Celestial rendezvous: Moon and Jupiter unite in night sky on Sept. 4!

Tonight, the moon and Jupiter will have a close approach in the night sky, visible from New York City. The moon will be in its waning gibbous phase, with around 64% of the lunar disk illuminated by the sun. Jupiter will appear just above and to the right of the moon. Although the moon will outshine Jupiter and dominate the night sky, Jupiter is actually much larger in size. The two celestial bodies will also join in a conjunction, sharing the celestial equivalent of longitude in the sky known as right ascension. While they will be too widely separated to be seen together in the narrow field of view of a telescope, they should be visible together with binoculars.