Friday 23 September 2022 12:53 PM Astrophotographer captures 'clearest ever image' of Jupiter looking like a ... trends now

On Monday, Jupiter will make its closest approach to Earth in 59 years.

It will still be some 367 million miles away from us, but not since October 1963 have stargazers had such a great opportunity to spot it in the night sky.

One astrophotographer has already taken advantage of this by capturing the gas giant in such extraordinary detail that it appears to look like a marble floating in space.

Andrew McCarthy's stunning images show Jupiter beautifully lit up against the night sky, highlighting its red spot and cloud bands.

'It's one of the sharpest images I've produced of the gas giant and I'm proud to share with you the clearest shot I've managed of Jupiter so far,' said McCarthy, who is known to his followers as Cosmic-Background.

'I spent about two hours shooting photos of it in batches — every 90 seconds I captured around 7,500 individual images.

'The image output was then processed by colour balancing and sharpening the image, which I did while travelling.

'Seeing Jupiter through a telescope is part of what inspired me to go down this road and become an astrophotographer, and I never get tired of seeing it.'

McCarthy took thousands of images of Jupiter before stacking them together to create the final effect.

To the naked eye, the planet looks like a bright star, but when seen through his 11-inch telescope and colour camera, it was brought to life in incredible detail.

The astrophotographer managed to capture the images from his garden in Florence, Arizona, earlier this week, as Jupiter was rising in the eastern skies just after sunset.

However, despite being able to see the detail of the planet and its four Galilean moons

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