{"id":628956,"date":"2026-09-27T09:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/628956\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T09:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:32:08","slug":"the-sky-today-on-sunday-september-27-catch-saturns-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/628956\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Sunday, September 27: Catch Saturn\u2019s satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tSeveral of Saturn\u2019s\u2019s moons are visible tonight: Titan nears the planet and Dione, Tethys, and Rhea orbit close to the rings.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1146\" height=\"731\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Saturn-Moons-09272026.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Telescopic simulation of Saturn and its moons, dated September 27, 2026, 10 P.M. CDT. Saturn appears ringed at center left with Tethys, Rhea, and Dione labeled in a line extending to the upper left of the planet, while Titan appears as a bright point to the right. A 1 arcminute scale bar sits at lower center.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFour of Saturn\u2019s moons should be easily visible the night of the 27th. Titan especially will start a ways away from the planet but move closer to Saturn each night until it passes due south of the ringed world early on the 30th. Note this chart shows the position of the moons at 10 P.M. CDT; the inner three satellites may appear in different positions at different times. 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-september-25-to-october-2-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">September 26: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-saturday-september-26-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Harvest Moon<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">The Moon now passes 7\u00b0 north of Saturn at 8 A.M. EDT. The ringed planet currently glows at magnitude 0.3, as bright as it will get this year. It will reach opposition in just another week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By evening, the Moon has pulled a bit farther away \u2014 around 10 P.M. CDT, our satellite is more than 13\u00b0 northeast of Saturn. The ringed planet is the brightest point of light in the eastern sky at that time, located near the border of Cetus and Pisces (within the bounds of the former).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through a telescope, Saturn\u2019s disk spans 20\u201d, while its rings are more than twice that width, stretching 44\u201d from end to end. Look for mid-8th-magnitude Titan, Saturn\u2019s largest and brightest moon, now about 2.6\u2019 west of the planet\u2019s center. Over the next few days, Titan\u2019s orbit will bring it closer to Saturn, and the moon will pass south of the planet early on the 30th.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t be fooled by an interloping field star just to Saturn\u2019s southwest tonight, although fortunately the 11th-magnitude star is much fainter than Titan \u2014 as well as Saturn\u2019s next three brightest moons, 10th-magnitude Tethys, Rhea, and Dione, all orbiting closer to Saturn and its rings. A couple of brighter field stars shine a little farther away, to Saturn\u2019s north and east as well, all farther out than its moons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Sunrise: 6:52 A.M.<br \/>Sunset: 6:49 P.M.<br \/>Moonrise: 7:05 P.M.<br \/>Moonset: 7:55 A.M.<br \/>Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (97%) <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 Several of Saturn\u2019s\u2019s moons are visible tonight: Titan nears the planet and Dione, Tethys,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,2928,141,43844],"class_list":["post-628956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}