Even if you're not really into stargazing, you can't help but see that super bright star in the southeastern skies as evening begins.

But that's no star, that's Jupiter, the kingpin of our solar system.

As I shared with you last week in Starwatch, Jupiter is nearly at its closest point to Earth for 2009. Actually, Jupiter and Earth made their closest pass to each other in their respective orbits around the sun last month, referred to officially as opposition. At that time, Jupiter was just under 374 million miles from Earth, and this week, it's just under 387 million miles away. While you can't get there in a weekend, Jupiter is still near enough to make a great, great telescope target.

Jupiter is basically a big ball of hydrogen and helium gas with a diameter of around 88,000 miles, more than 11 times that of our Earth.

Through a telescope, it wouldn't be much of a target. About all you'd see would be a bland white-ish disk, but because of its cloud bands made up of methane, ammonia and sulfur compounds, there's actually some subtle color to it. Even with smaller telescopes, you can usually pick up at least two darker cloud bands on either side of Jupiter's ecliptic.

With larger scopes, you'll see more bands and more detail and maybe even the great red spot, a giant storm raging on Jupiter. It's called the red spot, but in reality, it will show up in a larger scope with a pale pink hue. The red spot isn't always available, though, because of Jupiter's speedy 10-hour rotation. Half of the time, the red spot is turned away from Earth.

Again, as I preached last week, the longer you gaze at Jupiter through the eyepiece of your scope, the more detail you'll see. Try to look at it in at least 10-minute shots.

No matter how big or small your telescope is, you'll get a kick out of watching Jupiter's four brightest moons — Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede — as they orbit around their gravitational master in periods of less than two days to just more than 16 days.

Because of their continual dance, they will constantly be changing positions relative to the disk of Jupiter. Some nights, you might see two on one side and two on the other, or three on one side and one on the other, or all four on one side. There also are many nights when you can't see all four at one time because one or more moons might be behind or in front of Jupiter from our Earthly vantage.

When a moon is behind Jupiter, you obviously have no shot at seeing it, but when one is in front of the disk of the planet, you might see the dot of its shadow on Jupiter, although you need a moderate to larger telescope to see it. With Jupiter's relative proximity this month and most of this upcoming fall, you have a chance of seeing a moon shadow on Jupiter even with some of the smaller scopes. It's worth a try.

You can keep up on the position of Jupiter's four brightest moons by checking out monthly magazines like Astronomy or Sky and Telescope, but of course, there are many places to find that information on the Internet. My favorite site is from Sky and Telescope magazine at www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/3307071.html#. Type that in, and click the link it shows in red print, and it will produce a diagram of the layout of Jupiter's moons at any given time.

In the diagram I have for you this week, I show the positions of Jupiter's moons during the coming week. This coming Saturday night, if your scope is up to it, you might see the shadow of Io on the face of Jupiter, and next Sunday, Europa's shadow will dot the planet's disk. Consider this extra credit if you see these two shadowy events next weekend.

Jupiter actually has more than 60 known moons and probably many more that haven't been confirmed yet, but the four larger moons we see through our backyard telescopes are certainly the best known. They're also referred to as the Galilean moons because the great astronomer and scientist Galileo used these moons to help prove the sun — and not the Earth — was the center of what was then seen as the universe. He rocked the world in the 17th century, but also got himself put under house arrest, but that's another story.

Callisto and Ganymede are the largest and farthest away from Jupiter of the Galilean moons and are both larger than our moon. In fact, Ganymede is even a little larger than Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. Both Ganymede and Callisto are heavily cratered bodies and are comparatively nowhere near as interesting as Io and Europa.

Io is a little more than 2,200 miles in diameter, a little larger than our moon and one active locale! It's the most geologically active body in our solar system. Since it's only about a quarter of a million miles from the very massive Jupiter, there's a colossal gravitational wallop on Io from the mother ship. The tidal forces are tremendous, and because of the constant stretching, heat builds up in Io's interior to the point of melting. This in turn produces numerous and frequent volcanic eruptions on Europa. In fact, when the first two robotic spacecrafts Voyager One and Two passed by Io in 1979 and sent back images, astronomers nicknamed Io the "pizza planet" because of all the different shades of red and orange.

The next moon out from Jupiter, Europa, might be the best candidate for life in our solar system, even exceeding Mars. Much needs to be explored, but it's known Europa is covered by a sheet of ice and there might be an ocean of liquid water beneath it, or at least a slushy ocean. Once again, because it's so close to Jupiter, the tidal forces are strong enough to heat up Europa's interior, possibly allowing for liquid water below the ice. Where there is liquid water there's a chance of life as we know it. There's much to be determined, though, mainly the thickness of Europa's ice. Stay tuned!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.