The positions of the five naked-eye planets and Moon are shown here as they will appear before dawn on June 20, 2022. Image via SkySafari 6 Pro.
It has been 18 years since Earthlings have been able to spy five planets in their skies, together and in order from Sun outward, but it’s possible now through the end of June. Want to take a look? Maybe you should. Yes, get up early — 30 to 45 minutes ahead of sunrise — find a spot where you can see the southern sky, and sweep your gaze from the east to the south.
Given clear skies low to the eastern horizon, look for a tiny star-like dot. If you’re lucky, you’ll have spotted planet Mercury, the most elusive of the worlds you’ll see due to its size and proximity to Sun. Moving westward, next comes Venus. You’ll have no trouble spotting Earth’s overheated sister as it will shine brilliantly even in early twilight.
Skipping Earth (it doesn’t count because you’re standing on it) Mars is next in line. Look for a little reddish light not far from brighter Jupiter. Moving across a bigger gap and looking south, we finally reach Saturn, the Lord of the Rings. The ringed world will appear as a slightly golden star.
Looking “down” on the Solar System, this diagram shows the field of view from Earth as it takes in the five naked-eye planets — the Solar System as it was known before the invention of the telescope. Image created via SkySafari Pro 6.
Binoculars will help, especially in finding tiny Mercury, but may also allow users to see Jupiter’s four Galilean Moons. A little visual aid may also help in confirming it’s Saturn that has been spotted — if the rings aren’t distinct, the planet will appear as a bright oval and not like a starry speck.
The planets will be joined by Earth’s Moon at various points along their arc, changing placement nightly from about June 18 — 28. A beautiful arrangement will occur on June 24 when the then-crescent Moon will float between Venus and Mars. Around the 28th, Moon will have drifted out of the arc entering its New (dark) phase.
The planets of our Solar System may appear to be close together at times when we see them from Earth but they’re not. Nor will their combined gravitational pull have any effect on Earth. Relax and enjoy the show! Image created via SkySafari 6 Pro.
At the end of June, Mercury will slip too close to Sun for it to be seen by casual observers, ending the celestial gathering. The four other planets, however, will remain in their arc though their relative positions will shift nightly and almost imperceptibly, until they no longer form a visual chain.
The five-planet dance was last seen in 2004 and it won’t happen again until 2040. Maybe you’ll be on your way to or from work. Perhaps the dog needs walking. You may even think it’s worth getting out of bed early on a clear, cool June morning so you can tell everyone you saw five planets all together. Whatever puts you under a clear starry sky, look up and enjoy our wonderful universe.
On December 21, 2020 Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer in our sky than they have since the year 1623 — only .10º apart. By way of comparison, Earth’s Moon covers about .50º on average! In fact, the two planets will have so little visual separation that they may appear as one bright “star” in our evening sky. As with many objects we see in our night sky, planets Jupiter and Saturn will only appear to be near to each other; they will will be physically separated by about 456 million miles.
The position of the planets as they will be at 7:00 PM EST, December 21, 2020. The bright green line represents the sight line from Earth to Jupiter and Saturn. Image Credit: SkySafari / James Guilford
Here’s why the planets will appear so close in our sky:
Viewed from Earth and looking out toward Jupiter and Saturn we see the planets as if they were in the same orbit — like watching runners in their separate lanes as one overtakes the other. Viewed from “above” we can see that the planets remain well apart.
Viewed closer to the orbital plane of the planets we see how Jupiter and Saturn appear closer together against the background of space. The green line represents the sight line from Earth to the planets. Image Credit: SkySafari / James Guilford
As we drop lower and closer to the orbital plane it becomes more difficult to separate Jupiter and Saturn until, on December 21, 2020, we won’t be able to see them as discrete objects without the use of a telescope!
Jupiter and Saturn appear to merge, on December 21, 2020 as viewed from Earth and depicted here just above the orbital plane of the planets. Image Credit: SkySafari / James Guilford
While the previous extremely close conjunction took place in 1623, Jupiter and Saturn were too close to the Sun to be observed. The last time they could actually be seen so close together was even longer ago: on March 4, 1226. Great Conjunctions take place just short of 20 years apart and most are not so close as this year’s — the next will take place on October 31, 2040, when Jupiter and Saturn will be separated by 1.1º which will be close, but not so amazing as 2020.
