The sky will display a trio of sights Tuesday night, experts say, as sky watchers will have a chance to see a Full Snow Moon with Jupiter next to it ... oh, and a quick pass by the International Space Station.
The full Moon and Jupiter will rise together at around 5:35 p.m. ET, separated by only 4-1/2 degrees, and will be visible until 7:15 a.m. Wednesday when they'll set in the west.
The cosmic duo will reach their highest point in the sky just shortly after midnight.
The full moon seen in February has traditionally by dubbed the Full Snow Moon as the month historically brings heavy snowfall.
Sky watchers wanting to know when the full moon will rise in their location can check with a web-based moonrise calculator.
Anyone owning even a small telescope will get a rare opportunity of a close look at either the Moon or Jupiter just to its left, experts say.
"Simple spotting scopes will show the four moons first described by Galileo over 400 years ago, while instruments of progressively larger apertures begin to reveal subtle details in his furiously evolving atmosphere," says Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory.
While the Moon and Jupiter will seem close to each other, that's an optical illusion, since the giant planet is 1,620 times as far from Earth as the Moon is -- not to mention being 40 times the size of our lunar companion.
Jupiter will be at its closest point to the Earth for the year, and will not appear larger or brighter until 2019.
Finally, as an added bonus for sky watchers, the International Space Station will be visible zipping across a corner of the southwest sky, but you'll have to look quick; it will be visible for just a couple of minutes, depending on where the observer is located.
If you miss it, you can try again on Wednesday, when it will rise to 30 degrees above the horizon and will be in sight for around 5 minutes.
