Tonight the Moon and Jupiter pairs up for a close encounter. The Moon and Jupiter pass within 1/2 of a degree apart, that’s less than the width of a finger held at arm’s length apart. The next time Jupiter and the Moon will pass close to each other will be on March 17, 2013 but won’t appear to North Americans quite as close as this one. On August 2016 when the pair will appear even closer in North American skies. The close proximity of the Moon to Jupiter in the sky however is just an optical illusion as they are actually very far apart. Presently, the moon is 251,803 mi from Earth while Jupiter sits 1700 times further away at 413.7 million miles.
Moon and Jupiter Conjunction
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