In opposition

An astronomical, not political, observation.

Jupiter, which orbits the Sun every 12 years, is in opposition and therefore at its closest to Earth on 21st September. As a consequence it shines very brightly and is still visible, even against the radiance of a harvest full moon.

Despite the poor quality of an image captured with a mobile phone while returning from the Inn one evening, I reflected on the ubiquitous availability of solid state imaging devices these days. I studied astronomy under Boksenberg, when solid state detectors were in their infancy and, while primitive, were state of the art. Most of the astronomical measurements we undertook in those days involved using microscopes not telescopes, determining apparent stellar magnitudes by physically measuring the size of the image on photographic negatives!