Sun rises at 6:40am.
Sun sets at 6:15pm.
Moon phase: first quarter, waxing
Moon rises at 10:36am.
Moon sets at 12:20pm.
Jupiter in focus
Jupiter rises out of the east about 8:30 in the coming evenings. Binoculars or a small scope will give you a nice view of two of Jupiter’s primary moons, Callisto and Ganymede, while another of the giant planet’s moons, Io, will be traversing in front of Jupiter. This means you should be able to see Io’s shadow on Jupiter. Saturday night is also a great time to look at the beautiful “Red Spot” in Jupiter’s atmosphere, a swirling storm twice as big as our whole planet!
Saturn-gazing
This weekend Saturn rises around 2:30am and offers nice view of its rings at the present time. Sometimes the rings are edge-on to our perspective, but then we gain a different vantage point as we and the other planets orbit around the solar system. Currently we have the best possible angle to see the rings at their best, so get out a telescope and see them in all their glory!
Early morning
This is the last weekend you will be able to see five planets in one sky, at least for a long time. We have been getting this special view for a few weeks, but they are shifting into divergent paths now and soon Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will have travelled out from the realm of Venus, and Mercury will be lost in the glare of the Sun. From 5:30am until about 6:00 you can see Mercury and Venus, low in the east with Saturn and Mars further up and Jupiter all the way toward the Western horizon.
