The last week or so, as I always do, look into the heavens and gauge the stars and other celestial bodies. Ive been tracking Jupiter for a while now, but the last week really has thrown me for a loop.

The past several nights, between 7:30pm and 9:30pm, Ive looked toward the western horizon to see a very, very bright object. Last night at about 7:45pm, the object was still about 20 +/- degrees above the horizon.

I kept thinking it was Venus because of the luminosity, but there's no way that could be, because Venus sets here by 8:00pm or earlier.

Well, i just opened up the Stellarium program and determined it to be Jupiter.

Now, here's my question, Jupiter is extremely bright right now, I mean it rivals Venus, i honestly think based off my observation it looks brighter. So, does anyone know how close Earth and Jupiter are in their respective orbits at the moment?

Thanks

While I cannot tell you the distance offhand I can tell you that Jupiter is at it's closest it will be to the earth for 22 years, part of the extraordinary luminosity we are experiencing as well has to do with one of Jupiter's color bands fading out and going white in a cycle that can last for years that we have little understanding of thusly increasing the amount of reflected light we get from the planet.

I've noticed there are a few stars/planets that are showing themselves very brightly right now.

Last night when I came in, I opened up Stellarium to see what they were, and it was Venus, Jupiter, Rigel, and Procyon. Sirius was still on the horizon, but would have also showed up extra bright, but it was cold out there, so I didn't go back out to look.

If it's clear tonight again, I'll check again, those are just the ones I remember from last night.

They're all showing so big and bright, they almost seem like they've gotten closer, or it's easier to see through our atmosphere these days

I have noticed this too, a couple days ago i went out between 6 and 630 before the sun set (still some blue to the sky) and it was still decently bright and noticed that venus and jupiter were both visible. I had never noticed them that bright before.

Yeah, I'm in South Africa and Venus is so bright, it's scary. So is Jupiter. If you aren't sure about the object You should get Google Sky Map if you have an android phone. Really helps to locate things.