shaped and a couple of degrees away. Just find it and start looking in the area to the right of the Moon (i.e. towards where the Sun is in the sky). It’s not too far, maybe two fingers held at arms length. Make sure you’re in a shaded area otherwise the Sun will probably wash it out.
Seriously! Go try it! Now, before the Sun sets! If you can’t do it today, tomorrow will hopefully be good too. The Moon will just have moved ten to twelve degrees towards the east, so it will maybe be a full hand-span away from Venus then.
Arik Rice is a skeptic, futurist, and all around phenomenally intelligent guy. He is currently attending California State University Los Angeles where he is working on his Bachelors of Arts in Physics.