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To ancient peoples without complex calendars, the moon was probably the most important marker of the passage of time - especially at times like this Thursday, when May's full moon arrives.

The full moon of May, also known as the "Milk moon," will occur at 7:07 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time this Thursday, May 27. This makes it a good time to explore lunar myths and mysteries as well as the mechanics of the moon.

The moon is visible most nights at some point, and is the brightest object in the night sky. It is also visible in daylight much of the month, though most modern humans may be unaware of it. Here's how it works:

The moon is a sphere, lit from varying angles by the sun. As it moves around the Earth in its orbit, it goes through a series of phases from new moon, when the moon lies on or near a line between Earth and sun; first quarter, when lit from one side; full moon, when lit by the sun directly behind the Earth; and third quarter, lit from the other side.
IN PICTURES: The full moon
The full moon is the most striking of these phases: a seemingly huge moon rising in the east, fully illuminated, just as the sun is setting in the west. [More: How Moon Phases Work]
Check it out
The full moon of May is located in the constellation Scorpius, very close to the southernmost point in its monthly journey around the Earth. As a result, the moon spends less time than average above the horizon and never gets very far above the horizon, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.

The moon will also be very close to the bright red star Antares on full moon night. It won't be close enough to actually pass in front of Antares, as it sometimes does, but still close enough to make a very pretty sight.

While a full moon is not the best time to observe the moon through a telescope, there's really never a bad time to explore the moon. At full moon, the shadows of the moon's many craters are less pronounced. Still, any small telescope, or even binoculars, will reveal rich details of the larger craters - each one evidence of a long-ago impact by a space rock.
Just an illusion
The large size of the full moon is actually an optical illusion, known as "the moon illusion," caused by our mind's attempt to make sense of the moon in relation to earthly objects on the horizon. In fact, the full moon on the horizon is no larger than the moon at any other time or location.

You can verify the moon illusion yourself by holding a small object, such as a pencil eraser at arm's length and compare its size to that of the rising moon. Then go back out a couple hours later, when the moon is higher and seems smaller, and make the same comparison to the eraser. Alternately, you can take two pictures of the moon, with your camera at the same settings, then print and compare them.

Various peoples around the world have given special names to the full moons throughout the year, a simple way of recognizing the passage of time.

Probably the best known of these names are those used in the English language, but other well known naming systems are used by the Algonquian peoples of northeastern North America, the Hindus of India, and the widespread Buddhist religion.

May's full moon is known as the Milk moon in English, the Flower moon in Algonquian, Buddha Poornima in Hindi, and Vesak Poya in the Sinhala Buddhist tradition.

It is also known as Corn Planting moon, Corn moon, and Hare's moon.

Also, one of our main calendar components is the month, named for the moon.
Never really full
Now here is something strange. Full moon occurs at 7:07 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, yet the moon doesn't rise until around 8:30 p.m. The exact time of full moon is determined strictly by the geometry of the sun, Earth, and moon: all three fall in a straight line with the Earth in the middle. This is an instantaneous event, and happens at the same instant everywhere in the world, in this case happening when the moon is below the horizon in eastern North America.

Full moon happens in England at seven minutes past midnight British Summer Time, with the moon high overhead, because Britain is about a quarter of the way around the earth from eastern North America. The moon itself is quite indifferent to where on Earth people are observing it from.

Even though full moon occurs at a very specific instant each month, it looks full for a day or two on either side of that instant, at least to the naked eye. In a telescope, you can see the terminator, the line of sunset or sunrise on the moon, and see that it is not quite full.

In fact, the moon is never truly full. When everything lines up perfectly, so that the moon's face would be 100 percent sunlit from our point of view, Earth gets in the way, blocks the lights from the sun, and causes a total lunar eclipse.
This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. IN PICTURES: The full moon

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To ancient peoples without complex calendars, the moon was probably the most important marker of the passage of time - especially at times like this Thursday, when May's full moon arrives. The full moon of May, also known as the "Milk moon," will occur at 7:07 p.m.

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Moonrise, Moonset, and Moon Phase in Stockton

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Moonrise and moonset time, Moon direction, and Moon phase in Stockton - California - USA for May 2020. When and where does the Moon rise and set?

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The map below shows where the Moon is visible from the Earth, depending on weather conditions and moon phases.

= The Sun's position directly overhead (zenith) in relation to an observer.

= The Moon's position at its zenith in relation to an observer (Moon phase is not shown).
View Day and Night Map
Moon phase

Fraction of moon illuminated: 96%

Position of the Moon: Sublunar Point

On Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 22:46:00 UTC the Moon is at its zenith at

The ground speed is currently 445.43 meters/second, 1603.6 kilometres/hour, 996.4 miles/hour or 865.8 nautical miles/hour (knots). The table below shows position of the the Moon compared to the time and date above:

Locations with the Moon near zenith

The following table shows 10 locations with moon near zenith position in the sky.

Astronomy Calculators

More Information

Related Time Zone Tools

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The map below shows where the Moon is visible from the Earth, depending on weather conditions and moon phases. = The Sun's position directly overhead (zenith) in relation to an observer. = The Moon's position at its zenith in relation to an observer (Moon phase is not shown).

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The Moon and Planets in Indigenous California

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The Moon and Planets in Indigenous California

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Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science

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PRINTED FROM the OXFORD RESEARCH ENCYCLOPEDIA, PLANETARY SCIENCE (oxfordre.com/planetaryscience). (c) Oxford University Press USA, 2020. All Rights Reserved. Personal use only; commercial use is strictly prohibited (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 05 May 2020

Summary and Keywords

Anthropologists distinguish the U.S. State of California as a primary zone of prehistoric and tribal North America-it was one of the most linguistically and cultural diverse regions on earth. The original population of Native California and traditional cultures were decimated by the Spanish, the Mexicans, and the Anglos, who successively settled California and transformed it. For that reason, knowledge of the character and function of astronomy in what is now California prior to European contact in the 16th century is incomplete and fragmented. Traditional astronomical lore is preserved in a few ethnohistoric commentaries, in some archaeological remains, and in ethnographic research conducted primarily in the early 20th century, when elements of indigenous knowledge still survived.

Throughout Native California, the moon's conspicuous brightness, movement, and systematically changing appearance prompted its affiliation with seasonal change, the passage of time, and cyclical renewal, and most California tribes monitored and counted lunations in one way or another, but not necessarily throughout the entire year. In some cases, individual lunations were affiliated with and named for seasonal circumstances.

There is little evidence, however, for even minimal interest in or recognition of the planets visible to the unaided eye, with the exception of Venus as the "Morning Star" or "Evening Star." Venus, like the moon and other celestial objects, was personified and regarded as a fundamental and active agent of the cosmos. There is no evidence, however, for detailed monitoring of Venus and quantitative knowledge of its synodic behavior.

Keywords: California, moon, Venus, Morning Star, Evening Star, cultural astronomy, archaeoastronomy

Introduction

Despite Native California's extraordinary linguistic diversity, ethnic diversity, geographic diversity, and environmental diversity, California tribes universally personified the moon as a singular, mythic character, a power player in the sky. Not exactly a god or a spirit, the moon, like other celestial objects, was a sentient being who inhabited the sky. This upper world was part of a traditional, layered cosmos in which the flat earth lay between the heavens and the subterranean realm.

The importance attributed to the details of lunations-the number of days in a lunar cycle of phases and the number of cycles in a year-varied significantly in California. In 1922, A. L. Kroeber, who pioneered anthropological study of California Indians, concluded, "Probably every tribe, however, had a system of measuring time within the year. This was by the universally known method of naming and reckoning lunations in the round of seasons" (Kroeber, , p. 322).

Kroeber also confirmed the planets commanded little attention: "The planets were too difficult to trouble with, except for Venus when it was the morning star" (Kroeber, , p. 323). Acknowledgments of the "Morning Star" in ethnographic interviews are generally taken to mean Venus when it is seen in the eastern sky in the dawn, before sunrise. For the unaided eye, Venus is the third brightest celestial object, after the sun and the moon, and many tribes also recognized the "Evening Star," which is generally taken to mean Venus when it is seen after sunset in the western twilight. Although it is possible other bright stars and planets were interchangeable with Venus when it did not shine at either dusk or dawn, there is no explicit evidence from any California tribe for recognition of any other bright planets (Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn). While this apparent lack of interest in the planets may be disappointing, its absence helps illuminate how the character of astronomy varies from one culture to another, what factors influence its character, and the role celestial objects play in a culture. The presence and absence of certain astronomical observations and knowledge indicate what in the sky is of value and what use is made of it.

