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May 14: The Moon and Mars in the morning
Jupiter remains prominent in eastern Gemini after sunset, glowing brightly to the lower left of the Twins’ two heads, Castor and Pollux. Overnight tonight, there’s a double shadow transit visible on the gas giant’s cloud tops, as the shadows of both Europa and Ganymede travel from east to west.
Eastern time zone observers can get started once the sky grows dark to catch Europa itself already transiting the planet. Ganymede’s large shadow is the first shadow to appear, at 9:58 P.M. EDT, as darkness is falling across the Midwest. Ganymede itself is already west of Jupiter, having completed its own transit. Io lies just to Ganymede’s northwest, while Callisto is alone far east of the planet.
Bright Europa and Ganymede’s dark shadow cross together until 11:20 P.M. EDT, when Europa’s shadow finally appears at the eastern limb. Jupiter is now getting low for observers along the U.S. East Coast, but follow it as long as you can. Europa slips away from the disk entirely at 11:03 P.M. CDT (note the time zone change), leaving only the two shadows to finish crossing the planet’s face. Europa’s smaller shadow, east of Ganymede’s, will gain some ground and pull closer over time, but it never overtakes the larger moon’s shadow. Ganymede’s shadow transit ends at 11:26 P.M. MDT, best seen from the western half of the U.S. Europa’s shadow transit ends at 11:12 P.M. PDT, bringing the entire event to a close.
Sunrise: 5:45 A.M.
Sunset: 8:09 P.M.
Moonrise: 4:31 A.M.
Moonset: 7:15 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (1%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.