Jupiter and Saturn may be seen in the same narrow field of view during 2020’s Great Conjunction. This simulation depicts the position of Jupiter’s Galilean Moons and Saturn’s giant satellite, Titan. Image Credit: SkySafari
If you plan to take a look, you’ll need clear skies (of course!) and you’ll need to be timely — the planetary pair will become visible low in the southwestern sky with the fading twilight and will set in the west by 7:20 PM, December 21. To see the individual planets during their close encounter will require a telescope — a small one will do — or a decent telephoto lens on a camera mounted on a tripod. Given good optics and clear skies, viewers will be able to make out the Galilean Moons of Jupiter and, perhaps spy Titan, Saturn’s brightest moon.
Before and after the 21st, Jupiter and Saturn will appear close together as they first approach, and then recede from the conjunction, continuing to move along their orbital paths. The historic astronomical event will be one night and one night only in our lifetimes. Clear skies, please!
Little difference can be seen between an earlier stage and the maximum eclipse state of the July 4 – 5, 2020 penumbral lunar eclipse. The images were made with identical camera and Photoshop settings. Photos by James Guilford.
There was much ballyhoo surrounding the penumbral lunar eclipse that would take place the night of July 4 – 5, 2020. We joined in just to explain a little about what was going on and what might be expected. Penumbral lunar eclipses take place when the Moon passes through the thin outer shadow Earth casts out into space; they are often very subtle, slight, and in this case, nearly undetectable. Just witness the photo above that shows the Full Buck Moon about one-half hour before maximum eclipse and the Moon at maximum. Casual observers saw no change across the entire event and it’s hard for us to see the difference even in photos that can be made to emphasize features! So we apologize if you waited up to see what we called the “subtle” eclipse but, if you did, you saw a beautiful Full Moon!
Then there was the much-less-promoted Sunday night, July 5, conjunction of Earth’s Moon, with planets Jupiter and Saturn… a lovely sight! We went out to photograph it an hour after moonrise and spied a brilliant orange Moon lighting up the scattered clouds with Jupiter shining through and Saturn making a somewhat dimmer appearance. A conjunction is when two or more celestial objects appear close together in our skies — emphasis on appear since Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn are separated by hundreds of millions of miles. We were surprised to see, in the photo below, that even Jupiter’s four Galilean Moons can be seen. The stars and planets appear oblong or as short streaks due to Earth’s rotation and the length of the camera exposure.
Conjunction of Earth’s Moon, with planets Jupiter (bright dot above), and Saturn (less bright dot to the left at the edge of a cloud), the night of July 5, 2020. Photo by James Guilford.
Our First-Quarter Moon on International Observe the Moon Night, as seen through the Stephens telescope at 9:04 PM EDT. iPhone SE at eyepiece.
Our October 5 Open Night was the local event of the International Observe the Moon Night — an annual occurrence meant that encourages observation, appreciation, and understanding of our Moon and its connection to planetary science and exploration. Over the course of the night at Stephens Memorial Observatory some 34 enthusiastic and inquisitive visitors attended and were treated to beautiful and unusual views of Earth’s Moon and planet Saturn.
Unusual? The earliest visitors arrived just as the telescope was set to go … with the sky still bright with twilight. The Moon appeared light and against a power-blue sky background instead of the usual darkness of space. Saturn, invisible to the eye in the bright sky, was also viewed through the telescope in surprising detail.
Zooming in on the previous image: That dot in the center of dark-floored crater Alphonsus is its central peak. Over the course of two hours sun rose over that pinnacle making it brighter, and other features began to emerge as we watched. Alphonsus slightly overlaps the crater Ptolemaeus.
After darkness fell enthusiastic visitors took turns looking at a crater and watching a mountain peak become illuminated at sunrise on the Moon! It was a fine night appreciating a sight too often ignored: the wonder of Luna, our nearest neighbor in space.
Save the Date! International Observe the Moon Night will take place on October 5th 2019.
Stephens Memorial Observatory of Hiram College will host a Public Night Saturday, October 5, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Earth’s Moon will be featured as our local participation in International Observe the Moon Night — a worldwide appreciation of Earth’s nearest neighbor in space. As an exciting bonus, planet Saturn will float near Moon in our skies and will also be observed. Other objects may also be viewed. Given good viewing conditions the Observatory’s 1901 vintage telescope delivers outstanding detail of the Moon and impressive views of Saturn with its distinctive rings.
An interesting activity any time of year is to make note of the daily changes we see in the phases of Moon. Open the PDF to print a handy guide and journal for lunar observation: Moon-Observation_Journal.
Cloudy skies at the scheduled starting time cancel the event in which case, the observatory will not open. No reservations are required and there is no admission fee for observatory public nights.
