Jupiter and Saturn have left the evening sky while at the same time Venus is leaving the morning sky, leaving bright Mars to shine down on us. But this week and most of next Mercury makes an excellent although brief appearance in the evening sky, and if you’ve never seen it, this is a good […]
Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction last month, and at their closest they were separated by a scant 1/10°. They’re still close, and on the 11th they’re separated by 2½° and remain a nice double planet in binoculars. But Mercury joins them, and for a few days only you have the opportunity to see three […]
This week is your last chance to see Jupiter and Saturn, still unusually close together. They were at their closest on December 21 when Jupiter passed only 1/10° from Saturn. Now Jupiter is pulling away from Saturn but they’re still less than 2° apart. Look for Jupiter a half-hour after sunset very low in the […]
All the astronomy news a week ago was about the extremely close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, when they were separated by a scant 0.1°. Jupiter orbits the sun faster than Saturn and is leaving Saturn behind as it moves eastward and away from it, but they remain close and are well worth watching. They’re […]
Jupiter has been approaching Saturn for months, and on the 21st they’re at their closest – a scant 1/10° a half-hour after sunset. Their separation is 1/5 the diameter of the full moon, although of course Saturn is far beyond Jupiter. This is the closest they’ve been since 1623, when Galileo was still alive; the […]
The best naked-eye “event” of the year is happening now, although as I repeatedly stress, much that happens in the sky is a process that happens over an extended period of time rather than an event that happens on one night only. Examples are the close approach of Mars this fall, Comet NEOWISE this summer, […]
THE astronomical event of the year is unfolding in front of our eyes and you don’t even need a telescope to appreciate it. That’s the ultra-close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which has been unfolding for months and which reaches a climax on the 21st. I keep emphasizing that planetary motions are a process, not […]
There’s an eclipse of the full moon on Monday morning, the 30th, but you won’t see it, or at best you won’t see much. A lunar eclipse happens when the moon moves into the shadow of the earth. If you were on the moon, you’d see earth move in front of the sun. As opposed […]
Three planets grace the evening sky: Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Mars is brighter than any star in the evening sky, and it’s almost half-way up the eastern sky. Many early peoples associated its reddish color with blood and war. The nearly-full moon is 5° below Mars on Wednesday the 25th. At the same time Jupiter […]
For months Jupiter and Saturn have been near each other in the evening sky, and they’re still there – now a quarter of the way up the southwest sky as darkness falls. Jupiter is brilliant and fainter Saturn is just 4° to the upper left of Jupiter. They’re a nice pair that are growing closer […]
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