Jupiter and the Moon

For those who enjoy the study of celestial bodies it was quite a big night tonight. If the skies were clear above you, you would have been able to see a full moon and, just below and to the right, a very bright star. Except it wasn’t a star, it was Jupiter.

We’ve all been spoiled somewhat by the images sent back from various ’space probes’ over the years, and I guess we all have a pretty good idea what Jupiter looks like.

The bright dot in the sky tonight was, well, a bright dot in the sky (at least, that’s all I could see with the primitive technology available to me). So not very exciting really.

Except that I did find it just a little bit exciting. The thought that I was looking at something so massive, so important to our welfare, so far away and yet, relatively, so close. I’m not very romantic or prone to emotion, but for a fleeting moment the ‘joybringer’ did something for me.