The Observatory is located on Wakefield Road (Rt. 82) less than a quarter of a mile west of Route 700 in Hiram. There is no parking at the Observatory. Visitors may park on permissible side streets near the Post Office, a short distance east of the observatory.
Simulated View: Saturn and Moons, September 14, 2019 at 9:30 PM EDT. Image via Gas Giants
UPDATE: Thanks to the 29 visitors, of a wide variety of ages, who came out Saturday night to share the view with us. Early arrivals got good views of Saturn. In the middle of our evening our guests saw Saturn under improving conditions and the rising Moon as it cleared neighboring trees. Those who visited or stayed late viewed the Full Harvest Moon (sometimes through tree leaves). Our Moon, though fascinating to view through our telescope even when Full or nearly so, created huge amounts of natural light “pollution” as it illuminated atmospheric haze and thin clouds — we were unable to see the Great Andromeda Galaxy or the M15 star cluster. The Moon got tangled in trees again as it arced higher into the sky. Our final visitors of the evening, however, were rewarded for their patience with views of the Perseus Double Cluster after it cleared trees. We love trees but not so close to the observatory!
Stephens Memorial Observatory of Hiram College will host a Public Night Saturday, September 14, from 9:00 to 11:00 PM. On the observing list are: Earth’s Moon, Saturn, the Messier 15 star cluster, and, if sky conditions permit, the Andromeda Galaxy, and Perseus Double star cluster. Given good viewing conditions the Observatory’s 1901 vintage telescope delivers outstanding detail of the Moon and impressive views of Saturn and distinctive rings.
Cloudy skies at the scheduled starting time cancel the event in which case, the observatory will not open. No reservations are required and there is no admission fee for observatory public nights.
The Observatory is located on Wakefield Road (Rt. 82) less than a quarter of a mile west of Route 700 in Hiram. There is no parking at the Observatory. Visitors may park on permissible side streets near the Post Office, a short distance east of the observatory.
Saturn and Moons, July 10, 2019. Simulation via Gas Giants.
Stephens Memorial Observatory of Hiram College will host a Public Night Saturday, August 10, from 9:00 to 11:00 PM. On the observing list are two Stephens favorites: Earth’s Moon, and the Ringed World – Saturn! Other objects of interest may also be viewed using the Observatory’s 1901 vintage telescope. Given good viewing conditions the telescope delivers outstanding detail of the Moon and impressive views of Saturn and distinctive rings.
Cloudy skies at the scheduled starting time cancel the event in which case, the observatory will not open. No reservations are required and there is no admission fee for observatory public nights.
The Observatory is located on Wakefield Road (Rt. 82) less than a quarter of a mile west of Route 700 in Hiram. There is no parking at the Observatory. Visitors may park on permissible side streets near the Post Office, a short distance east of the observatory.
Saturn’s rings are perhaps the most recognized feature of any world in our solar system. Cassini spent more than a decade examining them more closely than any spacecraft before it. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
October 4, 2018: New research emerging from the final orbits of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft represents a huge leap forward in our understanding of the Saturn system — especially the mysterious, never-before-explored region between the planet and its rings. Some preconceived ideas are turning out to be wrong while new questions are being raised.
Six teams of researchers are publishing their work Oct. 5 in the journal Science, based on findings from Cassini’s Grand Finale. That’s when, as the spacecraft was running out of fuel, the mission team steered Cassini spectacularly close to Saturn in 22 orbits before deliberately vaporizing it in a final plunge into the atmosphere in September 2017.
Knowing Cassini’s days were numbered, its mission team went for gold. The spacecraft flew where it was never designed to fly. For the first time, it probed Saturn’s magnetized environment, flew through icy, rocky ring particles and sniffed the atmosphere in the 1,200-mile-wide (2,000-kilometer-wide) gap between the rings and the cloud tops. Not only did the flight path push the spacecraft to its limits, the new findings illustrate how powerful and agile the instruments were.
Many more Grand Finale science results are to come, but here are some of today’s highlights:
Complex organic compounds embedded in water nanograins rain down from Saturn’s rings into its upper atmosphere. Scientists saw water and silicates, but they were surprised to see also methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The composition of the organics is different from that found on moon Enceladus — and also different from that on moon Titan, meaning there are at least three distinct reservoirs of organic molecules in the Saturn system.
For the first time, Cassini saw up close how rings interact with the planet and observed inner-ring particles and gases falling directly into the atmosphere. Some particles take on electric charges and spiral along magnetic-field lines, falling into Saturn at higher latitudes — a phenomenon known as “ring rain.” But scientists were surprised to see that others are dragged quickly into Saturn at the equator. And it’s all falling out of the rings faster than scientists thought — as much as 22,000 pounds (10,000 kilograms) of material per second.
