Great Square rising<\/a><\/p>\nAsteroid 3 Juno reaches opposition at 1 P.M. EDT. Already above the horizon at sunset and visible all night, Juno glows at 9th magnitude in the constellation Aquila the Eagle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Moon is nearby, now contained within the lid of Sagittarius\u2019 Teapot. But let\u2019s give Juno a try, one constellation to the northeast and near the tip of Aquila\u2019s eastern wing. A telescope may be best for the effort, as it will capture more light from fainter objects, even in the light of the Moon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The brightest star in Aquila is magnitude 0.8 Altair, in the constellation\u2019s northern region. Early this evening, with Aquila still rising in the southeast, all you need to do is drop down toward the horizon about 11\u00b0 from this star and you\u2019ll land on 3rd-magnitude Theta (\u03b8) Aquilae. Juno is just over 4\u00b0 south of this star, passing very close to a slightly brighter (magnitude 8.7) field star, cataloged as HIP 99225 or HD 191147. Of the two similarly bright lights in your eyepiece, Juno is the northern one, moving subtly toward the southwest as the hours pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunrise: 5:53 A.M.
Sunset: 8:19 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:49 P.M.
Moonset: 2:43 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (94%)
*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
The ringed planet Saturn reaches a stationary point at 7 P.M. EDT on July 27. Located in the constellation Pisces, it is highest around sunrise, so the best time to spot it is a few hours before dawn, with the sky still dark and the gas giant well above the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\t\tOn early mornings this week, Saturn dominates the southeastern sky as the brightest point of light there. Credit: Stellarium<\/p>\n
Around 3 A.M. local daylight time on July 27, Saturn is roughly 40\u00b0 high in the southeast, the brightest point of light here. It stands in southern Pisces, just above the lumbering constellation Cetus the Whale. Through a telescope, the planet\u2019s disk stretches 18\u201d across, while its rings are more than twice that: 41\u201d across. Saturn is currently tilted by nearly 7\u00b0, showing off its south polar region and the underside of its rings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While several 10th-magnitude moons cluster near the planet, its largest \u2014 and brightest \u2014 moon, Titan, is a bit farther away. On the morning of the 27th, it lies about 1.7\u2019 southwest of Saturn and is moving east. It should be easy to spot; Titan will pull closer in to the planet\u2019s southwest tomorrow morning, then sit southeast of Saturn the morning of the 29th. If you\u2019re an early riser, try to catch it over the next few days to see orbital mechanics in motion!\u00a0<\/p>\n
The halt brings Saturn\u2019s prograde, or eastward, motion to an end. After this evening, the ringed planet will about-face and begin moving westward, or retrograde, relative to the background stars.<\/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 Main-belt asteroid 3 Juno reaches opposition today, although you might have to dodge the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-568768","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\/568768","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=568768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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