Jupiter makes its closest approach to Earth since 1963

Woah Jupiter, why so close? The gas giant is now the closest it's been to the earth in 59 years. Later tonight, people with a regular old pair of binoculars, a camera, or even just your eyes will get to experience Jupiter's glory. For those of you with a telescope, get a picture-taking device ready to go and snap some pictures.

"Jupiter is so bright and brilliant that a really nice thing about it is even in a city, in the middle of a bright city, you can see it," - Alphonse Sterling NASA

Jupiter is currently in an event called opposition, and when in opposition a planet is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun, you could draw a straight line from the sun to earth and Jupiter and all would be perfectly aligned.

Jupiter's opposition happens every 13 months however it's only close to earth because of the earth's and Jupiter's differing orbits around the sun. Jupiter is currently now at its closest point which is about 367 million miles away from earth and its farthest distance is 600 million miles to put that in perspective.