Scientists were surprised to see what the material looks like in the gap between the rings and Saturn’s atmosphere. They knew that the particles throughout the rings ranged from large to small. But the sampling in the gap showed mostly tiny, nanometer-sized particles, like smoke, suggesting that some yet-unknown process is grinding up particles.
Saturn and its rings are even more interconnected than scientists thought. Cassini revealed a previously unknown electric-current system that connects the rings to the top of Saturn’s atmosphere.
Scientists discovered a new radiation belt around Saturn, close to the planet and composed of energetic particles. They found that while the belt actually intersects with the innermost ring, the ring is so tenuous that it doesn’t block the belt from forming.
Unlike every other planet with a magnetic field in our Solar System, Saturn’s magnetic field is almost completely aligned with its spin axis. The new data shows a magnetic-field tilt of less than 0.0095 degrees. (Earth’s magnetic field is tilted 11 degrees from its spin axis.) According to everything scientists know about how planetary magnetic fields are generated, Saturn should not have one. It’s a mystery that physicists will be working to solve.
Cassini flew above Saturn’s magnetic poles, directly sampling regions where radio emissions are generated. The findings more than doubled the number of direct measurements of radio sources from the planet, one of the few non-terrestrial locations where scientists have been able to study a radio-generation mechanism that is believed to operate throughout the universe.
For the Cassini mission, the science rolling out from Grand Finale orbits more than justifies the calculated risk of diving into the gap — skimming the upper atmosphere and skirting the edge of the inner rings, said Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker.
“Almost everything going on in that region turned out to be a surprise,” Spilker said. “That was the importance of going there, to explore a place we’d never been before. And the expedition really paid off — the data is tremendously exciting.”
Analysis of Cassini data from the spacecraft’s instruments will be ongoing for years to come, helping to paint a clearer picture of Saturn.
“Many mysteries remain, as we put together pieces of the puzzle,” Spilker said. “Results from Cassini’s final orbits turned out to be more interesting than we could have imagined.”
On Oct. 4, as the Science publication embargo lifts, articles describing research complementary to these findings will post online in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), a journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Saturn and Some Moons as they will appear at 10 PM, August 18, 2018. Simulation by Gas Giants.
UPDATE: Thank you to the 38 folks who came out to visit us tonight and enjoy the view – such as it was! Early arrivals had exquisite views of Earth’s Moon; then nice views of Saturn with pastel cloud bands across the planetary body and the Cassini Division visible. Late comers got respectable views of Mars though the Martian dust storm hid details! Unfortunately, atmospheric haze/clouds hid the northern sky from us preventing views of the night’s comet and other wonders. Thanks for your patience, kind visitors, and we will hope for truly clear skies in September!
Stephens Memorial Observatory of Hiram College will be open for public observing Saturday, August 18, from 9:00 to 11:00 PM. Organizers are hoping for clear skies in order to provide visitors with wonderful views of the Moon, Red Planet Mars, and the “ring world” Saturn using the Observatory’s vintage telescope. With clear enough skies, and a little luck finding it, viewers may also have the opportunity to view Comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner which is currently dim and with only the hint of a tail.
Cloudy skies at the scheduled starting time cancel the event and in that case, the observatory will not open. No reservations are required and there is no admission fee for observatory public nights.
The Observatory is located on Wakefield Road (Rt. 82) less than a quarter of a mile west of Route 700 in Hiram. There is no parking at the Observatory. Visitors may park on permissible side streets near the Post Office, a short distance east of the observatory.
Saturn and a few moons as they will appear the night of July 21. Simulation by “Gas Giants.”
Stephens Memorial Observatory of Hiram College will be open for public observing Saturday, July 21, from 9:30 to 11:00 PM. Given good skies, visitors will see wonderful views of the Moon, giant planet Jupiter with moons of its own, and the “ring world” Saturn. Other objects of interest, such as star clusters, will also be sought, using the Observatory’s vintage telescope.
Cloudy skies at the scheduled starting time cancel the event and in that case, the observatory will not open. No reservations are required and there is no admission fee for observatory public nights.
The Observatory is located on Wakefield Road (Rt. 82) less than a quarter of a mile west of Route 700 in Hiram. There is no parking at the Observatory. Visitors may park on permissible side streets near the Post Office, a short distance east of the observatory.
Jupiter and moon Io as they will appear at about 10 PM on July 21, 2018. The Great Red Spot will be front-and-center. Image: Gas Giants simulation.
Stephens Memorial Observatory 