2024, June 27: Early Summer Morning – Moon Meets Saturn

June 27, 2024:  Before sunrise, the Saturn and the moon are close together in the south-southeast.  Jupiter and Mars are in the eastern sky.  Find Aquila after sundown.

Saturn
Drawing Caption – Saturn (generated by AI)

PODCAST FOR THIS ARTICLE

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:18 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:30 p.m. CDT.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Here is today’s planet forecast:

Morning Sky

Saturn Moon Conjunction

Saturn Moon Conjunction
Chart Caption – 2024, June 27: The moon meets Saturn in the moon before sunrise.

This morning, the moon, 67% illuminated, is in the south-southeast before sunrise.  The morning half or Last Quarter phase occurs tomorrow at 4:53 p.m. Central Time, after the moon sets in the Americas.

This morning the lunar orb appears to meet Saturn.  The moon is 3.5° to the lower right of the Ringed Wonder.  Both fit into the same binocular field, but they are too far apart to be seen in the same telescopic eyepiece.

When they rise after the midnight hour, the gap is about 5° and it closes as the moon inches eastward in its orbital path.

During daytime, the moon occults or eclipses Saturn for sky watchers in the western U.S. and Mexico.  This requires a telescope.  Observers in Polynesia, northern New Zealand and eastern Australia see the event during the nighttime.

Jupiter and Mars

2024, June 27: Jupiter and Mars are in the eastern sky before sunrise.
Chart Caption – 2024, June 27: Jupiter and Mars are in the eastern sky before sunrise.

Jupiter and Mars are farther eastward this morning.  The bright planet is nearly 10° above the east-northeast horizon.  It is too low for telescopic observation, but it shines through the blurring and dimming effects of Earth’s atmosphere, which effects Aldebaran.

Taurus’s brightest star is emerging from bright sunlight to Jupiter’s lower right. At a clear horizon, it can be seen through a binocular, but it is not yet at its heliacal rising, the first appearance without optical assistance.  Both rise four minutes earlier each morning, appearing higher in the sky at this time interval before sunrise.

Mars, marching eastward in front of Aries, is over 20° up in the east and over 12° below Hamal, the Ram’s brightest star.  It is too far away for an acceptable telescopic view.  Even at its best, Mars’ surface features are a challenge to see through a telescope’s eyepiece.

Watch Mars close the gap to Jupiter, over 24° to the lower left.  The Red Planet moves eastward over the distance equal to the moon’s apparent size in the sky.  Extend an arm and look at the pointer finger.  Mars moves eastward approximately the width of the fingernail in the sky from morning to morning. A fingertip can easily cover the Moon in the sky, revealing that the Moon is not as large as it is often perceived.

Evening Sky

Venus and Mercury

No bright planets are visible after sundown.  Venus and Mercury are veiled in bright evening twilight.  Speedy Mercury is low in the sky throughout the first half of the twilight period, setting shortly after mid-twilight.

Venus, slowly making its way into the evening sky, sets less than 30 minutes after the sun.  In over a month it ascends into a darker sky for a pretty apparition as the Evening Star until next March.

Aquila the Eagle

2024, June 27: Bright Altair and Aquila are in the east-southeast after twilight ends.
Chart Caption – 2024, June 27: Bright Altair and Aquila are in the east-southeast after twilight ends.

Without the moon or bright planet in the sky, look for Aquila in the east-southeast.  Part of the informal pattern, known as the Summer Triangle, Altair, the Eagle’s brightest star, is one-third of the way from the horizon to overhead at two hours after sundown.

Altair is the eighth brightest star for mid-northern hemisphere sky watchers.  It is relatively nearby, nearly 17 light years away.  It shines with a brightness of about 11 suns.

The Eagle is described in mythology as Jupiter’s favorite bird that took Ganymede from his shepherd duty and carried him high into the sky.  The eagle was the only bird that could soar to that altitude.  Now the Eagle and Ganymede, as Aquarius, are in the sky because the bird flew too high.

Aquarius is farther south and east of the Eagle, though some celestial artwork shows Aquila carrying Ganymede.

By tomorrow morning’s twilight, Altair is about halfway up in the southwest.  At that hour the moon, nearing Last Quarter, is in the southeast and east of Saturn.

RECENT PODCASTS

LATEST ARTICLES