Planet Jupiter shines with startling brilliance above the southeast horizon in evening twilight. The great planet, orbiting fifth out from the Sun in our solar system, could be mistaken for the light of an airplane flying low above the skyline. Jupiter (-2.83 magnitude) is the Evening Star rising in the southeast while dazzling planet Venus (-4.05m), is the Evening Star setting in the west-southwest during twilight. Note that the smaller the number the greater the magnitude of a celestial object. Sunset is, roughly, 7:15pm this week and 7:00pm next week. Twilight begins about half an hour later and, for nightfall, add another hour.
Saturn (0.34m), to the right, south, of Jupiter, seems a dim, copper-colored star at dusk. Jupiter’s reflected sunlight dwarfs the ringed planet, which increases in visibility as twilight deepens, although still markedly less luminous than Jupiter. The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter orbits five times farther from the Sun than Earth, and Saturn is twice as far from the Sun as Jupiter, according to NASA
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1230/cosmic-distances/ . We are challenged to grasp that our naked eye observation of side by side Jupiter, so bright, and Saturn, so modest, is, in part, a function of the vast space between the two planets. By the numbers, Jupiter is 466,734,232 miles from the Sun compared to Saturn at 924,340,700 miles. Earth is 93,760,363 miles from the Sun.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/overview/
