Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

These always seem a little overblown. Jupiter was very nearly as bright last year.<p><a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=magnitude+of+jupiter+september+20th+2010" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=magnitude+of+jupiter+se...</a><p>-2.92<p><a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=magnitude+of+jupiter+august+15++2009" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=magnitude+of+jupiter+au...</a><p>-2.86<p>So the ratio in brightness is<p>2.512 ^ 0.06 = 1.0567<p>If wolfram alpha is to be believed, it's going to be just about as bright next year.<p><a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=magnitude+of+jupiter+october+15++2011" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=magnitude+of+jupiter+oc...</a>

The article states "Around midnight, it will be directly overhead." This depends where you are, and it will not be true for most humanoids. From Washington, DC, for instance, it will be 45 degrees up from the horizon at midnight: <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=jupiter+sky+position+from+washington+at+12:00am" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=jupiter+sky+position+fr...</a><p>From Oslo, Norway, a little under 9 degrees: <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=jupiter+sky+position+from+oslo+at+12:00am" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=jupiter+sky+position+fr...</a>

When I was a kid in the 70s, I could distinguish a moon of Jupiter as a separate blip with my naked eye.

This reminds me of an incident on Friday night: I noticed an unusually bright planet in the sky, and checked it out with Google Night Sky on my Android phone. When I zoomed in, the software showed the disc of Jupiter <i>overlapping</i> with Uranus. I sure was amazed!<p>I checked now, and the planet conjunction list at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjunction_%28astronomy_and_astrology%29" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjunction_%28astronomy_and_as...</a> indicates that this conjunction has happened several times recently, but won't be happening for a while now.

Checkout my Palo Alto viewing party using my company's event creation service: <a href="http://poig.com/pings/4c9798d0d4ac14411c00001f/" rel="nofollow">http://poig.com/pings/4c9798d0d4ac14411c00001f/</a><p>I'll be at Arastradero Preserve in the Palo Alto Hills tonight around 11PM with a telescope and some buddies. Exit off Page Mill from 280 and head west towards the hills. Take a RIGHT on Arastradero and drive up about a mile and take a right into the parking lot.<p>WE WILL HAVE A LIMITED SUPPLY OF SIMPLER TIMES BEER

Is there a good iPhone app that uses both the GPS and the Compass to do star finding and identification?

Thank you. There is a NASA app for iPad that could be useful as a learning aid.

In NYC it will appear as a stalled airplane between clouds.

And of course it is completely overcast here :(

More info: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter</a>