Moon near Mars, Jupiter near Saturn, and Space Station pass, all naked eye visible tonight

various sources | Nov 25, 2020 | self

[ETL]

The first image below is pretty much the situation in the night sky now, Nov 25, 2020. Little by little, Jupiter, from our perspective, is inching closer and closer to Saturn.
And by mid-December the two planets will appear to be practically on top of each other, I think both within the space of a full moon!

The 2nd image below is the situation in mid-December (this is NOT a one-day, or even one week, thing).

In fact the two planets are fairly close to each other right now, Nov 25 (first image below).
But in reality, Saturn is actually something like 500 million miles behind Jupiter.

Jupiter by far is the brighter of the two and is to the lower right of Saturn (see diagram).

Meanwhile, in the Western part of the sky, you won't have any problem finding bright yellow-orange Mars tonight, as it will be close to the Moon.

As for tonight's International Space Station pass, that's a bit more complex. But, basically, it will be rising from the south-west US and moving to the northeast, beginning around 5:15pm EST and ending around 5:40PM EST. These are the times for the ENTIRE pass, not for any one particular location. ie, if you're where I am in the New York City, the pass will be from about 5:35PM EST to 5:40PM.

If you're really interested in seeing it, I strongly advise you go to the following website, enter your basic position (several options for that), and get much more accurate info for your location.

Once you've done that, look for "ISS" under Satellites. ISS = International Space Station. ISS appears as a bright white "star" moving across the sky at the apparent rate of a high-flying airplane. There are no blinking or colored lights on ISS, only white (reflected sunlight).

Heavens-Above.com
https://www.heavens-above.com/?

[ETL]

Check out the guy who walks through the shot in the middle gif (of 3) in my post 33. The jerk has a communist red star on his shirt.

[ETL]

All 3 planets will be visible for weeks yet. By tomorrow, the Moon will have moved more east of Mars, maybe 10-15 full moon widths away (that is about how far it would have moved in its orbit around the Earth in 24 hours). Meanwhile, Jupiter and Saturn are only getting closer to each other day by day, although they’d be setting in the west 4 minutes or so earlier each day.

[minnesota_bound]

This site you can zoom in and out and spin around the planets.
Just drag the mouse and use the scroll wheel.

NASA
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/our-solar-system/overview

[ETL]

Thanks. Will check it out.

[Gasshog]

I wanted to see it last night with Mars right above the Moon. Conditions not good trees not in the way but clouds did not lift. Only saw a fuzzy Moon 🌚

[ETL]

At the same website I linked to at the top, you can not only get schedules for ISS (International Space Station) passes, but also day-by-day planet positions for any day and time that you want.

Here again is the website:
https://www.heavens-above.com/

For ISS passes, look under Satellites for “ISS” (it does not say “International Space Station”, only “ISS”).

For Planet positions, look under Astronomy for “Sky Chart (Old Version)”. There you can edit the chart to display the sky for any date and time that you want. You can also add elements to the chart such as the ecliptic plane (dotted line). The EP is a line in which all the planets travel upon. It represents the flat plane of the solar system. You can also reverse the black background to white.

Under “Planets”, you will find current data for each planet, such as current distance from Earth, current rise and set times, current brightness, etc.

Note that it is best to register with the site.
This way you can return and your (general) location info will be there anytime you return.
It’’s free. No personal info at all. Only general location, which you can enter by finding your location on the provided map. At the top right of every page, will then appear your selected user name and location.