2020, July 5: Bright Moon Leads Morning Planet Parade

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2020, July 5: The nearly full moon appears over 8° to the lower right of Jupiter. The Jupiter – Saturn gap is 6.2°.

The moon leads Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Venus westward in July’s morning planet parade.

Click here for the planets and moon on July 6, 2020.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

The bright moon appears in the southwest with Jupiter and Saturn this morning (July 5).  The moon (overexposed in the image and a behind tree) is over 8° to the lower right of Jupiter.  Dimmer Saturn is to Jupiter’s upper left.  Jupiter passes Saturn on December 21, 2020 in a Great Conjunction.

2020, July 5: Mars appears in the southeast near the Pisces-Cetus border.

The third planet member of the parade is Mars, appearing about halfway up in the sky in the southeast.

2020, July 5: Bright Venus appears low in the east-northeast among the stars of Taurus. It is 3.1° to the upper right of the star Aldebaran.

As morning twilight continues, brilliant Venus appears above the east-northeast horizon, 3.1° to the upper right of Aldebaran. With a binocular observe that it is moving through the Hyades star cluster.

This parade continues throughout July, but later in the month without the moon.

Mercury joins the parade beginning July 19 when the “Classic 9” planets are in the sky simultaneously along with the moon at about 45 minutes before sunrise.

2020, July 5: The moon, Jupiter, and Saturn are visible low in the southeast about 2 hours after sunset. Jupiter is 4.4° to the upper right of the moon, while Saturn is 4.2° to the upper left of the lunar orb.

This evening, July 5, 2020, look for the moon to the lower left of Jupiter and to the right of Saturn about 2 hours after sunset.

By 1:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, Mars is visible in the east.

As sunrise approaches tomorrow morning, Venus appears in the east-northeast again with the other three bright planets in about the same place where they were this morning.

For more about the planets see this article about where to find them during July.

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