21.7 days old
55.3 percent lit
March 19, 2017
By Joe Rao
If you have a telescope, (click here) you might want to consider setting your alarm on Monday (March 20) for around 5 a.m. local daylight time (4 a.m. standard time if you live in Hawaii, Arizona or Puerto Rico, which do not observe daylight time). If you step outside at that hour and look southeast, you'll see what are probably the two most popular celestial objects to look at through a telescope: Earth's moon and the planet Saturn.
On Monday, which is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the moon will be just hours away from officially arriving at its last quarter (or half-moon) phase. And hovering about 2 and a half degrees below the moon will be Saturn, the "Lord of the Rings."...
