Society for Popular Astronomy

August Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 8/1 Mercury is at the ascending node through the ecliptic plane at 12:00; Venus is at its southernmost latitude from the ecliptic plane (-3.4 degre...

July Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 7/1 Mercury is in inferior conjunction with the Sun (0.563 astronomical units from the Earth; latitude -5.5 degrees) at 3:00 7/2 The Moon is 6.3 degr...

June Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 6/1 Mars and Saturn are at heliocentric conjunction (longitude 297.1 degrees) at 18:00 6/2 The Moon is 6.8 degrees north-northeast of the first-magni...

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May Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 5/1 Today is May Day or Beltane, a cross-quarter day; Mercury is 0.3 degrees southeast of Uranus at 5:00 5/2 The Moon is 4.0 degrees north-northeast o...

April Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 4/1 First Quarter Moon occurs at 10:21 4/2 The Moon is 8.5 degrees south of the first-magnitude star Castor (Alpha Geminorum) at 4:00; the Moon is 4...

March Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract five hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EST and four hours for EDT as of March 8th) 3/1 The Moon is 0.1 degree south of asteroid 4 Vesta, with an occultation occurring in Hawaii, Micronesia, no...

February Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract five hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EST) 2/1 The Moon is 4.2 degrees southeast of Uranus at 7:00; the Lunar X (the Purbach or Werner Cross), an X-shaped clair-obscure illumination effect...

January Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times are UT (subtract five hours, and one calendar day when appropriate, for EST) 1/1   Asteroid 4 Vesta is stationary at 21:00 1/2   The Moon is at apogee, subtending 29' 32" from a distance of 404,580 kilometers (251,394 miles), at 1:30; Mercury is at...

December Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract five hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EST) 12/2 Asteroid 2 Pallas is in conjunction with the Sun at 2:00 12/4 The earliest end of evening twilight at 40 degrees north takes place today; th...

November Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times are UT (subtract five hours after DST ends and, when appropriate, one calendar day) 11/1 The Moon is at descending node (longitude 280.3 degrees) at 22:00 11/2 The Moon is 0.6 degree south of Saturn, with an occultation occurring in southern Polyn...

October Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 10/2 Pluto is stationary at 21:00 10/3 Mercury is at aphelion today; Venus is 3 degrees north of the first-magnitude star Spica (Alpha Virginis) a...

September Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 9/1 The equation of time, which yields the difference between mean solar time and apparent solar time, equals 0 at 20:00 9/2 Mars is in conjunct...

August Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 8/1 The Moon, Venus, and the bright open cluster M44 (the Beehive Cluster or Praesepe) in Cancer lie within a circle having a diameter of 2.7 degre...

July Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky All times, unless otherwise noted, are UT (subtract four hours and, when appropriate, one calendar day for EDT) 7/1 The Moon is 1.6 degrees south-southeast of Venus at 23:00 7/2 Asteroid 18 Melpomene (magnitude +9.2) is at opposition at 1:00; New Moon (lunation...