Moon east of Jupiter before sunrise, March 31
2 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight's Sky for Sunday, Mar 30 2008
Before sunrise tomorrow (Monday) the waning crescent moon beams to the left (or more properly: to the east) of the blazing planet Jupiter. If you had seen the moon and Jupiter on Sunday morning, you would have seen the moon to the right (or west) of Jupiter.
This change in the moon’s position is easily explained. It’s because the moon in its orbit goes eastward around the Earth. In one day, the moon completes about 13 degrees of its 360-degree journey around our planet. Therefore, as seen from Earth, every day the moon moves 13 degrees eastward in front of the background stars. (For handy reference, the moon’s diameter spans 1/2 degree of sky.)
Incidentally, Jupiter orbits the sun in the same direction that the moon orbits the Earth: eastward. Jupiter travels eastward relative to the background stars, too, yet at a much slower pace than the moon does. Jupiter takes some 12 days to complete just one degree of its orbit around the sun.
As seen from Earth, the moon travels full circle in front of the stellar backdrop in a bit over 27 days, whereas Jupiter takes nearly 12 years to go full circle through the stars.
I saw jupiter on Friday. Really bright, even next to the moon.
I never see these things. I hate astronomy