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Ephemeris: 10/19/2026 – Saturn’s moon with an atmosphere and lakes

October 19, 2026 Leave a comment

This is Ephemeris for Monday, October 19th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 47 minutes, setting at 6:51, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:04. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:40 tomorrow morning.

Saturn’s largest moon is Titan, which has a diameter of. 3200 miles, which makes it the second-largest satellite after Jupiter’s Ganymede. Even though it is larger than the planet Mercury, it is only 40% as massive. This is because Titan contains a great percentage water ice, and Mercury is mostly rock and iron, being the second densest planet after the earth. Titan’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen and methane, and is very dense. The atmospheric pressure at ground level. Is nearly 1½ times the Earth’s atmospheric pressure. In 2004, the Cassini spacecraft. Sent the Huygens. Probe to land on Titan. Which was mostly successful. Dropping through Titans dense, cloudy atmosphere to land in a dry lake bed. Titan’s actual lakes of liquid methane and ethane are at it’s poles.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Titan in visible light. The surface is invisible beneath Titan's smoggy atmosphere.
Titan, as Voyager would have seen it, but photographed by Cassini in visible light. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Titan in the infrared showing ground features.
Titan in the infrared showing ground features. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Titan's north polar lakes reveald by Cassini's radar.
A multitude of lakes, large and small, at Titan’s north pole seen in multiple radar passes from the Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC
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