In the summer of 2019, the center of the Milky Way was framed nicely by the two largest planets, Jupiter to the west in Scorpius, and Saturn to the east in Sagittarius. This view shows them above clouds lit up by light pollution from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Jupiter is at magnitude -2.30 while Saturn shines at magnitude +0.31, and they are separated by 29° 26' this evening. Unannotated image, August 2019, Back to 2019, Back to Starvergnügen.
This apparition of Jupiter in 2019 is a near repeat of its performance in 2007, 1995, and 1983, and will next be repeated in 2031. In 1983 I was not yet taking astrophotos of the planets, but I captured this scene in August 1995 and this one in January 2007 as Jupiter was just emerging from the sunrise glare.
On this date Jupiter is about 789 million km from the Sun, which is greater than its mean of 778 million km. Therefore, during any one of its Scorpius apparitions, Jupiter is less bright than its average brightness during an opposition period. In 2019, Jupiter came to opposition on June 10, so we are seeing it 2 1/2 months after opposition.