Get regular stargazing advice by listening to our weekly Star Diary podcast<\/a> and signing up to receive the BBC Sky at Night Magazine e-newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p> A just past first quarter, 56%-lit Moon sits 2\u00b0 north-northwest of Jupiter in the early evening of 18 January.<\/p> By the last week of January, Jupiter begins to succumb to the evening twilight, the sky only becoming truly dark when Jupiter is to the west of south.<\/p> Despite this, even on 31 January Jupiter can be seen around 50\u00b0 up against a deep twilight sky.<\/p> This is excellent news for visual observation as well as imaging the planet, because at this altitude it is lifted well above the turbulent atmospheric layer experienced low towards the horizon.<\/p> As a result, we\u2019ll have a better opportunity to see finer detail within the planet\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p> A small telescope shows Jupiter as a slightly oval disc, the gas giant\u2019s rapid spin \u2013 completing one rotation about its axis in slightly under 10 hours \u2013 causing it to bulge at its equator, producing the oblate shape seen through the eyepiece.\u00a0<\/p> Small scopes will also reveal larger banding within Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere, most notably the North Equatorial Belt (NEB) and South Equatorial Belt (SEB).<\/p> A 100mm or larger scope will be needed to show the persistent storm feature known as the Great Red Spot<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p> Jupiter has a large number of moons, but only four that are easily seen through a small scope: the so-called Galilean moons<\/a>, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.<\/p> These are fascinating to watch as they dance back and forth either side of the planet\u2019s disc.<\/p> For more advice, read our guides on how to observe Jupiter’s belts and zones<\/a> and how to observe Jupiter through a telescope<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p> This article appeared in the January 2024 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Jupiter retains a nice high altitude for viewing and imaging all month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":53000,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/01\/catch-jupiter-in-january-while-the-planet-is-still-bright.jpg",1500,1089,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/01\/catch-jupiter-in-january-while-the-planet-is-still-bright-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/01\/catch-jupiter-in-january-while-the-planet-is-still-bright-300x218.jpg",300,218,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/01\/catch-jupiter-in-january-while-the-planet-is-still-bright-768x558.jpg",768,558,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/01\/catch-jupiter-in-january-while-the-planet-is-still-bright-1024x743.jpg",800,580,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/01\/catch-jupiter-in-january-while-the-planet-is-still-bright.jpg",1500,1089,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/01\/catch-jupiter-in-january-while-the-planet-is-still-bright.jpg",1500,1089,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Jupiter retains a nice high altitude for viewing and imaging all month.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/52999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jupiter January highlights<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Jupiter's](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/01\/Jupier-Callisto-transit-ceec1cd.jpg\")
Observing Jupiter in January 2024<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Belts](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/11\/jupiter-belts-zones-social-1024x538.jpg?fit=800%2C420\")
Quick facts<\/strong><\/h2>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"