Keep watching over the next few hours: You’ll notice Europa clearly approaching the planet’s limb. Closest is Europa, next out is Io, then Ganymede, and Callisto farthest out. With large binoculars or a telescope, zoom in on Jupiter and you’ll see four staggered points of light to its west. It’s the brightest object in the evening sky right now and is hard to miss! It will continue to rise higher as darkness falls. Look about 20° above the eastern horizon shortly after the Sun disappears to find the bright, magnitude –2.8 planet. Let’s start by locating Jupiter, already visible at sunset. As time passes, though, one of those moons will disappear as Europa slips behind the planet, reappearing on the other side shortly after the next in line, Io, begins its own journey behind Jupiter’s face. Observers who catch Jupiter fairly early in the evening tonight can see all four of its Galilean moons strung out to the west. It will reappear even farther northeast around 8:40 P.M. EST, you won’t see Dione - it’s moved into Saturn’s shadow, which stretches off to the northeast. Note, however, that after about 7:15 P.M. Rhea and Dione, also both 10th magnitude, are just south and north of the planet, respectively. The fainter, 10th-magnitude moon Tethys lies due west of Saturn and much closer, about 20″ from the tip of the rings. You should be able to pick it up in most instruments, especially against a darker sky. Saturn’s largest and brightest moon is Titan, which now lies just over 2′ east of the planet’s center and glows around 8th magnitude. Right now, the rings are tilted toward Earth at an angle of 10°, offering a good view of most of the planet’s disk. Nonetheless, the rings are one of the most breathtaking sights you’ll ever see they have inspired many a future astronomer. The disk of Saturn now stretches about 17″ across, with its rings spanning 38″ - both will appear to shrink just slightly over the course of the month. As the night progresses, the planet will trend westward and start to set, so the earlier you can observe it the better. As the sky starts to grow dark, pull out your telescope and turn it toward the ringed planet, some 40° above the horizon and glowing at magnitude 0.8. Let’s spy on mighty Saturn tonight, located due south at sunset. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. *Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. A wide field of view will also help ensure you capture the extended nebula. If you have a nebula filter, be sure to slip it in to see if you can spot the Rosette’s gauzy glow around the bright group of stars. Any small scope should show the stars of NGC 2244, the open cluster at the center of this nebula. In the center of the Triangle is a large portion of the lesser-known constellation Monoceros the Unicorn, whose most famous constituent is likely the stunning Rosette Nebula near its western border where it meets Orion. local time and will keep rising as the night progresses. The entire Winter Triangle is above the horizon by 10 P.M. And red-hued Betelgeuse, to Procyon’s upper right and the upper left of Orion’s recognizable three-star belt, is nearly as bright at magnitude 0.5. To its upper left above the horizon, Procyon is no slouch at magnitude 0.4. This last star is anything but least: Magnitude –1.4 Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. The Winter Triangle is anchored by three famous stars: Betelgeuse in Orion, which is the first to rise, followed by Procyon in Canis Minor, and finally Sirius in Canis Major. But have you heard of the Winter Triangle? This cold-weather asterism is now rising in the east late in the evening, inching higher into the sky day by day as we prepare for winter to begin. Many people have heard of the Summer Triangle - the large, three-pointed asterism that flies high overhead on warm summer nights and is now sinking toward the western horizon after dark. The planet Mercury is visible as a bright point of light in the evening sky above the famous Danube River in this 2011 shot.
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