Celestial fireworks: See Jupiter and Saturn with a 'Buck Moon' lunar eclipse this Fourth of July weekend

[Admin]

Nature has its own fireworks in store this Independence Day weekend with a stunning full moon ornamented by two shining planets.

Celestial fireworks: See Jupiter and Saturn with a 'Buck Moon' lunar eclipse this Fourth of July weekend : Read more

 

[rod]

I was out from midnight until 0530 EDT this morning (0400 UT until 0930 UT). Spent the night viewing Saturn and Jupiter using my telescopes, 53x to 158x views. There was a Ganymede transit and shadow transit during that period, every enjoyable to view along with the Great Red Spot. The waxing gibbous Moon was bright but using my 10-inch, I could tease out 4 Saturnian moons along with the rings, Cassini division, and cloud banding on Saturn. Later after 0240 EDT/0640 UT, Mars was visible with south polar cap and some surface feature visible. Still later near 0500 EDT/0900 UT, I tried using binoculars to view comet NEOWISE but did not. The comet is very low at my location, below 5-degrees in ENE sky. Venus brilliant this morning, a great view. A good way to greet the coming dawn (0547 EDT sunrise).