People across Ireland will have a rare opportunity to see Jupiter visible as a brilliant ‘star’ just beneath the moon tonight.
From about 9pm until sunrise, the gas giant - which is 300 times the weight of the Earth - will be observable under the nearly-full moon, weather permitting.
“Jupiter is 10 times brighter than the brightest star in the sky,” said Astronomy Ireland chairman David Moore. “It looks extremely spectacular to the naked eye.”
Whenever a bright object is visible near the Moon, the Astrology Ireland office receives queries throughout the night from curious spectators.
“People would notice it, walking their dogs at night. This time we wanted to pre-empt that and let people know we can actually predict what is going to happen,” Mr Moore said.
He predicted that today’s heavy rains would fade this evening, leaving crystal-clear skies over Ireland, particularly in the south east.
Jupiter can only be spotted in such close proximity to the moon every few years and in Ireland the event is especially rare.
Jupiter is the solar system’s ‘vacuum cleaner’, preventing potentially dangerous, large asteroids from travelling to the Earth.
It has recently acquired a “black eye”, which is a possible impact scar from a large comet or asteroid. It also has an explosion the size of our planet raging on its surface.