It's nice to see Jupiter back in the morning sky post-conjuction. I'm always amazed at just how absolutely huge it is. When at oppostion, it can be nearly 50 arc-seconds in diameter. Right now, on the opposite side of the solar system from earth, it's closer to 30, but even that lower figure is large for the apparent size of a planetary disk- and Jupiter is over a half a billion miles away! Compare it to Mars, which only hovered near 20 arc-seconds during this opposition and was only about 43 million miles away- over ten times closer. Of the planets, only Venus can appear with a larger apparent diameter (64 arc-seconds), but then it's a thin crescent and nearly in conjunction- and only about 33 million miles distant! If you have a reticle eyepiece, note Jupiter's apparent diameter now, then check it again in five or six months with the same set-up, and see how much it's increased. I've been following the motion of the Galilean moons on clear mornings with my 20x80mm binos. Neat. __________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - Make it your home page! http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs