Thursday, July 4, 2024

Celebrate Saturn's Return to Evening (overnight)

We have another reason to celebrate July 4th! After a long drought, starting
in the first week of July, a bright planet will be available to view before midnight for observers located at mid-northern latitudes. Due to Earth's
motion around the sun, the stars and distant planets rise about 4 minutes earlier each day - or about half an hour earlier with each passing week. The ringed planet Saturn will lead off our 2024 evening planet parade. The next planets to join Saturn in evening will be Neptune in the first week of July
and Uranus in mid-August. Mars and Jupiter will arrive in Autumn. Early risers can already view all of those planets before dawn.

Earth Passes Aphelion

On Thursday, July 4 at 1:00 a.m. EDT or 05:00 UT, Earth will reach aphelion, its greatest distance from the sun for this year. Aphelion's 94.51 million miles (152.1 million km) distance is 1.67% farther from the sun than the mean Earth-sun separation of 92.96 million miles (149.6 million km), which is also defined to be 1 Astronomical Unit (1 A.U.). Seasonal temperature variations arise from the varying direction of Earth's axial tilt, and not from our distance from the sun. Earth will reach its minimum distance from the sun, or perihelion, on January 4, 2024.

(Data courtesy of Starry Night)
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