Indigenous California

Anthropologists have divided North America into 12 distinctive cultural regions, of which California and the long, sparsely populated peninsula of Baja, Mexico, comprise one. Bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Sierra Nevada and the Gulf of California on the east, California acquired a regional identity, tempered to a degree in the north by the Northwest Coast tradition and in the south by contacts with the U.S. Southwest.

Great variation in the natural environment-mountains, foothills, deserts, rivers, valleys, seacoasts, and offshore islands-ensured a variety of strategies for food procurement and encouraged cultural diversification. With 75 mutually incomprehensible languages and 300 disparate dialects, California, at the time of European contact, was among the most linguistically diverse places on earth (Shipley, , p. 80); north of Mexico, only the Mississippi Valley was more populous (Cook, , p. 91). The ethnic and linguistic diversity of the State of California is evident in the complexity of tribal territories mapped in Figure .

Unlike the peoples of the Mississippi Valley, where farming supported the large population and leveraged monumental architecture and transcontinental trade, Native Californians relied almost entirely on hunting and gathering and in most parts of the state methodically harvested the wild seasonal resources the accommodating climate delivered (Hudson, , p. 13). Although California tribes do not dominate popular imagery of American Indians, the high pre-contact California population makes indigenous California a mainstream tradition-and not a peripheral element-of Native North America. The character of California moon and planet lore is not, then, just a culture element of Native California but has continent-wide significance. It also informs understanding the global use of the sky in subsistence, social activity, symbolism, and myth.

California Moon

With the exception of a few ethnohistoric sources (e.g., Boscana, ), all of the recorded information on moon and planet traditions in Native California is collected in 20th-century ethnographic reports, most of which were prepared and published under Kroeber's lead by the University of California. Review of these materials indicates the moon was personified-usually as male but sometimes female-by speakers in all five indigenous language families represented in California: Algic, Athabascan, Hokan, Penutian, and Uto-Aztecan. Similarly, some tribal language groups in each language family attached seasonal or functional descriptive names to "monthly" lunar cycles, tallied lunations in some way during the year, and distinguished the "morning star" and/or "evening star" from other celestial objects. The presence of these astronomical elements across linguistic and ethnic boundaries suggests they were nearly universally embraced throughout California, but incomplete data are the rule for most tribal territories, and for some tribes, particularly those that were extinct by the late 19th century, there is no information.

A number of groups, including the Chumash made a weather sign out of the moon. Upturned horns in a waxing crescent moon occur in spring and meant the moon holds water. Rain was possible, as it was in winter, when the crescent moon, though more vertical, still had upturned horns. When the horns were sideways, which occurs in autumn, the moon was considered "empty." No rain was expected (Hudson & Underhay, , p. 76).

Conspicuously growing and diminishing through monthly phases, the moon is a worldwide emblem of renewal and an actor in the cycle of cosmic order-birth, growth, death, and rebirth (Krupp, , pp. 54-78). This is evident in the Chinigchinich cult of southern California, which originated with the Tongva, in what is now Los Angeles County and Orange County, and spread in the historic era as far south as Kumeyaay lands and as far northeast as Yokuts country (Boscana, , p. 12). According to the Luiseño, who spoke an Uto-Aztecan language and inhabited a territory that included what is now southern Orange County, western Riverside County, and northern San Diego County, the primary Chinigchinich myth explains the introduction of death into the world through the bewitching of Wiyot, the First Chief of the First People, by Red-Legged Frog Woman (Dubois, , p. 132). Wiyot's illness, decline, death, and resurrection in the stars three days later parallel the monthly behavior of the moon. His name, which means "to count months" in Luiseño/Juaneño (Krupp, , p. 81), also blends him with the moon. Through transformation, Wiyot, like the moon establishes a new cosmic order in which renewal is propelled by death. Wiyot's reappearance as the first crescent in the west was anticipated by the moonwatching Luiseño shaman and energized by Luiseño men, who dispatched their spirits to the moon by participating in a race at the time of first crescent (Boscana, , p. 12).

The full moon and the waxing crescent moon both appear in Figure in one of the ground displays prepared for the Chinigchinich initiation of Kumeyaay youth (Kroeber, , p. 662). The California rock art crescents in Figure and Figure likely symbolize the moon.

