This was a great opportunity to observe the largest planet in the solar system, as it was at its closest and brightest of the year. Jupiter’s opposition on December 7 was in the constellation of Aries, near the star cluster Pleiades. It was at a distance of about 667 million km from Earth, and it shone with a magnitude of -2.6, making it the fourth-brightest object in the sky, after the sun, the moon, and Venus. Jupiter was also close to the nearly full moon on that night, creating a striking pair in the southeast as darkness fell. Through a telescope, Jupiter revealed its cloud bands, its four Galilean moons, and sometimes its Great Red Spot.
