The planet Jupiter takes center stage in October and November skies.

The Earth in its orbit swings in between the Sun and Jupiter on Friday night, Oct. 28, bringing Jupiter to what's called opposition.

At opposition, Jupiter shines opposite the Sun in our sky, so Jupiter rises in the east at sunset, stays out all night long and sets in the west at sunrise.

It's around opposition time that the Earth comes closest to Jupiter for the year and that Jupiter, in turn, shines most brightly in our sky. Better yet, Jupiter stages its closest opposition until the year 2022.

A modest backyard telescope easily shows Jupiter's four major moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The innermost three moons -- Io, Europa and Ganymede -- are locked into a 4:2:1 orbital resonance. For every four times that Io circles Jupiter, Europa does so twice and Ganymede goes around once.

Callisto is expected to join up with this orbital resonance in a few hundred million years. Ganymede revolves around Jupiter in a period of a little more than seven days.

From Earth, Io, Europa and Ganymede return to the same positions relative to Jupiter in one week plus a few hours time.

Family and friends are welcome at Reynolds Observatory on any clear Friday night to see planets, star clusters within the Milky Way, and galaxies outside our Milky Way.

If you have binoculars, bring them to view treasures such as the binary star Epsilon Lyrae, the Coathanger cluster and the Andromeda galaxy.

To get to Reynolds Observatory, drive about one mile east of Potsdam on Highway 11B. Turn left onto the Hatch Road by the Potsdam Airport, and drive about one half mile. When reaching the sharp bend in the road, note the Reynolds Observatory sign on the right-hand side. Please park outside the gate and walk on in.