Night Sky Photography -- 11-01/02-2023 -- Jupiter Closest To Earth For 2023

Late yesterday evening I was able to capture a pair of great shots of the Planet Jupiter and its four largest moons, along with the Constellation Aries the Ram.

Jupiter’s perigee -- or its closest point to the Earth for 2023 -- comes on the night of Wednesday, November 1 & Thursday, November 2 when the distance between our Earth and the largest planet in our Solar System will be approximately 370 million miles (or 595 million kilometers, or 33.10 light-minutes) apart.

Less than 24 hours later at about 1 a.m. EST on the night of Friday, November 3, 2023, Jupiter will reach its opposition to Earth when our planet's smaller orbit takes it between the Sun and Jupiter. At opposition, Jupiter will shine as the 4th-brightest object in the sky, after the sun, the moon and the planet Venus.

In my first photo, you can see the close-up of the four largest moons of Jupiter -- Callisto, Io, Europa, and Ganymede. In the second photo, you can see a wider shot of bright Jupiter  and its just visible moons beneath the four brightest stars of the Constellation Aries The Ram -- in addition to the small Constellation Triangulum The Triangle and the nearby Pleiades Star Cluster.

These are just the first of what I hope are going to be several more beautiful night sky offerings as viewed from my corner of South Carolina for the month of November. Stay tuned.