For the Luiseño and most of the California tribes, the moon provided a mechanism for keeping the community aware of and responsive to seasonal change through the assignment of each lunation to a distinctive seasonal phenomenon. In some cases, the lunations were also counted through the entire year or through a seasonally meaningful part of the year, to integrate community activity with a common calendar.

Kroeber (, p. 322) asserted that nearly every California tribe kept seasonal time by the moon, and he identified three different approaches. The first, like that employed by the Maidu (Penutian language family, northeast California), included 12 lunations, or "moons," named after seasonal phenomena. Independent of solar events, each lunation was identified with something taking place in the natural landscape. Some "moon" counts, based on terrestrial events, were applied only to part of the year, like the Maidu winter moons, and ignored the rest of the year's lunations because only the time of scarcity required careful attention to the season's duration and the passage of time.

In a second approach, the lunations were numbered, not named, sequentially from a solar reference point. The Yurok (Algic language family, northwest California) counted 12 moons from the winter solstice and sometimes added another lunation when necessary to complete the count at the next winter solstice.

Finally, a third system tied descriptively named "months" to fixed points in the sun's migration through the year. These periods were identified with a specific moon but could be shortened or lengthened to maintain congruence with the solar year. The Kumeyaay (Hokan language family, southernmost California), for example, named periods in each half of the year for seasonal circumstances (Spier, , p. 357). The duration of each period approximated a lunar cycle, but the period was announced by some other astronomical event-the dawn rising of a telltale star and perhaps the solstices, but not the moon's phase-and so intercalation and detailed calendrical numeracy were not required. Although the first day of the waxing moon would be noted and different phases recognized, the number of days in the lunation typically was not counted (see, e.g., Kelly, , p. 152).

However the calendar was configured, the moon was its organizing element-it could be regarded as a mediator of time and as the agent that established an order to time. In a story told by the Ajumawi (Benson & Buckskin, ) and the Yana (Sapir & Spier, , p. 283) (both Hokan language family, northeast California), Moon is bounced into the sky from a long, springy pole in a contest. In the Ajumawi version, Fisher Man, one of the First People in the time of the world's creation, is Moon's competitor. Moon's placement in the sky, along with his wife-the sun-and their two daughters, North Star and South Star, was what established the seasons and their orderly change.

California Venus

California Indian planet lore is, as Kroeber assessed in 1922, modest. Travis Hudson and Ernest Underhay later demonstrated the Chumash saw the morning and evening apparitions of Venus as two separate sky people, Morning Star and Evening Star, who appear in Chumash myth (Hudson & Underhay, , pp. 81-82). They offer, however, very little additional information about Venus and nothing but speculation about other planets visible to the unaided eye.

Hudson subsequently compressed the record for all of California in the first comprehensive survey of California Indian astronomy: "There is a dearth of information about the planets" (Hudson, , p. 35).

Venus is confirmed, then, in all five language families of California's 58 ethnic territories. The Morning Star or Evening Star was recognized through the entire length of California from the Pacific coast to the Nevada border. It is reasonable to guess Venus was observed and acknowledged in most, if not all, of California.

Almost all known names for the Morning Star and Evening Star refer to their relationship with dawn and day or with dusk and night. A few of the names seem to highlight the singular brightness of Venus.

Names for the Morning Star include "morning star" (Chumash), "leftover . . . 'til morning" (Luiseño), "dawn star" (Chemehuevi), "sun coming" or "dawn coming" (Owens Valley Paiute), "sun-up" (Kato), "daylight star" (Wailaki), "star woman" (Pomo), "daylight star" (Southwestern Pomo), "day woman" (Eastern Pomo), and "morning eye fire" (Eastern Pomo).

Some names for the Evening Star are also preserved: "evening star" (Chumash), "big star" (Coast Pomo), "lazy star" (Kumeyaay), "large one" (Karok), "twilight star" (Southwestern Pomo), "night woman" (Pomo), "worm eating" (Kato), and "evening running" (Wailaki).

