Winter solstice 2023: How to see Jupiter dance with the moon on the longest night of the year

Moonrise in snowy mountains. (Image credit: Misha Kaminsky via Getty Images)

Winter is officially coming to the Northern Hemisphere — and, with it, the longest night of the year. This year, that also means a special skywatching opportunity is at hand, with Jupiter shining brightly next to a nearly-full moon.

The winter solstice, which will occur at 10:28 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 21, is a special day for our planet. Earth orbits the sun every 365 days while spinning on an axis tilted by 23.5 degrees. Its northern axis is tipped away from the sun on the winter solstice, resulting in the day with the fewest hours of daylight, and thus the longest night, all year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Simultaneously, the planet's southern axis tips toward the sun, meaning the day with the most hours of daylight and the shortest night in the Southern Hemisphere. Earth's tilt can be felt most extremely at the planet's poles, with the sun not setting all day at the South Pole and not rising at all at the North Pole.

The December solstice is when the sun shines above the Tropic of Capricorn at noon. It's a line on a map precisely 22.5 degrees south of the equator — running through Africa, Australia and South America — that marks the most southerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon.

From the Northern Hemisphere during the solstice, the sun is consequently as low in the sky as it ever gets. That leaves the moon to appear high in the sky during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, presenting an exciting skywatching opportunity.

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Winter solstice 2023: How to see Jupiter dance with the moon on the longest night of the year