You can see the moon shine with Jupiter, Saturn and Mars before dawn this week. Here's how
By
Joe Rao
Published Apr 13, 2020 11:19 PM EDT
The predawn hours this week will sparkle as Jupiter, Saturn and Mars dance around the moon on consecutive mornings.
On Tuesday morning (April 14), the moon will be moving toward the largest planet in our solar system, giant Jupiter. Then, on Wednesday (April 15), the moon will meet up with the ringed wonder of our planetary system, Saturn. Finally, on Thursday (April 16), it will be the turn of the god of war, Mars, to have a summit meeting with the moon.
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all dance near the moon this week.
(Image: © Starry Night)
Of course, such alignments are all just a matter of perspective. Our moon will be about 243,000 miles (390,000 kilometers) away from Earth during these encounters, while Mars stands 125 million miles (200 million km), Jupiter is 473 million miles (761 million km) distant, and Saturn is even farther out in space at 936 million miles (1.51 billion km).
Early Tuesday morning at around 3 a.m. local daylight time, look low toward the southeast horizon and you will see the rising of the "half," or last-quarter, moon. Located about 8.5 degrees to its lower left and shining brilliantly will be Jupiter. By around 5 a.m., both the moon and the planet will be considerably higher up in the south-southeast part of the sky. (Reminder: Your clenched fist held at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of sky.)
If you have a telescope, the best time to check out Jupiter will be just after the break of dawn, when the planet will appear at its highest above the horizon. The gas giant provides a feast of detail, especially in moderately large telescopes, and provides at least a few grey cloud belts (not to mention its four large Galilean moons) even for small telescopes.
In fact, if you check out Jupiter Tuesday morning, you'll see all four moons "strung out" in a nearly straight line on one side of the big planet. They are, in order of distance from Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Add our own moon and you'll have five for the price of one!
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News / Astronomy
You can see the moon shine with Jupiter, Saturn and Mars before dawn this week. Here's how
By Joe Rao
Published Apr 13, 2020 11:19 PM EDT
Partner Content
The predawn hours this week will sparkle as Jupiter, Saturn and Mars dance around the moon on consecutive mornings.
On Tuesday morning (April 14), the moon will be moving toward the largest planet in our solar system, giant Jupiter. Then, on Wednesday (April 15), the moon will meet up with the ringed wonder of our planetary system, Saturn. Finally, on Thursday (April 16), it will be the turn of the god of war, Mars, to have a summit meeting with the moon.
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all dance near the moon this week.
(Image: © Starry Night)
Of course, such alignments are all just a matter of perspective. Our moon will be about 243,000 miles (390,000 kilometers) away from Earth during these encounters, while Mars stands 125 million miles (200 million km), Jupiter is 473 million miles (761 million km) distant, and Saturn is even farther out in space at 936 million miles (1.51 billion km).
Moon and Jupiter
Early Tuesday morning at around 3 a.m. local daylight time, look low toward the southeast horizon and you will see the rising of the "half," or last-quarter, moon. Located about 8.5 degrees to its lower left and shining brilliantly will be Jupiter. By around 5 a.m., both the moon and the planet will be considerably higher up in the south-southeast part of the sky. (Reminder: Your clenched fist held at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of sky.)
If you have a telescope, the best time to check out Jupiter will be just after the break of dawn, when the planet will appear at its highest above the horizon. The gas giant provides a feast of detail, especially in moderately large telescopes, and provides at least a few grey cloud belts (not to mention its four large Galilean moons) even for small telescopes.
In fact, if you check out Jupiter Tuesday morning, you'll see all four moons "strung out" in a nearly straight line on one side of the big planet. They are, in order of distance from Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Add our own moon and you'll have five for the price of one!
Click here to continue reading on SPACE.com.
Report a Typo