Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Thursday, May 28th.  Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 9:17.   The Moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 3:56 tomorrow morning and tomorrow the Sun will rise at 6:02.

Saturn has a lot of moons, even if you don’t count the billions of ring particles circling the planet.  The count is up to 62, five short of Jupiter’s 67 at last count.  The largest is Titan which is larger than Mercury, a world with a thick nitrogen atmosphere and liquid filled lakes.  At its distance from the Sun, some 10 times Earth’s and receiving only one percent the heat we get the lakes are filled with methane and ethane while the surface rocks are water ice.  The small moon Enceladus spews salty water geysers at its south pole.  The more distant moon Iapetus is half black and half white and has an equatorial mountain range that rings it like a walnut.  Another moon Hyperion appears like it’s honeycombed.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Titan in a false color near infrared view, showing the Sun’s light glinting off a north polar sea. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Enceladus’ south polar geysers create the E ring. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Iapetus showing mostly its dark side and equatorial mountain ridge. Credit: NASA/JPL.

The weird moon Hyperion. It’s half as dense as ice. Credit: NASA/JPL: