Home > Ephemeris Program, Naked-eye planets, Observing, Planets > Ephemeris: 05/08/2024 – Saturn comes tottering into the morning twilight

Ephemeris: 05/08/2024 – Saturn comes tottering into the morning twilight

May 8, 2024

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, May 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 8:56, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:21. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 10:12 this evening.

Let’s find out where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week, and see what planets are left. Jupiter now is too close to the direction of the Sun to be seen. It will move to be in conjunction with the Sun on the 18th of this month and by late June may be visible in the morning sky in twilight. By 5:30 tomorrow morning, about 40 minutes before sunrise, Saturn will be low in the east-southeast and Mars will be lower yet 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

You may wonder why I use the word tottering in title. The planet Saturn is named after the Roman god of old age, probably because it takes nearly 30 years to orbit the Sun. Even though it’s moving away from twilight faster than Mars is, it’s just the fact that the Sun and Mars are moving faster to the east than it is, leaving him in the dust, so to speak.

Looking to the east-southeast at 5:30 in the morning, less than an hour before sunrise, Saturn and Mars will be visible very low in the sky
Looking to the east-southeast at 5:30 in the morning, less than an hour before sunrise, Saturn and Mars will be visible very low in the sky. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
A telescopic view of Saturn
A telescopic view of Saturn. It’s a bit larger than I normally show it when we look at several planets, to show you the rings which are tilted a little less than 3° to our line of sight. Saturn appears 16.4″ diameter, while it’s rings are 38.2″ in extent. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right tonight, May 8th 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise tomorrow morning on the 9th. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
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