Meet Mizar and Alcor<\/a><\/p>\nSaturn\u2019s 10th-magnitude moon Dione passes due north of the ringed planet early this morning. As the moon passes above the planet\u2019s pole, its shadow crosses the northern regions \u2014 if you\u2019re experienced with video-capture planetary imaging, you might pick up the tiny dot against the cloud tops in your images. It will be virtually impossible to spot visually, though.<\/p>\n
To catch the shadow specifically, you\u2019ll want to be set up and ready to go shortly before 3 A.M. EDT. Saturn is roughly 15\u00b0 high in the east, the brightest light in this region of the sky. Through your telescope, you\u2019ll see Dione just northeast of the planet. Its shadow appears just before 2:50 A.M. EDT and takes almost exactly two hours to cross from eastern to western limb.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dione is also moving westward, standing due north of Saturn\u2019s pole right as its shadow finishes its transit, shortly before 5 A.M. EDT. You\u2019ll be able to see this visually through your eyepiece, although East Coast observers may have a little difficulty, as sunrise is approaching. The rest of the U.S. should have a good view of the small moon right above Saturn\u2019s north pole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also this morning, the Moon passes 5\u00b0 north of Uranus at 3 A.M. EDT. Our satellite then passes 5\u00b0 north of Mars at 11 A.M. EDT. If you\u2019re already up before dawn to catch the action at Saturn, take a moment to look over to Taurus about 60 to 90 minutes before sunrise, to spot the waning crescent Moon to the upper left of Mars and the lower left of the Pleiades star cluster (M45). No telescope is needed for this view, unless you also want to pick up Uranus, 4.7\u00b0 west-southwest of Mars, directly on the ecliptic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 5:41 A.M.
Sunset: 8:30 P.M.
Moonrise: 2:15 A.M.
Moonset: 6:17 P.M.
Moon Phase:\u00a0Waning crescent (8%)
*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.<\/p>\n
Return to Saturn tomorrow morning, July 12, to catch Titan, its largest and brightest moon, now close to the planet as it passes south of its parent world. Shining at mid-8th magnitude, Titan is easy to spot in any telescope. Check it out just southwest of Saturn in the few hours before sunrise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Telescopic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/saturn-moons-07122026.png\")
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\t\tBright Titan is now close to Saturn, passing south of the planet early on July 12. In this image, north is up and east is left. It shows the positions of the planet\u2019s moons at 3:30 A.M. Central time, but note they may be in slightly different positions at other times. Although there are fainter moons close to Saturn as well, those dimmer than 10th magnitude are not shown. Credit: Stellarium\/Oleg Pluton<\/p>\n
Around 3:30 A.M. local daylight time, Saturn will be some 35\u00b0 high in the east. Taurus the Bull will have just risen and lies low along the horizon \u2014 Saturn is to this constellation\u2019s upper right, the brightest point of light in an otherwise relatively unremarkable region of sky. Through a telescope, Saturn\u2019s rings are of course the standout feature, now stretching 40\u201d across and surrounding the planet\u2019s 18\u201d-wide disk. Along with Titan, several other fainter, 10th-magnitude moons cluster closer to the planet, including Dione, which is now west of the planet, roughly in line with the rings. Tethys and Rhea, also 10th magnitude, lie to Saturn\u2019s east. Other fainter moons are also close to the gas giant, but they will be difficult to pick up in most scopes (and are not shown on the chart above).\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 Everyone can watch a small moon skim Saturn\u2019s northern pole, while advanced imagers may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-544193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Saturn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ASY-SM0726_07.png\")
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