Planet-gazers may want to get out their telescopes as Jupiter will be visible in the skies above Suffolk this week.

The largest planet in the Solar System is set to appear as a bright star on Thursday evening, astronomers have said.

Jupiter will be at 'opposition', meaning that, as Earth passes between the Sun and Jupiter, the planet will appear opposite the Sun.

It will be visible by looking south-east at around 11pm.

East Anglian Daily Times: Jupiter will be visible on Thursday eveningJupiter will be visible on Thursday evening (Image: PA Graphics/Press Association Images)

Bryony Lanigan, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: "When a planet is at opposition, it is on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun - if you were looking down on the Solar System from above and drew a line from Jupiter to the Sun, when Jupiter is at opposition it would pass through the Earth.

"This doesn’t necessarily mean that the planet is at its closest point to the Earth – because of the elliptical nature of planetary orbits, this may occur a day or two either side."