I had some nice clear skies on the night of the 14th August, 2009 – when Jupiter was at opposition for the 2009 season. Being at opposition means the Sun, Earth and Moon form a straight line – and Jupiter is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit around the Sun, and it appears at its largest – subtending 48.9 arcseconds.

Unfortunately the seeing conditions were below average, but luckily they steadied for a few minutes just before midnight – long enough for me to capture just one run in slightly above average conditions, before the seeing turned bad again.

Jupiter at Opposition, with the GRS rising

Each channel was recorded for 48 seconds, and 600 frames from each were used to make the final RGB image.

Continuing to hope for clear and steady skies – it’s just not coming this year yet.

Thanks for looking.

This post will highlight what’s happening at Jupiter during August, 2009 – including when and where you can observe Jupiter, opposition date, and dates and times for other interesting events for observers and imagers, such as Galilean Moon mutual events (occultations and eclipses).

Jupiter at Opposition in July 2008

Please continue reading for all of the information.

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The ringed world Saturn reaches opposition for 2009 on the 8th March, which means that the Sun, the Earth and Saturn form a straight line in space.

It also means Saturn is visible all night long – rising at Sunset, passing overhead at midnight and setting at Sunrise.

Of course overhead doesn’t necessarily mean Saturn will be straight up – depending on your latitude Saturn is likely to be lower in the sky. For mid-southern latitudes, Saturn reaches an altitude of approx 45°.

Opposition is also a great time to observe a planet because it’s closest to Earth in its orbit around the Sun, making it appear bigger and brighter. However with the ring plane tilted towards Earth this year and in 2010, Saturn’s rings aren’t reflecting much light our way so Saturn is a dim magnitude 0.49 in 2009 and an even fainter mag 0.53 in 2010!

Look for Saturn towards the North East after 9:30pm, but will be best to observe heading towards midnight when it’s higher in the sky.

Saturn at Opposition - March 8th 2009

Good luck with your observing, I hope you get clear skies!