{"id":918951,"date":"2026-10-03T10:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918951\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T10:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:36:09","slug":"the-sky-today-on-saturday-october-3-dione-transits-saturn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918951\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Saturday, October 3: Dione transits Saturn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe small saturnian moon Dione passes in front of the ringed planet, bringing its tiny shadow along for the journey. \t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1689\" height=\"919\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/saturn-moons-10032026.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Telescopic simulation of Saturn and its moons, dated October 3, 2026, midnight EDT. Saturn is shown ringed at center with the moon Dione labeled faintly near the top of the planet, while the moon Tethys appears as a bright point to the right. A 15 arcsecond scale bar sits at lower right.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLate on the 3rd, Dione is transiting Saturn\u2019s north polar region along with its shadow. Tethys and Rhea (not shown) lie to the planet\u2019s west, while Titan (also outside this field of view) is far to the east. Credit: Stellarium\/Oleg Pluton\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/the-sky-this-week\/the-sky-this-week-from-october-2-to-9-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">October 2: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-friday-october-2-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Venus stands still<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">The small moon Dione transits Saturn starting just before midnight EDT. Tenth-magnitude Dione crosses the far northern region of the planet, beginning its journey just minutes after 11:40 P.M. EDT and taking about an hour and a half to complete the crossing. Its tiny shadow accompanies it, but said shadow will be all but impossible to pick up visually. Astrophotographers experienced with high-speed planetary video capture might catch it, though, so if that\u2019s your forte, give it a try! The shadow is visible just north-northwest of Dione, very close to the moon itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Dione is transiting, look also for Tethys and Rhea, two moons of similar brightness that lie close to Saturn. Both are to the planet\u2019s west, with Tethys closer to the planet than Rhea. Titan, some 1.5 magnitudes brighter, lies 3.3\u2019 east of Saturn, on the planet\u2019s other side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunrise: 6:58 A.M.<br \/>Sunset: 6:39 P.M.<br \/>Moonrise: \u2014 <br \/>Moonset: 2:50 P.M.<br \/>Moon Phase: Waning crescent (44%)<br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List The small saturnian moon Dione passes in front of the ringed planet, bringing its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,28147,66,145566],"class_list":["post-918951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}