Saturday SkyWatch

Hello Stargazers, this is your Saturday SkyWatch.

Sunset

Civil: 8:55pm
Astronomical: 10:05pm

🌔 Tonight’s Moon is a Waning Gibbous all evening rising at 11:01pm. This means dark skies tonight for some hopefully great viewing.

The weather forecast is partly clouded with little chance (10%) of rain (<1mm). Daytime temp is predicted at 30 degrees so the viewing should be fair, but as always wander outside and take a look up into the sky (or drop us a message) to know for certain whether the viewing is good.

What you might see

Mercury is not visible
Venus is High in the north-west sky. It’s in retrograde motion, bringing it closer to Saturn with each passing night. Tonight will be it’s closest approach. The two planets will appear directly above one and other with a vertical separation of only 2 degrees.
Mars will be visible later in the evening when it lifts above the trees. It is currently positioned between the zodiac constellations of Gemini and Cancer
Jupiter is High in the northern sky
Saturn is High in the north-west sky directly above Venus.
Uranus is High in the northern sky

Taurus and Orion are well placed for viewing so you can get great views of the Pleiades open cluster along with Sirius (the Dog Star) and the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula and the Flame Nebula both of which are near Alnitak in Orion’s Belt.

The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds are also high, making this a great time for looking at the Tarantula Nebula (LMC) and Layton’s favourite cluster 47-Tucanae (SMC). Now rising to a more amenable altitude is the Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372) and with the dark sky is challenging for a place on the ‘best in the sky’ podium.

Share the sky with us

It can still turn a little chilly at the moment so it’s recommended you bring along a light weight jacket and have it in the car. Another addition is to bring some non-alcoholic liquid refreshments for your fam.

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As always, we look forward to seeing you at the Observatory and don’t forget to look up wherever you are!

– The TRRO team