The gibbous moon appears next to the bright planet Jupiter on Sunday night. The two are in the zodiacal constellation Cancer and close to the zodiacal constellation Leo. Other than the moon, Jupiter is the brightest celestial object in the eastern sky, unmistakeable, and truly brilliant. This will be an attention grabbing appearance.

In mythology, Jupiter is king of the Gods. He is the king of thunder and all things big. No surprise. In astronomy, Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is almost big enough to be a small star. Deep within the center of this large planet, there is almost enough heat and substantial radiation to fire this planet up as a star. There is plenty of hydrogen and liquified gases held tight by the large mass of the planet. It is just not quite big enough.

In the earliest years of cell telephone research, scientists tried to figure out the right radio frequency for telecommunications. What they discovered was the loud noise of Jupiter on one area of the radio spectrum. Jupiter is hot enough within to create radio noise.

You can put 1,300 Earths into Jupiter. The planet is a giant among giants. It reflects sunlight nicely.

Our moon is tiny by comparison. You can put over 50 moons into the Earth. But on Sunday night, perception is everything. From Earth, our moon looks like a giant compared to Jupiter.