{"id":690686,"date":"2026-01-12T08:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T08:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/690686\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T08:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T08:39:12","slug":"the-sky-today-on-saturday-january-10-jupiter-reaches-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/690686\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on Saturday, January 10: Jupiter reaches opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tThe solar system\u2019s largest planet is now at its best and brightest, opening the morning with a transit of Callisto.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJupiter shines brightly in Gemini as it reaches opposition this month. It\u2019s also a great time to view Uranus near the Pleiades in Taurus, though you\u2019ll need binoculars or a telescope. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

January 9: View the Keystone of Hercules<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jupiter officially reaches opposition at 4 A.M. EST, and its moon Callisto is helping us usher in the big moment with a transit \u2014 moving simultaneously with its shadow across the face of the gas giant.<\/p>\n

Jupiter is located in Gemini, sitting about 7\u00b0 southwest of the star Pollux (Beta [\u03b2] Geminorum), which shines at magnitude 1.2. Glowing at magnitude \u20132.7, you absolutely can\u2019t miss Jupiter, which outshines even the Northern Hemisphere\u2019s brightest star, Sirius.<\/p>\n

Callisto reaches begins to transit just minutes before 2 A.M. EST this morning (11 p.m. PST on the 9th in this time zone only). Within 10 minutes, it\u2019s passed fully in front of the planet, moving from east to west. Two hours later, around 4 A.M. EST, Callisto is roughly central on the disk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Callisto<\/p>\n

\t\tThe day Jupiter reaches opposition, Callisto nearly blends with its shadow as they transit. Can you spot the shadow, just peeking out from Callisto\u2019s southern edge? Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly<\/p>\n

At opposition, the Sun appears directly behind us as we look at Jupiter and from a viewpoint above the solar system, Earth stands directly between the Sun and the gas giant. That means as moons cross Jupiter on this date only, they directly overlap their shadows. With Callisto central on the disk, look closely at the moon\u2019s southern edge. Does this limb appear slightly darker or distended? This may be all the evidence of its shadow, also crossing the cloud tops at the same time, that you may see. You\u2019ve got plenty of time to hunt for (or even try to photograph) it \u2014 Callisto\u2019s transit ends shortly after 6 A.M. EST, roughly an hour before sunrise on the East Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even if you\u2019re not an early riser, don\u2019t worry. At opposition, planets rise around sunset and set around sunrise, so both morning and evening observers have plenty of time to view them. As Gemini rises in the east after sunset, Jupiter appears roughly level with Pollux, standing to the right of this star (which hangs beneath Castor [Alpha (\u03b1) Gem] as the Twins climb above the horizon in the early evening).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunrise:<\/strong>\u00a07:22 A.M.
Sunset:<\/strong>\u00a04:54 P.M.
Moonrise:<\/strong>\u00a012:04 A.M.
Moonset:<\/strong>\u00a011:13 A.M. \u00a0
Moon Phase:<\/strong>\u00a0Waning crescent (45%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List The solar system\u2019s largest planet is now at its best and brightest, opening the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[208670,70,208671,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-690686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-observing","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-sky-tonight","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115881231453299274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}