Professor of Astronomy at the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, Dr. Ashraf Tadros, said that he is currently observing in the skies of Egypt and the Arab world the phenomenon of the conjunction of the moon with Jupiter (the giant of the solar system) in a wonderful scene that can be seen with the naked eye.
Tadros indicated, in a statement to the Middle East News Agency today, Thursday, that this phenomenon continues until nearly midnight, and the moon will be to the right of Jupiter, then it will become to the left of Jupiter tomorrow evening.
He explained that the term conjugation means the approach of a celestial body to another within the limits of a number of arc degrees when they are viewed from the ground, which is an unreal angular approach that has nothing to do with distances. As for the real distance between them, it is very large, estimated at hundreds of millions or billions of kilometers.
In turn, the head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, Eng. Majed Abu Zahra, confirmed, in a statement he issued today, that the humpback moon is associated this evening with Jupiter, separating them by about 4 degrees, pointing out that Jupiter is the fourth brightest body in the dome of the sky after the sun, moon and Venus.
He added that Jupiter will appear as a bright white point to the observer with the naked eye, and when observing it through binoculars or a small telescope, he will see the disk of the planet and around it its four large moons known as the “Galileo moons”, which are: (Janmid, Callisto, Europa, and Iowa); They appear as small points of light near Jupiter.
He explained that during the night hours, all these objects apparently move towards the west as a result of the Earth’s rotation on its axis, but the real movement of the moon is towards the east with respect to the stars.
He added that by observing the location of the moon at the same time every day, he notices that its movement is towards the east with respect to the stars and planets in the zodiacal circle, so the next day he will notice that the moon has moved away from Jupiter, rushing towards the east, which is its natural movement in orbit around the Earth.