Despite wide recognition of morning-star and evening-star apparitions of Venus by California tribes, very little indigenous Venus lore has survived. Morning Star and Evening Star are known to have been personified and mythologized by several Hokan peoples, including the Chumash, the Pomo, and the Karok, and also by the Yokuts, the Western Mono, the Sinkyone, and the Miwok. To the Chumash, Morning Star was female, and evening star was male. In Pomo territory (north coastal), both Morning Star and Evening Star were female, and Evening Star was Morning Star's younger sister. As First People, both were part of the Creation and lived on earth until Morning Star, appalled by the bad behavior of others, departed to live in the sky and so avoided the world deluge that eradicated the wicked. The Pomo, who subsequently populated the world, are her people. She watches over them and looks out for their interests (Clark & Williams, , p. 107; Loeb, , p. 228).

In another Pomo narrative, the Morning Star is Totelmatha ("star woman"), and she is the wife of Hawk, who is an aspect of the sun affiliated with the winter solstice and sun's annual migration back to the north. Together Hawk and Star Woman overcome the spirit of blizzard and storm, who kills people and withholds food from the world (Clark & Williams, , p. 11).

The Karok (Hokan language family, northwest California) tell a tale very much like the Ajumawi narrative about Moon's placement in the sky. Weasel, the Karok version of Fisher Man, also throws Moon's two daughters-in this case, Morning Star and Evening Star-into the sky in another story about the establishment of seasons and cosmic order. Morning Star is tossed to the east, and Evening Star is flung to the west (Kroeber & Gifford, , p. 21).

Morning Star puts in an appearance in the Yokuts (Penutian language family, central California and Sierra foothills) Creation myth and begins to fade as Bald Eagle, the Creator, is finishing his fabrication of the world (Latta, , p. 18). In this guise, Venus is disappearing in the glow of dawn, which understandably heralds the inauguration of the world we know. The Yokuts also said men of character get up to see the Morning Star.

The Western Mono (or Monache, Uto-Aztecan language family, central inland California) also addressed the Morning Star and are said to have thought Morning Star and Evening Star are the same celestial object (Gayton, , p. 267). This notion is not encountered in most California tribes.

In at least one case, Venus was part of a celestial family. The Sinkyone (Athabascan language family, north coastal California) saw the Morning Star as the son of Sun and Moon (Nomland, , p. 170).

In California, the most developed mythic conception of Venus survives in Chumash sky lore, where Morning Star and Evening Star are members of two opposing teams of Sky People who gamble through the entire year for the fate of the world and its people (Blackburn, , pp. 91-93). Each night, Sun's team plays peon, a stick game, in the sky against the allies of Sky Coyote, who is persuasively, if not conclusively, identified as Polaris, the North Star (Hudson, , p. 50; Hudson & Underhay, , pp. 100-102). As the year advances through the seasons, Moon, a neutral party and the primary counter in the sky, keeps score. The competition concludes at the winter solstice, when the nightly rounds are tallied.

As far as people down on earth are concerned, the stakes are high and the game matters. Survival is on the line. Sun was no friend of the Chumash, and if he and his team prevailed, he collected his chips in human lives. Imagined as an old man who walked naked across the sky each day with a torch in his hand and a feathered banner on his head, Sun could swing the torch too close to the ground and burn it, especially in summer. If he kept the torch too far away, it would be too cold on earth (Hudson & Underhay, , p. 52). He was the chief Chumash god, and although his behavior was orderly, his power was dangerous (Krupp, , p. 280).

Sky Coyote, on the other hand, plays on behalf of the Chumash. As Polaris, he is the "Star That Does Not Move" (Hudson & Underhay, , p. 101) and that stability symbolizes balance and natural prosperity (Krupp, , pp. 70-72, 1991, pp. 280-281). If Sky Coyote's squad takes the year's peon title, there will be ample rain in winter and spring. Sky Coyote instantly gathers from the Sky World all of the food needed on earth, pushes it through the door in the sky (Blackburn, , pp. 91-92), presumably near the north celestial pole, and lets it fall to earth.

Morning Star plays on Sky Coyote's team and operates as an agent for the rains and a bountiful year. Songs for Morning Star and Sun were sung at the Chumash Hutash festival in the fall, when acorns, piñon, and seeds were gathered and stored for the coming winter. Venus was sometimes visible in the Hutash season and said to be triumphant. Possibly it operated as a seasonal, if not annual, indicator at the September fiesta, which in the Mission era was sometimes celebrated on St. Michael's Day (Hudson et al., , p. 43).

