Jupiter

20:30 BST on 20 October

Constellation: Sagittarius

Magnitude: -2.5

AM/PM: PM

After blazing as a bright blue-white ball all throughout the summer, Jupiter, the red-banded king of the Solar System, is visible only for a few hours in the evening sky before setting at around 22.45 in the middle of October – and even earlier at 21:00 by the beginning of November. Even so, it shines just a notch fainter than Mars at its best, and even a small telescope should show its characteristic atmospheric bands and its four largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, orbiting around it as tiny points of light on either side of the gas giant.