Spot the Moon and Saturn Together Tonight!
By Joe Rao, Space.com Skywatching Columnist | August 2, 2017 06:44am ET
This evening (Aug. 2) brings another opportunity to identify what many consider to be the most beautiful of all telescopic objects: the ringed planet Saturn. As we have noted previously, as it appears to the naked eye, Saturn does not present any outstanding features. It lacks the dazzling, eye-popping brilliance of Venus or Jupiter, and it does not have the fiery orange-yellow color of Mars.
In fact, to the naked eye, Saturn appears to be nothing more than a very bright "star" that shines with a yellowish-white glow. People looking around the current summertime sky might take note of Saturn while gazing toward the southern part of the sky about an hour after sundown.
But they might be attracted even more to the star Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion, which is placed well to the lower right of Saturn. Although it shines only about half as bright as Saturn, Antares is one of the most colorful stars in the sky, shining with a distinct ruddy hue and likely twinkling compared to the steady and sedate Saturn.
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A bright moon washes out telescopic observations.
At least the moon is a waxing gibbous and not full because moon observers hate the full moon. There are no shadows because the sun is directly overhead. That means no contrast in the ragged lunar terrain. But a gibbous moon would provide shadows.
So lunar fans might have a good night of things while the planetary folks wait for the moon to set.
However, there are pretty pictures in such a composition as moon and nearby bright planet.
R&K