Slo'w, or Golden Eagle, was teamed with Sun. Although his celestial identity is not explicitly known, there is reason to think he is Evening Star. In that guise, he remains in the western sky after the sun has set, but eventually he must leave the field, where Sky Coyote, as Polaris, is visible the entire night and presides over the sky.

Morning Star, on Sky Coyote's team, fulfilled a complementary role. He took command of the eastern sky and the dawn but faded, like Polaris and the rest of the stars, into Sun's glow as day returned under Sun's governance.

All four of the gamblers in the nightly peon game-Sun, Sky Coyote, Morning Star, and Evening Star-may be depicted in the Burro Flats pictograph panel, on what was the Rocketdyne/Boeing/NASA Santa Susana Field Laboratory, above Chatsworth, in the northwest corner of Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley (King, , pp. 399-401; Krupp, , p. 129). The larger, winged person on the right in Figure has costume elements that suggest he is Sun, and the smaller figure on the left may be Venus as Morning Star. The circle with four orthogonal rays in Figure may be Venus as Evening Star. The rock shelter is part of what was once an important domestic and ceremonial complex at the border of Chumash and Tongva territory. The rock art in the shelter interacts with a distinctive projection of light into the shallow overhang from the winter solstice sunrise. This ancient Native California effort to engage the cosmos is only a ridge away from the static test stands for the rocket engines that transported us to the moon and echoed the archaic indigenous bond with the sky.

Conclusion

Ethnographic data suggest the moon was personified and mythologized throughout indigenous California. Its gender, either male or female, varies among the five language families in the state. The moon, through its monthly cycle of phases, was affiliated with seasonal change through the year, with the presence and absence of rain, and with the broad concept of growth, death, and renewal. California tribes varied in how systematically moons were named and counted through the year. Detailed calendrical numeracy of the days in a lunation and reconciliation of the number of lunations in the year were not high priorities, but knowing the progress of the seasons was critical. For that reason, the moon was used to monitor and anticipate seasonal change.

Venus, as the Morning Star or Evening Star, seems to have been recognized throughout California, but there is no evidence for recognition of the other planets visible to the unaided eye. Venus was personified and mythologized, and its gender was either male or female. There is no evidence for systematic, calendrical monitoring of the synodic period of Venus. Although periodic apparitions of the Morning Star and Evening Star may have been associated with a particular season, they were not annual events that prompted routine observation. Venus instead had symbolic, mythic value. Almost all of the California tribes identified Morning Star and Evening Star as two separate celestial supernatural beings and not as a single planet.

The data, though incomplete, outline the level of interest in and the depth of observations of the moon and planets for a significant fraction of the indigenous population in North America north of Mexico prior to European contact. The astronomy the highly systematic hunter-gatherers in Native California required and adopted helps indicate how social complexity modulates the nature of the astronomical enterprise.

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The Moon and Planets in Indigenous California

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Anthropologists distinguish the U.S. State of California as a primary zone of prehistoric and tribal North America-it was one of the most linguistically and cultural diverse regions on earth. The original population of Native California and traditional cultures were decimated by the Spanish, the Mexicans, and the Anglos, who successively settled California and transformed it.

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Close Approach of the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn

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Close Approach of the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn

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As Geoffrey Chaucer once said, "All good things must come to an end." And the beautiful spread of four bright planets that stretched from horizon to horizon across our summertime evening sky is now coming to its inevitable close.

Venus will be the first to go, dropping into the sunset fires early this month and transitioning to the morning sky by month's end. Jupiter will be next, and while it will not disappear completely, it will spend much of October gradually getting lower in the west-southwest sky, while setting progressively earlier. Saturn is next in line, but for much of this month still remains well positioned for viewing, though by late evening as it nears the horizon, atmospheric turbulence will likely cause its image to become rather shaky. Mars is still a fiery, eye-catching object in the south-southeast at dusk, but continues to fade and grow smaller as it continues to recede from Earth. By Halloween it will shine with only one-eighth of the radiance it displayed in July when it was unusually close to the Earth. Finally, there is Mercury which is very low in the southwest sky all month, but very difficult to perceive until the latter days of the month when it will be in the general vicinity of Jupiter. [ Night Sky, October 2018: What You Can See This Month (Maps)]

In our schedule, remember that when measuring the angular separation between two celestial objects, your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10-degrees. Here, we present a schedule below which provides some of the best planet viewing times as well directing you as to where to look to see them.

