by In an unofficial sense, I’d like to dub today (April 10) as “View a Planet Day.”
Early in the morning two planets will appear very close to each other and then later the same day, in the early evening sky we will have the opportunity to see Jupiter hovering next to a narrow waxing crescent moon, making for quite a spectacular sight. And other heavenly things out there will be seen and found as well among the brightest planets in the night sky.
Here are some interesting details about these upcoming meetings.
Mars and Saturn
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These two “better planets” – planets whose orbits are farther from the sun compared to Earth – are currently visible about 30 to 40 minutes before sunrise, low near the east-southeast horizon . Binoculars will certainly help to locate them against the moonlit sky.
The two planets will be nearly identical in brightness, separated by only .02 magnitude. Saturn, the brighter (magnitude +1.14) will shine serenely under Mars (magnitude +1.16), with the two worlds separated by half a degree, which is equal to the apparent width of the moon. (The closest approach, just over four-tenths of a degree, comes after sunrise for much of North America.) If unsettled weather denies you a view of this duo on Wednesday, April 10, they will appear almost the same distance apart the next morning, although Mars will have moved to the upper left of Saturn.
If you use a telescope equipped with a low power eye piece you will be able to fit both planets in the same field of view. In addition to the fact that they are almost the same brightness, their contrast in colors is quite amazing, with Mars glowing with a pumpkin hue compared to the golden-yellow Saturn.
Pattern for these meetings
Saturn, at an average distance of 886.2 million miles (1.42 billion km) from the sun, takes 29.46 years to move around the sun once. Although Mars, at an average distance of 141.6 million miles (227.8 million km) from the sun, it only takes 1.88 years to complete one trip around the sun. As a result, the normal motion of Mars eastward among the stars is much faster than that of Saturn. So, from our vantage point here on Earth, Mars will occasionally appear to overtake Saturn in the sky.
It is noteworthy that when we combine the motions of the Earth, Mars and Saturn, the interval between Mars-Saturn conjunctions is about every 2 years and 7 days on average. In the table below, we list all these connectors from 2018 to 2030. Note that the upcoming connector will be the second closest during this twelve year interval (although almost as close as the one in 2022 ).
Jupiter aspects with a crescent moon
It will soon be time to bid a fond adieu to what has been a stronghold in our evening sky since mid-autumn: the planet Jupiter.
Jupiter is leaving our skies after many months of spectacular display. Right now, it is setting about two hours and 20 minutes after sunset and you can still easily see it, although it is relatively low in the western sky as early as 30 to 40 minutes after sunset. It is the brightest “star” in the area.
On Wednesday evening we will see a beautiful celestial table, as a very narrow crescent moon, 2.3 days after the new phase (and the solar eclipse) and only 7 percent illuminated, located about 4 degrees to the lower left of Jupiter. . Remember that your fist is clenched, held at arm’s length, about 10 degrees. Therefore, Jupiter and the moon will appear to be separated by a little less than half a fist. The narrow sliver of the moon, tilted slightly to the right, seems to mimic the humor of the invisible Cheshire cat from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
Attractive Earthshine!
Be sure to check out the moon to see if you can see the phenomenon called “Earthshine,” more commonly known as “The old moon in the army of the new moon.”
This is the light that traveled from the sun to the Earth and reflected back up towards the moon and then back to the Earth – a “triple trip.” Binoculars will bring out this effect better than with your naked eye. Earth’s light is relatively weak because only a small fraction of the sunlight reflected from Earth hits the moon. The moon, being such a poor reflector, reflects only 7 percent of this back into space, and only a small fraction of this makes it back to Earth. In binoculars, the effect can be quite striking; The moon appears as an eerie yellow and gray-blue ball, almost three-dimensional.
Now add Jupiter, shining like a silver jewel to the upper right side of the moon and you will have a very attractive sight. And as a bonus, the beautiful Pleiades star cluster will glitter 8-degrees above the moon. Make sure your western sky is free of any obstructions such as nearby buildings or trees so you can take it in with a single glance.
And maybe a comet too!
And if nature is in a show jumper, there is one more thing you could try to find. It would be Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, located about 6 and a half degrees below the Moon and 4 degrees to the lower right of Jupiter.
The comet should now be near its peak brightness, at magnitude +4.6; perhaps obscure to the unaided eye from a dark place, but certainly accessible with a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope. Visually, the comet should appear as a circular, shiny patch of light with perhaps a slender tail trailing out and to the left of its small, bright end (the comet’s head).
Bye for now
With each passing evening, Jupiter will fall a little lower into the sunset glow. By April 23, the difference between sunset and Jupiter’s sunset will decrease to 90 minutes. By April 30, Jupiter will be only 5 degrees above the western horizon half an hour after sunset. The world goes down just over an hour after the sun and it’s getting harder to see in the bright moonlight darkness.
By May 4, Jupiter will be gone. It will join the sun on May 18, moving into the morning sky, where it will reappear at dawn in early June.
So, for Jupiter this is not really a “goodbye”, but a “goodbye” until later in the spring. As an American writer, Richard Bach aptly said:
“Don’t be afraid to say good-bye. Goodbye must be said before you can be reunited.”
Note to the Editor: If you take a great photo of Jupiter, the moon, Saturn or Mars, and want to share it with Space.com readers, send your photo(s), your comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about it astronomy for Free natural history magazine,the The Farmers’ Almanac and other publications.
