06/21/2021 – Ephemeris – A quick look at three of the naked-eye planets

This is Ephemeris for Monday, June 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:57. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 4:02 tomorrow morning.

I have a couple of pieces of planetary news. Venus will pass south of the star Pollux in Gemini tonight. That means in their current orientation, low on the west-northwestern horizon, that Pollux will appear above and right of the much brighter Venus. This may be visible by 10:30 pm. Venus will set tonight at 11:07. You’ll need a really low western horizon to see it. In the morning sky, Saturn is backtracking to the west slowly, and now Jupiter has stopped its eastward motion and is stationary today and will start its retrograde or westward motion. Both retrograde motions are caused by the Earth, which is in the process of passing these planets. We will pass Saturn August 2nd, and pass Jupiter August 19th. We call these events, oppositions.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4hr). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Venus, Pollux and Mars in the evening twilight tonight at 10:30 pm. Venus and Pollux in evening twilight. Venus will be about 5 degrees above the sea or lake horizon at that time. Venus and Mars will cross their apparent paths and be in conjunction on July 13th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Jupiter’s retrograde path, June 21, to October 20, 2021. The constellation lines in the lower right are for the eastern end of Capricornus. We pass Jupiter, officially called opposition from the Sun, on August 20th. The solid yellow line above Jupiter’s apparent path is the Ecliptic, the Sun’s apparent path in the sky. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).