Mercury - is above the southwestern horizon after sunset during all of October but never high enough to be easily visible. The best time to look is the last week of the month. Use binoculars to scan for it, 45 minutes after sunset. On October 30th, Jupiter (magnitude -1.7) will be hovering about 3 degrees to the upper right of Mercury (magnitude -0.2). Can you glimpse either with the naked eye? Both planets may seem fainter than they are because they are very close to the horizon.

Venus - enters its beautiful crescent phase for telescope users every time it nears the end of one of its months-long evening apparitions. But this season it's making its lowest, poorest possible exit from the evening sky (as seen from mid-northern latitudes). As October starts, Venus is technically near its maximum possible brightness at magnitude -4.8, but it appears much dimmer because it's low in bright evening twilight. This evening it sets about an hour after the sun, but it stands only 9 degrees above the southwest horizon at sunset for viewers around 40 degrees north latitude. And things just get worse after that. If you live in a northern land, you may need a haze free sky or binoculars to detect Venus even on the opening nights of the month. By October 9th, this dazzling world is barely above the horizon in very bright twilight 20 minutes after sunset. Then Venus is lost from view for several weeks as it shuttles toward inferior conjunction (between Earth and the sun) on October 26th, then shoots up gloriously into the dawn sky during early November.

Mars - is still in the south-southeast when twilight ends, and it stays right there at nightfall all month. It is traveling eastward with respect to the stars, or perhaps we should say the stars are sliding westward behind it. It spends all of October moving across the stars of Capricornus, the Sea Goat. As Mars' distance from us increases from 56 to 73 million miles during October, the planet fades from magnitude -1.3 to -0.6. The telescopic view of Mars, so fine during midsummer, has become relatively mediocre again. In July the red planet was only 3.2 light minutes away from Earth and more than 24 arc seconds across. By the end of October it is more than twice as far and less than half the apparent size. Mars is that very bright, fiery colored object well to the right of the waxing gibbous moon on October 18th.

Jupiter - Shining at magnitude -1.8, Jupiter is still easily seen as October begins. Look for it low in the west-southwest in early twilight. During the final days of the month it will be in the vicinity of Mercury and by October 31st the king of the planets is so low that you'll probably need binoculars to help you find it. Three days past new phase and just 10-percent illuminated, a slender waxing crescent moon passes a little over 3 degrees north of Jupiter on October 11th.

Saturn - is in the south-southwest after dusk and this is probably your last chance to get a good telescopic view of Saturn's disk, rings, and moons. The planet will remain visible in early evening almost to the end of the year, but it is getting near the horizon where atmospheric seeing wreaks its worst effects - assuming you have an unobstructed view to the southwest at all. The crescent moon has noticeably widened since it visited Jupiter on the 11th, when it passes only 1½ degrees to the right of Saturn on October 14th.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for Verizon FiOS1 News in New York's Lower Hudson Valley.

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The Brightest Planets in October's Night Sky: How to See them (and When)

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As Geoffrey Chaucer once said, "All good things must come to an end." And the beautiful spread of four bright planets that stretched from horizon to horizon across our summertime evening sky is now coming to its inevitable close.

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It's looking to be a season for comets teasing skywatchers with their magnificent tails like elusive cosmic peacocks. Comet Atlas seemed to be a big deal earlier this year before it broke up and fizzled out. But just as that promising space snowball was cracking up, Comet C/2020 F8 SWAN was discovered in late March.

Now Comet Swan could deliver on the promise of a rare night sky show that Atlas failed to provide.

Already Swan could be visible to those with exquisitely dark skies and sharp eyes. Others might also be able to spot it with binoculars.

Astronomer Con Stoitsis said on Twitter that some predictions show the comet continuing to brighten in the coming days.

"It should be an 'obvious' naked eye target in mid-May," he said.

The comet makes its closest pass by Earth on May 13 and comes nearest to the sun on May 27.

There're a number of tools online -- TheSkyLive is a great place to start -- to help you find Comet Swan in the night sky. And, of course, the comet also has a Twitter account worth following.

