Joe Rao's: Moon Cozies Up to Jupiter in the Night Sky

For the second time this month, the moon is going to pay a visit to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

On Sunday and Monday evenings (Jan. 29 and  30), a fat, waxing crescent moon will appear to slide past the planet Jupiter. Of course, the moon is much closer to Earth than Jupiter and as such, can change its position against the background stars rather quickly.

In fact, relative to the background stars, the moon will appear to move east at roughly its own apparent width each hour – or about 12 degrees (on average) over a span of 24 hours. The sky map of Jupiter and the moon  with this story shows how they will appear together at about 9 p.m. local time to observers in mid-northern latitudes.

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