July 6-9, 2026: Watch the waning moon pass Saturn before sunrise during early July. Follow the moon from Last Quarter through July 9 while observing Saturn’s rings and nearby stars.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Venus as an Evening Star
Moon Passes Saturn
The waning moon passes Saturn before sunrise.
Step outside an hour before sunrise. The waning moon is in the southeastern sky. Golden Saturn is less than halfway from the southeast horizon to overhead. If you watched the Venus–Jupiter conjunction earlier this month, you saw the two brightest planets in the night sky. In comparison, Saturn is only one-hundredth of Venus’ brightness, but the Ringed Wonder is the brightest starlike body in the region. The star Deneb Kaitos, the Sea Monster’s tail, is over 20° to the planet’s lower right and only 30% of Saturn’s brightness.
At mid-twilight, Saturn is high enough in the sky to see its rings through a telescope. While better views occur later in the summer when the planet is higher in the sky, the rings are tilted slightly, about 10°.
Here’s what to look for an hour before sunrise:
• July 6: Halfway from the south-southeast horizon to overhead, the moon, 65% illuminated, is nearly 18° to Saturn’s upper right.
• July 7: The lunar orb, 55% illuminated, is in the southeastern sky, 6.6° to Saturn’s upper right. The morning half phase (Last Quarter) occurs at 2:29 p.m. Central Time when the moon is below the horizon in the Americas. Look carefully at the terminator — the line that separates lunar daytime from nighttime — on this morning’s moon. It is slightly convex. The Last Quarter moon’s terminator appears as a straight line. Beginning tomorrow, it is slightly concave.
• July 8: The moon, 44% illuminated, is nearly 45° above the east-southeast horizon. (Look for the slightly concave terminator.) It is less than halfway from Saturn to Hamal, Aries’ brightest star. The moon is 11° to Saturn’s upper left and 16° to Hamal’s lower right.
• July 9: The moon, 33% illuminated, is less than 30° above the eastern horizon. It is 5.9° to Hamal’s lower right. Saturn is 25° to the moon’s right.
Follow the moon each morning as it moves eastward past Saturn.
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