In a beautiful scene in the sky of the Arab world.. the gibbous moon is in conjunction with the planet Saturn today

2024-11-10 2024-11-10T13:01:10Z

Arab Weather - The Jeddah Astronomical Society is awaiting this evening, Sunday, after sunset and at the beginning of the night, the phenomenon of the conjunction of the waxing gibbous moon with the planet Saturn, as they will be separated by two degrees towards the eastern horizon, creating a beautiful scene in the sky of the Arab world.

Gibbous Moon Conjunct Saturn Today

Engineer Majed Abu Zahra, the head of the association, stated that Saturn will appear as a medium-bright star to the naked eye, and the moon and Saturn can be seen together within the field of view of the telescope due to the apparent distance between them. He explained that Saturn, the second largest planet after Jupiter, has a diameter nine times that of Earth, and is considered a gaseous planet, composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, and is located sixth in terms of distance from the sun, and is the farthest planet that can be seen with the naked eye as a golden dot.

Abu Zahra pointed out that the current observation of Saturn via telescope reveals the planet's entire disk for the first time in 14 years, as the edge of its rings points directly towards Earth, and it is expected to reach this exact direction in March 2025, after which the rings will gradually reappear.

This evening, in a beautiful view..

The sky of the #Kingdom witnesses the conjunction of the waxing gibbous moon with the planet Saturn.

— Saudi News (@SaudiNews50) November 10, 2024

He explained that the maximum tilt of Saturn's rings towards Earth was in October 2017, when their northern side appeared completely clear, and since then, the view of the rings has begun to diminish from Earth's perspective. This change is due to the angle of inclination of Saturn's rings, which changes over 29 years, which is the time it takes Saturn to complete one orbit around the sun due to the tilt of the planet's axis of rotation relative to its orbit.

The 29-year cycle of Saturn's rings is a fascinating astronomical phenomenon that allows us to see the rings from multiple angles, and is a reminder of the vastness of the universe and the long timescales in which astronomical events occur.