• Sara Brown

Weekend Moonshine

The moon still dominates our evening sky this weekend. Friday’s gibbous moon resides in the zodiacal constellation Capricornis.

Late Monday night, the last quarter moon rises late in the evening. The moon will be in the zodiacal constellation Aquarius. The moon is not alone, but is in close proximity to the distant planet Neptune.

Neptune is a difficult planet to find without a star chart, a guide, and a super dark and clear night.

Venus and Jupiter

Take a look to the west, after sunset tonight and the nights ahead, and you’ll see two stunningly bright planets dominating the evening sky. Venus, the brightest, is high in the west. Venus is at its highest in the western sky for the year.

Look a short distance to the south and east and there is Jupiter, only slightly fainter than Venus. The two are inching closer to each other. Though their distance from us is dramatically different, you can watch this progress every night this month. Venus is 62 million miles away. Jupiter is 558 million miles away.

The finale for these two planets comes on June 30, when the two brilliant planets appear less than one degree apart. The sight will be stunning for a couple of days afterwards.

But we think the best of show is watching the two as they come together as friends.

 

Sunrise and Sunset
Day Sunrise Sunset
Fri., June 5 5:08 8:12
Sat., June 6 5:07 8:12
Sun., June 7 5:07 8:13
Mon., June 8 5:07 8:14
Tues., June 9 5:07 8:14
Wed., June 10 5:06 8:15
Thurs., June 11 5:06 8:15
Fri., June 12 5:06 8:16
Temperatures and Precipitation
Day Max (Fº) Min (Fº) Inches
May 29 71 57 0.00
May 30 77 59 0.00
May 31 76 61 T
June 1 77 53 T
June 2 59 51 0.44
June 3 55 49 0.19
June 4 62 49 0.01

 

 

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 63º F

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