Jupiter Entry in June 15th Observing List

[Christina LeGrand]

Hello All,

Christina LeGrand here.   I am building an observing list for the June new moon, and have a question.  Jupiter is included in this observing list.  However, the resulting Sky Tools entry in the observing list for Jupiter shows 4:26 PM as being the "Best" time to view it.   It also shows 9:35 AM as the "Begin" time for observing this object.  I don't remember seeing results like this before.  Has something changed, or do I need to do something differently?   I use the Best and Begin column for sequencing the objects to view.

Thank you for any info or ideas.

Christina LeGrand

[PMSchu]

Hi Christina,

I used SkyTools' Nightly Observing List Generator (NOLG) to create an Observing List (OL) of showpiece objects for 2026 June 14 for Columbus, Ohio at ~40°N. Jupiter is on the list, but it's in Gemini, close to the sun and only visible at night during the early evening. Jupiter can be observed during daylight, if you know where to point your telescope.  

Here's the OL that I got with Jupiter highlighted:     

SkyTools usually chooses the time of meridian crossing as the best time for observation and it looks like that's the "Best" time indicated on this OL for observing Jupiter. The "Begin" and "End" times correspond to an altitude of 45°. The times for your OL would depend on your location. Can you post a screenshot of your OL here plus your observing latitude? It will help if you highlight Jupiter as I did here when you screenshot the OL to see what the altitude of Jupiter is during the day.

Hope this helps,

Phil S.

[Christina LeGrand]

Phil, thank you, here is a screen shot of the Jupiter entry.         My observing latitude is 35 degrees north.

[PMSchu]

Hi Christina,

Your "Best" time corresponds to the meridian transit time as I suspected. For your version of SkyTools it looks like the "Begin" and End" times are very close to the rise and set times (they're within 1 minute). The set time is cut off of the screenshot, I'm making an assumption here (very dangerous, I know  ). You can observe Jupiter in daylight, if you can locate it. Seeing won't be the best during the day due to air turbulence, unfortunately.

It looks like things are working correctly. Jupiter's just not in a good spot for nighttime viewing right now. July will be better.

Hope this helps,

Phil S.

EDIT: Oops! Jupiter will be in or near conjunction with the sun in July and August so it won't be visible in those months.

[theskyhound]

Hello Christina,

The 9:45 AM is for the previous day. If you look at the red dashed line on the Nightbar--that's the altitude of Jupiter. We see that's already high in the sky at noon, on the left side of the Nightbar. The start time is before that off to the left about two hours earlier (9:45 AM). The reality is that the software was designed to look at a night of observation for deep sky objects, and that begins and ends with twilight. Jupiter can sometimes break it, by not being available in the night time.

There are two things you can do that will make this less confusing. First, enable your filters. Your quality filter should be set to Best Quality, or at the very least Fair quality. Jupiter is going to go away entirely because its quality is actually very poor on this night.

The second thing you can do is to drag the begin and end time sliders to mark the time period you want to observe. This will ensure that a bright planet like Jupiter won't be suggested during that day (if that's what you want).

Lastly, I can't see the entire window, but it looks to me like something is seriously wrong with your location setup. Midnight should always be within an hour of the darkest part of the night. Unless the sun rises at 2 or 3 AM, there is a mismatch between your longitude and your time zone. Check your location settings. Be sure your longitude and latitude are correct, that they aren't switched, or in the wrong units, and that your time zone is set correctly. If you have more questions about this, send me the location dialog with your location selected. And the full Nightly Planner window.

[Christina LeGrand]

Greg and Phil, thank you both for the help.  Greg, I am learning some new things from your post, which is good.  I tend not to use the quality filter since frequently I am showing the sky to someone who has not seen it before, and is thrilled no matter what the object looks like.  Also, I am unaware of any sliders that you mention - to mark the observing period.  That sounds like a really good idea.  But I will need to look for the sliders.  Lastly, a screen shot is attached, including the location dialog box.  I welcome any changes you think I should make.

I had originally posted this question about Jupiter because I am trying to find the best way to sort the list of objects (using rise, begin, best, end, set, etc.), so as not to miss any objects during a session - see everything, catch setting objects before they disappear, etc. That topic is posted directly before this one. 

Thank you again - much appreciated!

Christina

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Screen shot attached (hopefully)

[theskyhound]

Hello,

There is a misunderstanding. The purpose of the planner is to help you plan which objects to look at that night (and which ones to save for a night they will be better) and to tell you what time is best to look at them. The quality filter isn't about the object. Its about whether or not the object is at its best that night. Some objects need a dark site, some don't. Some objects need to be as high in the sky as possible, but some aren't affected as much by the altitude. SkyTools knows what the quality for viewing the object is at any time. For the selected object, that is the blue line on the Nightbar. When high, the object is at or near its best. There is also a color bar just below that tells you when the best time of night is for your object and what the quality is during the night. You want to look at the object when the bar is bright green. The quality filter only shows objects that are at or near their best that night. So you can leave the poorly observed objects for another night. Jupiter will make people happy, but not when its a boiling mess ten degrees off the horizon. A nebula may also make people happy, but not when the moon is up. Make sense?

The sliders are on the far left and far right ends of the Nightbar graphic (at the top). Hold the left mouse button down to grab them and move to the time you want. You can also set the the start and end times by entering the times in the boxes on the dialog.

The Nightly Planner isn't about sorting for a season. Its about sorting for that specific night. Its a different way to think about it, but if you stop and think, it makes the most sense. Take an observing list, like the Messier, and the Nightly Planner will tell you which objects too look at (because they are at their best) and what time to look at them. Click on the Best column header and it will sort by the best time. Just go down the list after that, looking at each object near that best time. There isn't a good reason to care about next week or next month. Just take it night by night. If you miss objects, it will only be because of bad weather, and there isn't anything you can do about that anyhow.

As I suspected, your location isn't quite set up correctly. Go back to the location dialog and change the time zone to MST (-7) and then click the Daylight Saving Rules radio button. Once you close and look at the Nightbar you should see that midnight is much closer to the middle of the dark period of the night (its off by one hour because of Daylight Saving time).

I recommend opening the Help menu at the top and watching the first two tutorials. That's an old version, and a few things are different, but the basics are going to be the same. The second video about using the Nightly Planner may really help you get more out of the software.

If you have more questions, please fee free to ask.

[Christina LeGrand]

Thank you, Greg! Lots of good info here. I had mostly not been using the features and filters on or beneath the Night Bar. I have made the changes you suggested to the locations, and will watch the tutorials.

Thanks again for the help!
Christina LeGrand

[PMSchu]

Christina, are you in the Mountain (UTC-7) or Central (UTC-6) Time Zone? I'm past the western edge of the Eastern (UTC-5) Time Zone at 83°W and sunset occurs ~9PM in mid-June as shown on my OL.

Phil S.

[theskyhound]

Christina, are you in the Mountain (UTC-7) or Central (UTC-6) Time Zone? I'm past the western edge of the Eastern (UTC-5) Time Zone at 83°W and sunset occurs ~9PM in mid-June as shown on my OL.

Phil S.

Phil, I looked at her longitude and answered this question definitively. She's in New Mexico too, so its pretty straight forward.