Jupiter will be its brightest in nearly six decades tonight. Here's how to get a good view in the Bay Area

“On this particular year, Jupiter will be closer to the Earth than it has been for several decades,” said Benjamin Burress, staff astronomer at the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland. “Jupiter will be at its brightest, being as close to Earth as it gets. Jupiter is ordinarily pretty bright, but will have some extra flare as it comes so close.”

When Jupiter is in opposition, that means “it is opposite the sun in the sky,” said Andrew Fraknoi, emeritus chair of the astronomy department at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, in an email.

“Roughly, this means that when the sun sets, Jupiter rises,” he said. “When the sun rises, Jupiter sets. So it's visible in the sky all night long, which is great for astronomy enthusiasts.”

Sunset starts at 7 p.m. Monday, and because Jupiter will be the brightest thing in the eastern sky, “it will be easy for skygazers to spot, especially just after sunset when nothing else will be visible,” said Geoff Mathews, astronomy instructor at Foothill College in Los Altos. “By 7:30, it should be clearly visible above the eastern horizon.”

Jupiter “will reach its highest point in the sky, directly south, in the midnight hour,” said Jon Rees, support astronomer for Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County.

Jupiter’s opposition happens every 13 months, which makes the planet appear bigger and brighter than the rest of the year, according to NASA . Tonight, Jupiter will also be closest to Earth since 1963 at 367 million miles. Jupiter is approximately 600 million miles from Earth at its furthest point.

“Anyone with a small telescope can also see Jupiter at about the largest apparent size we can ever see from Earth,” Burress said in an email.

Binoculars or a small telescope will likely allow viewers to see three or even all four of the Galilean moons, which are the largest and brightest of Jupiter’s 80 moons , Rees said. A stable mount or tripod would allow viewers to possibly see Jupiter’s bands.

However, fog and cloud cover expected Monday night could reduce visibility in some parts of the Bay Area. In San Francisco and on the Peninsula, “clouds and fog are expected to roll in as early as sunset, so chances are slim that Jupiter will be visible in the night sky” in those areas, said Chronicle newsroom meteorologist Gerry Díaz.

Up in the North Bay, fog will “quickly deepen” after about 8 to 9 p.m. in the Sonoma and Napa valleys, between 8 and 8:30 p.m. in the Oakland area and I-880 corridor, and between 9 and 10 p.m. east of I-680, according to Díaz.

“The best places to go stargazing tonight will be areas above 2,000 feet,” Díaz said.

The Clear Sky Chart on Chabot’s website predicts fog and clouds to form sometime after sunset, “so at least at or near Chabot, the prospects look iffy. But if you are further inland, you might have a better shot at clear skies,” Burress said.

The best views can be had by getting away from city lights and moving to darker, higher places. The public observatory sites at both Chabot Space Center and Lick Observatory are both closed Monday night — but luckily, Jupiter is so bright that you “don’t need a particularly dark site to see it,” Rees said.

“To see it while it’s low in the sky at the start of the night, you'll want to find somewhere with a clear view of the eastern horizon,” he said. “The weather forecasts for tonight and the next couple of nights look promising. There is likely to be some patchy cloud around, but hopefully nothing too bad.”

According to Burress, Jupiter’s brightness means it is “fairly ‘immune’ to light pollution, and will be easily visible no matter where you're viewing it from — assuming the sky is clear of course.”

And if it’s too cloudy tonight or you don’t get a chance to make it out, Burress assures that you can still get a good view of Jupiter for quite some time beyond Monday’s event.

“The good news is that, though Jupiter is at its closest tonight, it will be almost as close for two or three weeks into the future,” he said. “So if you miss seeing it tonight, you can see pretty much the same experience throughout October.”

In fact, Jupiter will have a starring role Saturday night when the Astronomy Department at Foothill College and the Peninsula Astronomical Society join in with NASA’s Observe the Moon Night, said Mathews.

“We’ll have the Foothill Observatory open from 7 to 10 p.m., along with smaller telescopes,” Mathews said. “Jupiter is actually going to be an object I plan to highlight at the event, since its moon Io will be hidden at the start and peek out from behind Jupiter at about 7:45."

Kellie Hwang, a San Francisco Chronicle staff reporter, is Kellie Hwang. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang