Friday, July 5, 2024

Ceres at Opposition (all night)

On Friday evening, July 5, the dwarf planet Ceres will reach opposition, its closest approach to Earth for the year - a distance of 175.4 million miles or 282.2 million km or 15.7 light-minutes. On the nights around opposition, this largest resident of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter will shine with a peak visual magnitude of 7.4, which is within reach of binoculars and backyard telescopes. Tonight Ceres will be located in Sagittarius' Teapot asterism, about one quarter of the way from the bright star Ascella to Tau Sagittarii. Ceres will ascend the southeastern sky after dusk,and then reach its highest elevation, and peak visibility, when due south around 1 a.m. local time. It will spend the rest of July travelling west through the Teapot.


New Moon

On Friday, July 5 at 6:57 p.m. EDT or 3:57 p.m. PDT and 22:57 UT, the moon
will officially reach its new moon phase. At that time our natural satellite will be located in Gemini, 4.5 degrees north of the sun. While new, the moon
is travelling in space between Earth and the sun. Since sunlight can only illuminate the far side of the moon, and the moon is in the same region of the sky as the sun, it becomes completely hidden from view from anywhere on Earth for about a day (unless there's a solar eclipse). After the new moon phase, Earth's celestial night-light will return to shine as a crescent in the
western evening sky.

(Data courtesy of Starry Night)
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