Skywatch Line for Monday October 27 and Tuesday October 28, 2025 written by Alan French
This is the Dudley Observatory Skywatch Line for Monday October 27 and Tuesday October 28, 2025 written by Alan French. The Sun rises at 7:24 A.M. on Monday and sets at 5:54 P.M. On Tuesday it rises at 7:25 A.M. and sets at 5:53 P.M.
The Moon was new last Tuesday and is now headed toward first quarter. On Monday, the waxing crescent Moon rises at 1:22 P.M. in the southeast. It is difficult to spot against the bright blue sky. By 6:30 the Moon will be a lovely sight low in the south southwest. It transits and is 19 degrees above the southern horizon at 5:35 P.M., appearing 33% sunlit. Moonset is at 9:51 P.M.
Tuesday’s Moon rises at 2:01 P.M. and is toward the south at 6:30, 22 degrees high, and its visible face 42 ½% in sunlight. The Moon sets at 10:57 P.M. The Moon will reach first quarter early Wednesday afternoon.
Saturn is 34 degrees above the southeastern horizon by 8:00 P.M. Its rings are almost edge on and appear very narrow through a telescope. The planet is due south and highest at 10:18 P.M.
Neptune is 4 degrees away from Saturn at an angle of 50.8 degrees, or between northeast (45 degrees) and east-northeast (67.5 degrees). Neptune can never be seen by eye along requires a telescope to spot.
Uranus, which rises at 7:00 P.M. can be spotted by eye under dark skies. The planet now transits, is highest and best placed, at around 2:20 A.M. It is in the constellation Taurus and shines at magnitude +5.6. Although it can be seen by eye, it eluded discovery by early skywatchers and was not discovered and recognized as a planet until after the invention of the telescope.
William Herschel spotted Uranus on March 13, 1781, while he was cataloging faint stars with his telescope. He was using a 6.2-inch aperture reflecting telescope. Such early reflectors used polished speculum mirrors, polished disks of a copper-tin alloy. Because of its slow motion, Herschel first thought the object was a comet. Instead, it was the first new planet discovered by a telescope and since ancient times.