It is observed in the sky of Egypt and the Arab world after sunset today, Thursday, January 26, 2023, and the beginning of the night, the conjunction of the moon with the giant planet Jupiter of our solar system, as it will separate them by about one degree in a beautiful view that is easily seen with the naked eye.
And the Astronomical Society in Jeddah revealed in a report that the presence of the moon near Jupiter means that it is on the dome of the sky only, as they are not close to each other in space. The moon is only about 369,000 km away from us, while Jupiter is 806,482,121 million km away. in this conjunction.
Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the dome of the sky after the sun, moon and Venus, and it will appear as a bright white point to the observer with the naked eye. When observing it through binoculars or a small telescope, he will see the planet’s disk and around it the four large moons known as the “Galilean moons”, which are: Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, Iowa – where they appear as small points of light near Jupiter.
During the night hours, all of these bodies apparently move towards the west as a result of the Earth’s rotation around its axis, but the real movement of the moon is towards the east with respect to the stars.
By observing the position of the moon at the same time every day, it is noticed that its movement is towards the east with respect to the stars and planets in the zodiacal circle, so on the next day it will be noticed that the moon has moved away from Jupiter, rushing towards the east, which is its natural movement in orbit around the earth.