Spot Jupiter In The Daylight Sunday With Help From The Moon

Seeing the Moon and even the brighter planets and stars amid the blue sky is nothing out of the ordinary, but Sunday, April 14, if you look up and see the Moon in the daylight, take a moment to keep looking and you will be able to see something you don't see every day: Jupiter.

Being able to spot Jupiter in the daylight is quite uncommon because it's difficult to know where to look. But tomorrow the moon and our biggest planet will be in the same field of vision and stargazers will be able to use the Moon as a marker to spot the distant planet in the daytime sky.

Spotting brighter planets like Venus in the daylight is relatively easy if you know where to look. But Jupiter, even though it's the largest planet in the solar system, is so much farther away from Earth that it's not easy to see in the day.

You won't need any equipment to spot Jupiter, but Space.com suggests binoculars will make it a bit easier to see.

To find Jupiter, first look for the Moon, then look above the Moon and to its left for a tiny speck in the sky. That will be Jupiter.

After sunset Sunday, Jupiter and the Moon will be the closest they'll get for a month, according to EarthSky.org. 

If you miss the daytime viewing, the planet will still be visible at night, though it may be tougher to spot amid all the other lights in the sky. If you know your constellations, finding Taurus will give you a place to start. Jupiter will still appear above the Moon, more or less parallel with Taurus' main stars Aldebaran and Elnath.