This Week’s Night Sky: Distant Giants Pose With the Moon
Comet Catalina glides past a pretty galaxy as it continues its journey out of the solar system.
At 10:50 p.m. EST, Io’s shadow begins its transit, leaving the planet at 1:05 a.m. The moon itself starts its glide across the gas giant at 11:54 p.m., leaving at 2:08 a.m.
Neptune will appear only 5 degrees from Earth’s companion—equal to the width of your middle three fingers held at arm’s length. Don’t be fooled with the objects’ closeness in our skies, though, since the moon is only 1.3 light-seconds away and light from Neptune takes an incredible 4 hours and 15 minutes to reach us here on Earth.
On Thursday night, the comet—shining between 6 and 7 magnitude—will be easy to track down using binoculars as it passes Alkaid, the bright, naked-eye star at the end of the Big Dipper’s