Big Swedish tabloid says: Now you should observe Jupiter!

[Ann]

In today's issue of Swedish tabloid Expressen, I saw the following headline:

NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME TO OBSERVE JUPITER!

What about observing Venus? As far as Swedish tabloid Expressen is concerned, Venus is not currently a good target in the Swedish skies.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

In today's issue of Swedish tabloid Expressen, I saw the following headline:

NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME TO OBSERVE JUPITER!

What about observing Venus? As far as Swedish tabloid Expressen is concerned, Venus is not currently a good target in the Swedish skies.

Ann

The article is here. I think a better translation of the title is just "Now you can see the planet Jupiter" (or maybe giant planet Jupiter- I don't know how this planet is referred to in colloquial Swedish, and I'm reading this as a speaker of Danish, not Swedish).

On the whole, the article is reasonable. This is a good time to observe Jupiter, since it's just past opposition and near its closest point to Earth for the year. And of course, that close point happens near the winter solstice, when the ecliptic is high at night. (I'm not sure about the factoid box, which says that Jupiter is famous for its rings. It has them, of course, but I don't think most people even know that. A little confusion with Saturn, maybe, even though the 700 mil size given for the main ring is correct for Jupiter.)

On the whole, Venus is never a very interesting observational target. Other than seeing its phases, it's boring telescopically. Most people simply enjoy Venus as a beautiful evening or morning star. And as you have noted, it is still very low in the sky, making it less than ideal for viewing from Sweden at all. In a few months, maybe Expressen will print an article about Venus, high in the sky on pleasant spring evenings.