If you have a telescope, you might want to consider setting your alarm for Friday (May 31) around 4 a.m. local time (3 a.m. if you live in Hawaii, Arizona, or Puerto Rico that don’t observe daylight savings time). At that hour, if you go outside and look east-southeast, you’ll see what are probably the two most popular celestial objects to see through a telescope: MONDAY and the planet Saturn.
The Moon will be just over half a day after it officially reaches its last quarter, or semi-the phase of the moon. Some may wonder why we call the moon at this particular phase a “quarter moon,” since it is abundantly clear that what we see in the sky is a half-illuminated moon. But the “quarter” does not refer to what we see in the sky, but rather that the moon is beginning its last quarter in its 29.53-day cycle, known as a synodic month.
The word synodic is derived from the ancient Greek word “sunodos,” which by the mid-1600s became the English word “synod,” meaning “meeting”; because in New moon phase, the moon “meets” the sun. Thus, a synodic month begins on the new moon and the moon is entering the last quarter of that month in its last quarter phase.
Connected: What is the phase of the moon today? Moon Phases 2024
Saturn over the moon
And hovering about 1.2 degrees above the moon on Friday morning is the Lord of the Rings planet Saturn. To the eye it looks like a bright yellow-white “star”, which currently shines magnitude +1.2, about as bright as the star Fomalhaut, which this morning will be about 23 degrees to the lower right of the moon and Saturn.
Your clenched fist held at arm’s length is approximately 10 degrees in width. So Fomalhaut will be placed a little more than “two fists” from this moon/planet pairing and will also be similarly colored (yellowish-white). The visual difference between Saturn and Fomalhaut is that Procyon appears to twinkle while Saturn shines with a steady, quiet glow.
Over the years, people have told me they have a telescope but have never seen Saturn through it. Reason? Most beginners in astronomy have difficulty making a positive identification of him. Indeed, to the eye there is nothing really remarkable about Saturn. Venus AND Jupiter can be distinguished by their great brightness and March a distinctive fiery orange color appears. Saturn is really bright, but it doesn’t seem to “stand out” much against the starry background. What you would really like to have is some kind of standard to know positively where it is.
That landmark on Friday morning will be the moon.
A bonus for South America
Incidentally, if you’re reading this from the southern third of South America, anywhere under a line that runs roughly from Santiago, Chile to Florianopolis, Brazil, you’ll be able to see the moon pass directly in front of Saturn – a concealment – with Saturn disappearing behind the bright side of the moon and reappearing about 20 to 30 minutes later behind the dark, unlit side. A fascinating sight!
Ring almost blades
A telescope trained on Saturn will always find it to be a magnificent sight, although at the present time its famous rings appear almost on edge in our direction. earth. They are currently inclined only 2.2 degrees from the edge and will appear to close further and further during June. Then, as we move into summer and fall, as our planet and Saturn move in their respective orbits around SUNthe angular perspective of the rings will change and they will appear noticeably “open” slightly, so that by early December they will be tilted more than 5 degrees in our direction.
If you have a 4-inch telescope, your best view will be using 100 power. With an 8-inch telescope, 200 power will give you an absolutely spectacular view, while through a 12-inch telescope with 300 power, it is a jaw dropping sight. Even veterans like me, who have seen Saturn many times over the years, never tire of watching it.
Moon also makes an appearance
And don’t forget to look at the moon too! Most would say that the best time to see our nearest neighbor is when it is at full phase, but perhaps this is worst time to see it! When the moon is full, it tends to be incredibly bright, as well as flat and one-dimensional in appearance. Conversely, around the several-day interval when the moon is around first or last quarter phase is when we get the best views of the lunar landscape right along the sunrise-sunset line or terminator.
If you go outside with your telescope in the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning, I’ll bet you’ll be so amazed by what you see that you’ll stay outside almost until sunrise. And coincidentally, we are now only about a week away from time from the earliest sunrise from the northern hemisphere.
What a great way to start a Friday!