Keep in mind that comets are notoriously fickle, as Comet Atlas demonstrated, and Swan could also go from rapidly brightening to fragmenting and fading at any moment.

With that in mind, it's probably a good idea to try and catch it now. You can look for it while also watching for this week's Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which comes from the leftovers of another space snowball, the famed Halley's Comet.

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Comet Swan is now visible with the naked eye and could be the best in years

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It's looking to be a season for comets teasing skywatchers with their magnificent tails like elusive cosmic peacocks. Comet Atlas seemed to be a big deal earlier this year before it broke up and fizzled out. But just as that promising space snowball was cracking up, Comet C/2020 F8 SWAN was discovered in late March.

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Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is currently in the constellation of Cetus. The current Right Ascension of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is 00h 25m 53s and the Declination is -05° 33' 07". The current estimated magnitude of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is 8.02 (JPL) while the latest observed magnitude is 5.2 (COBS).

Summary of key facts about Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8):

Right Ascension 00h 25m 53s

Observed Magnitude (COBS)5.2

Estimated Magnitude (JPL)8.02

VISIBILITY RIGHT NOW

C/2020 F8 (SWAN) is below the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]. See alsoC/2020 F8 (SWAN) rise and set times.

Given its current magnitude, C/2020 F8 (SWAN) is barely visible to the naked eye, easily visible with the help of a small binocular.

Additional information about Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) available on TheSkyLive:

Below we provide Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) finder charts showing where the object is right now in the sky with respect to the brightest stars. The first finder chart has a field of view of 50 degrees, while the second one has a field of view of 10 degrees. Click on each finder chart to access a full screen interactive Online Planetarium.

= visible to the naked eye
= binocular, brighter than 10th magnitude

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

Also check out Where is Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8)?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

The distance of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) from Earth is currently 96,269,938 kilometers, equivalent to 0.643525 Astronomical Units. Light takes 5 minutes and 21.1219 seconds to travel from Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) and arrive to us.

Distance Kilometers 96,269,938

Light Travel Time 5 minutes and 21.1219 seconds

The following chart shows the distance of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth. The value of the distance of C/2020 F8 (SWAN) from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Between January 2013 and January 2100 the closest approach of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) to Earth happens on Wed May 13 2020 at a distance of 0.56862572 Astronomical Units, or 85,065,197 kilometers:

Distance Kilometers 85,065,197

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

The current visual magnitude of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is 8.02.

Estimated Magnitude (JPL)8.02

Observed Magnitude (COBS)5.2

The observed magnitude and coma diameter values are derived from the Comet Observers Database by averaging the values reported in recent observations (more recent than 4 days), when available. The Estimated Magnitude comes from the JPL Horizons ephemerides service and might be inaccurate given the highly dynamic and unpredictable behavior of comets. When available, please refer to the Observed Magnitude value and consider the Estimated Magnitude as a directional indication. We acknowledge with thanks the comet observations from the COBS Comet Observation Database contributed by observers worldwide and used in this table to report recent comet observations.

The following chart is the predicted light curve (visual magnitude as a function of time) of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8), according to the most recent ephemerides data. Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour.

Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [ change]
Latitude: 51° 28' 47" N
Longitude: 0° 00' 00" E
Timezone: Europe/London

Today's Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, United Kingdom [ change] are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Max altitude: 31.4°TRANSIT

The rise and set times are defined as the time at which the upper limb of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) touches the horizon, considering the effect of the atmospheric refraction. As the atmospheric conditions cannot be modeled precisely the times reported here should be considered correct with an approximation of few minutes.

The following table lists the orbital elements of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) at epoch 11 April 2020 00:00 UTC (JD: 2458951.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System. This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback!

The following table lists the ephemerides of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

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Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) Information | TheSkyLive.com

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Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is currently in the constellation of Cetus. The current Right Ascension of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is 00h 25m 53s and the Declination is -05° 33' 07". The current estimated magnitude of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is 8.02 (JPL) while the latest observed magnitude is 5.2 (COBS).

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10-day weather forecast  weather conditions

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Stockton, CA 10-Day Weather Forecast - The Weather Channel | Weather.com

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Be prepared with the most accurate 10-day forecast for with highs, lows, chance of precipitation from The Weather Channel and Weather.com

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Light Pollution - International Dark-Sky Association

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“The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago . . . had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.” — Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life, 1923 […]