No Planets? Here Is Why

No Planets? Here Is Why

You are out of luck if you are looking for evening planets now. Only Jupiter and Uranus are in the western evening sky at sunset. They are visually too close to the Sun to observe safely.

Saturn arrives in the early evening eastern sky in September. Jupiter returns to the early evening eastern sky in

November. Mars is the last one and returns in January 2025!

When we we talk about early evening sky, we mean around one hour after sunset. Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are visible in the eastern sky two months earlier than mentioned above at around 1 a.m.

One can expect Jupiter to return every 13 months. Saturn returns in around 54 weeks. Mars is the oddball taking two years and two months between evening appearances.

We use the term opposition to describe when Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the outer planets rise in the east as the Sun sets in the west. They are in the pposite sky from the Sun.

When any planet is visually close to the Sun, or is in front or behind the Sun, we call that event a conjunction.

Venus and Mercury orbit the Sun between the Earth and the Sun. They do not go through opposition. They go through two different types of conjunctions. We cannot see them when they reach either type of conjunction.

When Venus or Mercury is between the Earth and the Sun it is at inferior conjunction. After inferior conjunction, Venus and Mercury return to the morning sky in the east at sunrise.

When Venus or Mercury is directly behind the Sun, we call this superior conjunction.Venus and Mercury then appear in the evening sky in the west at sunset.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto behave like Saturn and Jupiter, returning to opposition in the evening sky every 12 months. They appear just a few days later each year because they orbit so far away.

The only planet possibly visible right now is Saturn. It is very low in the east at 5 a.m. Good luck finding it. Just wait a month!

Visit www.catawbasky.org for more information.