Note: The dates and times provided below are for Phoenix, Arizona. You may need to make appropriate time adjustments based on where you live.
Events Intro
The tables below is a list of astronomical events for this year. The following columns listed are:
- Date – The Date and day of the event.
- Event – The title of the event.
- Images – If an icon or icons are present in this column selecting the icon will open a new tab in your browser with detail images of the event.
- Equipment – List of equipment that would be appropriate for observing the event. This equipment includes:
- Visual – Naked eye observing of the event.
- Binoculars – A good pair of binoculars.
- Telescope – This event requires higher magnification to view and so would require a telescope.
- References – When selecting a number in the References column a new tab will be open in your browser where you can find more information on the event.
- Comments – Additional information on the event.
2024 Astronomical Events (PDF) – Astronomical Events for the year in a printable PDF document.
08 – August
| Date | Event | Images | Equipment | References | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024.08.04 (Sun) | New Moon | Visual | Dark Skies! | ||
| 2024.08.05 (Mon) | Moon-Venus Appulse |   | Visual Binoculars | 1 | Perseids meteor shower with expected peak shower rate of 150 meteors/hour in the late hours of August 11th to the morning of August 12th. Where in the sky the appearance of falling stars from this shower cannot be predicted if you trace its trail back it should trace back to the constellation Perseus. |
| 2024.08.11 (Sun) | Perseids (150) | Visual | 1 | At 5:00 AM Mars and Jupiter will be within 19’ of each other in the eastern horizon about 50° above the horizon. | |
| 2024.08.14 (Wed) | Mars-Jupiter Appulse |   | Visual Binoculars Telescope | 1 | At 5:00 AM Mars and Jupiter will be within 19’ of each other in the eastern horizon about 50° above the horizon. |
| 2024.08.19 (Mon) | Full Moon | Visual | Sturgeon Moon: Naming full moons is silly, but it makes the news a lot of times. | ||
| 2024.08.20 (Tue) | Moon-Saturn Appulse |   | Visual Binoculars | 1 | The Moon and Saturn within 2° of each other in the western horizon about 22° above the horizon at 10:00 PM. |
09 – September * (Full Moon Craziness this month)
| Date | Event | Images | Equipment | References | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024.09.03 (Tue) | New Moon | Visual | Dark Skies | ||
| 2024.09.06 (Fri) | Mercury AM sighting |  | Visual | 1 | Since Mercury is so close to the sun it is generally difficult to spot in the sky. However, on this morning, it will appear 14° above the eastern horizon just before sunrise. |
| 2024.09.08 (Sun) | Saturn at Opposition | Telescope | 1 | Saturn lies opposite to the Sun in the sky and will be visible for most of the night. | |
| 2024.09.17 (Tue) | Full Moon (Supermoon) | Visual | Harvest Moon: Naming full moons is silly, but it makes the news a lot of times. This month’s full moon is also a Supermoon. The technical name for a Supermoon is Perigee-syzygy. | ||
| 2024.09.17 (Tue) | Moon/Saturn Occultation |    | Binoculars Telescope | 1 | The Moon will pass in front of Saturn at about 4:14 AM (14° above horizon) and Saturn will emerge from behind the moon at about 5:06 AM (4° above horizon). |
| 2024.09.17 (Tue) | Partial Lunar Eclipse |   | Visual Binoculars | 1 | Earth’s shadow will just graze the moon with a maximum coverage of 10%. Grazing will start at 7:14 PM with maximum at 7:47 PM and ending at 8:17 PM |
| 2024.09.17 (Tue) | Moon/Neptune Occultation |    | Telescope | 1 | The Moon will pass in front of Neptune at about 11:52 PM (53° above horizon) and emerge from behind the moon at about 1:05 AM (54° above horizon). |
| 2024.09.20 (Fri) | Neptune at Opposition | Binoculars Telescope | 1 | Neptune lies opposite to the Sun in the sky and will be visible for most of the night. | |
| 2024.09.22 (Sun) | Equinox | 1 |
10 – October
| Date | Event | Images | Equipment | References | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-10-02 (Wed) | New Moon | Visual | Dark Skies! | ||
| 2024-10-17 (Thu) | Full Moon | Visual | Hunters Moon: Naming full moons is silly, but it makes the news a lot of times. |
10-November
| Date | Event | Images | Equipment | References | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-01 (Fri) | New Moon | Visual | Dark Skies! | ||
| 2024-11-10 (Sun) | Moon-Saturn Appulse |   | Visual Binoculars | 1 | The Moon and Saturn within 38’ of each other in the western horizon about 44° above the horizon at 7:00 PM. |
| 2024-11-11 (Mon) | Moon/Neptune Occultation |    | Binoculars Telescope | 1 | The Moon will pass in front of Neptune at about 6:20 PM (39° above horizon) and emerge from behind the moon at about 7:18 PM (48° above horizon). |
| 2024-11-15 (Fri) | Full Moon | Visual | Beaver Moon: Naming full moons is silly, but it makes the news a lot of times. | ||
| 2024-11-17 (Sun) | Uranus at Opposition | Telescope | 1 | Uranus lies opposite to the Sun in the sky and will be visible for most of the night. | |
| 2024-11-20 (Wed) | Mercury PM sighting |  | Visual | 1 | Since Mercury is so close to the sun it is generally difficult to spot in the sky. However, this evening, it will appear 9° above the western horizon just after sunset. |
12 – December
| Date | Event | Images | Equipment | References | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024.12.01 (Sun) | New Moon | Visual | Dark Skies! | ||
| 2024.12.07 (Sat) | Jupiter at Opposition | Telescope | 1 | Jupiter lies opposite to the Sun in the sky and will be visible for most of the night. | |
| 2024.12.15 (Sun) | Full Moon | Visual | Cold Moon: Naming full moons is silly, but it makes the news a lot of times. | ||
| 2024.12.18 (Wed) | Moon-Mars Appulse |  | Visual Binoculars | 1 | The Moon and Mars within 47’ of each other in the eastern horizon about 70° above the horizon at 2:00 AM. |
| 2024.12.21 (Sat) | Mercury AM sighting |  | Visual | 1 | Since Mercury is so close to the sun it is generally difficult to spot in the sky. However, on this morning, it will appear 16° above the eastern horizon just before sunrise. |
| 2024.12.23 (Mon) | Jupiter Double Transit |   | Telescope | Io and Ganymede Double shadow transit from 00:47 to 01:50. Jupiter is well placed for this event. | |
| 2024.12.30 (Mon) | New Moon | Visual | Dark Skies! | ||
| 2024.12.30 (Mon) | Jupiter Double Transit |   | Telescope | Io and Ganymede Double shadow transit from 03:35 to 04:55 with altitude range of 24deg to 8 deg above the horizon. |