About once a year Jupiter is nearly directly opposite the Sun in our sky. This, in keeping with the terribly creative terminology so common in Astronomy, is called "opposition". When at opposition Jupiter is at near its closest to the Earth so it is bigger and brighter in the sky. This year opposition is in early June and social media was awash with posts announcing this event. But, instead of saying that Jupiter was at its biggest and brightest they breathlessly proclaimed that you'd be able to see Jupiter's four largest moons in binoculars. Which is quite true. The problem is that this isn't unusual. If you have decent binoculars, and can hold them steady enough, you can ALWAYS see Jupiter's moons in binoculars providing the Jupiter is visible and the sky is dark enough. The distance to Jupiter varies by about 20% from an average value so the changes in size and brightness, while noticeable, are just not that big.
*Anything* that encourages people to look up is welcome but this kind of hyperbole just puts silly ideas in people's heads and makes it harder for them to learn about astronomy if they ever get interested.
