Jupiter: The solar system's largest planet

Aside from the moon, Jupiter is easily the brightest object in the evening sky at the moment. It's visible in the twighlight if you look carefully and can be followed high in the sky throughout the night in the constellation of Gemini. Looking to the South, the gas giant forms the top of an equilateral triangle with Betegeuse in Orion's left shoulder to the West and Procyon in Canis Minor to the East. The position of the Jet Stream this year has meant that the atmospheric "seeing" has not been favourable for planetary photography. However, a couple of clear, cool evenings last week presented presented opportunities too good to miss. The top two images show sufficient surface detail to clearly discern the darker North and South equatorial belts with the lighter equatorial zone in between and a number of other features caused by turbulence and hot spots in the upper atmosphere. The lower image captures the famous Great Red Spot and the shoadow of Jupiter's third largest moon Calliso, which is just out of frame to the right.