There's an incredibly bright star on the rise this autumn in the eastern Butler sky. In fact it's so bright at first glance you may even take it for an airplane.

Well it's not a bird or a plane or even a star. It's Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and it's at its closest distance to Earth since 1963!

Now, Jupiter isn't as close as a trip to the mall. It's still more than 365 million miles away, but for Jupiter that's really close! Every 399 days, a little more than a year, the Earth and Jupiter come into an astronomical formation called opposition.

During this month Earth is nearly directly in a line between the sun and Jupiter, something astronomers call opposition. This is a great time for Jupiter gazing, not only because the great planet is close to us but because it's available for our astronomical perusal all night long, since Jupiter and the sun are literally in opposite directions. That's why this alignment is called opposition. Just like a full moon, Jupiter rises at sunset and sets at sunrise.

This year's opposition of Jupiter is extra special because the planet is extra close.

Not all Jupiter oppositions are created equal. That's because the orbits of Earth and Jupiter, as well as the other planets, aren't exactly circular. They are slightly oval-shaped or elliptical. Because of that, every planet's orbit around the sun has its closest distance to the sun called perihelion, and its farthest distance called aphelion.

In the case of Earth's orbit, perihelion occurs around Jan. 4th when the Earth is 91 million miles from the sun. Aphelion is around the Fourth of July when us Earthlings are near 95 million miles from our home star.

As it turns out, this year during Earth and Jupiter's opposition, Jupiter is at its perihelion point in its 12 year orbit around the sun, not only putting it closer to the sun but closer to Earth, as well. At the same time, Earth is still pretty close to its aphelion point in its orbit, putting us that much closer to Jupiter. Both planets are in the right place at the right time for an extra close encounter!

If you don't have your own scope, beg and borrow, but don't steal one. Even a small backyard telescope will do a nice job on the Jovian giant.

Let me give you some advice here. First, put your telescope and eyepieces outside where you plan to observe at least an hour before you use them. The optics need to acclimate with the outside temperature or your image may be marred.

Second, don't try to look at Jupiter until around 9:30 to 10 p.m. when it's higher in the sky. If you train your telescope at it earlier in the evening when it's low in the sky, you'll be forced to look through a lot more of the Earth's blurring atmosphere, which will really muddy up the image.

Third, look at Jupiter with the highest magnifying eyepiece you have that still leaves you with a clear image. About 150 to 200 power does it for most scopes.

When you're actually looking into your eyepiece at Jupiter, make yourself comfortable and try to continually look for 10 to 15 minutes at a time rather than taking quick glances.

Longer looks give your eyes a chance to get used to the light level of your eyepiece field and also let you take advantage of the times when our ever turbulent Earth's atmosphere, even when skies are clear, gives you a few moments of extra clarity.

Through your scope you'll easily resolve the disk of the planet but you won't see its surface, since this 88,000 mile diameter ball of mostly hydrogen and helium gas really doesn't have a surface. What you will see are at least some of Jupiter's muted colored cloud bands of methane, ammonia and other gases. The different colors are the result of the gases being at different temperatures and densities.

There are also several storms on Jupiter like the Great Red Spot, a storm that's been raging for more than 300 years!It actually is more pinkish and it's not always possible to see since Jupiter rotates very quickly on its axis every nine hours.A great website to keep up with the Red Spot and whether you can see it comes from the University of Maryland at www.astro.umd.edu/~lgm/astr120_fall97/jupiter.html.That same website will also help you keep up with Jupiter's brightest four moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.These are called the Galilean moons because of their discovery by the legendary Galileo in the early 1600s.As a bonus, the next farthest planet out from the sun, first known as "George," also is in opposition and at its closest point to Earth for 2010. But in this case close is still very far away.George is almost 1.8 billion miles from Earth. George is also hugging Jupiter in the sky as they're both nearly in the same line of sight. That makes them appear to be really, really close together! George will appear as a faint greenish star about one degree to the upper left of Jupiter.In fact, George will be the next brightest starlike object you'll see to the upper left of Jupiter and it should have a greenish tinge to it. Not only is it possible to see George with a small telescope, but even a pair of decent binoculars can do the job. George should be able to be seen in the same field of view as Jupiter.By the way, before you think I've totally lost my mind there is such a planet as George. It was discovered in 1781 by the famous English astronomer Sir William Herschel. He named his new planet in honor of King George III who financed his astronomical operations. That name George didn't sit well with other astronomers around the world, and the official name for George was changed to Uranus after the Greek god who was the father to Zeus, the king of the gods.Enjoy George and especially Jupiter right now. This is the closest Jupiter is going to be to Earth until 2022, a planet so big that if it were a hollow sphere more than 1200 Earths could fit inside it.Feeling small?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 website: www.lynchandthestars.com.

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