HIDE NEWLAND...STATESVILLE...MOCKSVILLE... SPRUCE PINE...ASHEVILLE...HICKORY...SALISBURY...BREVARD... HENDERSONVILLE...SHELBY...LINCOLNTON...GASTONIA...CHARLOTTE... CONCORD...MONROE...LENOIR...MORGANTON...MARION...LAKE LURE... RUTHERFORD...COLUMBUS...GREENVILLE...SPARTANBURG...GAFFNEY... ROCK HILL...ANDERSON...ABBEVILLE...LAURENS...UNION...CHESTER... GREENWOOD 1228 PM EDT SAT JUL 5 2008
.NOW... SCATTERED LIGHT TO MODERATE RAIN SHOWERS WILL MOVE EAST ACROSS THE WESTERN CAROLINAS THIS AFTERNOON. THE HEAVIER RAINFALL WILL AFFECT AREAS ACROSS THE NORTHERN UPSTATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA...AND A FEW ISOLATED HEAVIER SHOWERS WILL DEVELOP AROUND THE CHARLOTTE METRO AREA. RAINFALL AMOUNTS THROUGHOUT THE REGION WILL RANGE FROM A TRACE TO AROUND 1/10 OF AN INCH THROUGH 300 PM. HIDE
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Dan's Starry Skies by Dan Caton
Latest Update: June 26, 2008
Mars and Saturn close on July 10th
A close alignment of planets happens on the evening of the 10th of July as Mars comes to within less than a degree (two Moon-widths) from Saturn. Closest approach is after midnight but it will be set by then. This will be best seen in the deepening twilight about 9:30, when it will already down to 10 degrees above the western horizon. That’s only a fist-width at arm’s length, so you may have to scout out a good horizon.
Between our bookends of dusk and dawn planets we find Jupiter crossing the sky all night. It is at opposition tomorrow night—opposite the Sun in the sky. So it rises at sunset and reaches its highest position, almost 30 degrees above the southern horizon, at 1:00 am. (It’s not at midnight, when you might expect it, because we add an hour for Daylight Time.)
For early risers Mercury is the “morning star” appearing just north of east in the morning twilight. It reached its greatest angle from the Sun on the first of the month but it will still be getting brighter through the month. However, it is swinging around the Sun, and will appear lower in the dawn sky until it disappears by the end of the month. It is on the far side of the Sun from us on the 29th and will reappear very low in the evening sky in August.
