Ephemeris: 05/29/2024 – Where have the naked-eye planets wandered off to this week?

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, May 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 9:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:01. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 2:31 tomorrow morning.

Let’s find out where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week, and see what planets are left. Venus, Mercury and Jupiter are now too close to the direction of the Sun to be seen. Venus will appear in the evening sky by July, while Jupiter may be visible in the morning in late June. By 5:15 tomorrow morning, or about 45 minutes before sunrise, Saturn will be low in the southeast and Mars will be lower still in the east. In telescopes, Saturn will look fairly different this year and next with its rings nearly edge on to us. They will open up a bit through October before closing again. We won’t see the rings go exactly edge on because Saturn will be too close to the Sun in the sky on March 23rd next year. After that, the rings will open up again.

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

Addendum

Saturn, Mars and the Moon as they might be seen low in the southeastern horizon at 5 AM, or about an hour before sunrise, tomorrow morning May 30, 2024. Saturn will rise at 2:52 AM, Mars at 4:04 AM. Created using Stellarium.

The Moon as it might appear in binoculars or a small telescope at 5 AM tomorrow morning, May 30th 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.

The planet Saturn and its satellite Titan as might be seen in the telescope at 5 am Tomorrow morning, although greatly enlarged from what would be seen in the small telescope since, Saturn is almost a billion miles away. It’s apparent diameter is 16.95″ (seconds of arc) and it’s rings span 39.48″. The rings, as can be seen, are very thin and present a 2° 12′ tilt to us. Mars is too small to be represented here, it’s 5.02″ in diameter . My usual policy is to show planets that are 10″ or greater because they will actually show a decent disc in a small telescope. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right tonight, May 29th 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise tomorrow morning on the 30th. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.