Celebration of Space - July 10, 2026
Quasi-moon Kamoʻoalewa on July 2, 2026 from 12.4 miles distant. Image Credit: China National Space Administration
This coming Saturday, July 11, 2026, starting at 9:00 pm, the Frosty Drew Observatory will host our Celebrate the Milky Way special event. These are the nights that we think the Milky Way will be in best viewing during the summer viewing season. Frosty Drew is located in Ninigret Park, which is the darkest spot in Rhode Island, but that is not good enough to catch a view of the Milky Way. The Moon plays a big role in viewing the Milky Way, in that it will easily outshine the view. So, the Moon cannot be in the sky to catch a good view. Weather also plays a role. Since the Milky Way is so dim, it is easily obscured by even the thinnest clouds and haze. This is a challenge for coastal New England though we do get several amazing nights. Timings matter as well, and we schedule our Celebrate the Milky Way events during the months that the Milky Way is visible after twilight wanes.
Tomorrow night has most of the requirements met for spectacular views and, as of writing, the weather looks rather nice. Check in on our event page for updates on the event and to get tickets once they become available.
On July, 4, 2026, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) Tianwen-2 spacecraft rendezvoused with the quasi-moon 469219 Kamoʻoalewa. A quasi-moon is an object that orbits the Sun along the same path as Earth and occasionally will interact with Earth. We have about seven (7) quasi-moons that share our orbit, and all are considered Near Earth Asteroids (NEA). In the case of Kamoʻoalewa, this asteroid measures about 90 feet in diameter, rotates once every 28 minutes on its axis, and is likely ejected matter from the far side of the Moon. The CSNA launched the Tianwen-2 spacecraft on May 28, 2025 as part of the Planetary Exploration of China program. The plan is to capture samples of Kamoʻoalewa and return them to Earth during a fly-by procedure in 2027. After which, the spacecraft will rendezvous with comet 311P/PanSTARRS in 2035. Check out this image of Kamoʻoalewa that was captured by Tianwen-2 during its close approach on July 2, 2026 from 12 miles distant.
CNSA has recently started to share information directly with NASA, and we will update this story as new information becomes available via China’s media or NASA publications.
This coming Wednesday, July 15, 2026, Saturn will start to rise in the eastern nighttime sky before midnight, bringing Saturn closer to prime time observation. Saturn, at a distance of roughly 1.4 billion miles from the Sun, has a 29.44 Earth-year orbital period, which means that every year Earth will catch up to Saturn as we orbit the Sun. Currently Saturn is in the constellation Pisces but will start retrograde motion in August, eventually placing Saturn into the constellation Cetus for a few months before prograde motion resumes and moves Saturn back into Pisces. These shifts in apparent motion of the planet occur due to Earth’s faster orbital period around the Sun, which will create the illusion of Saturn moving backwards in its orbit. At Frosty Drew Observatory we will commence our Saturn observations in late August when Saturn rises early enough for a view during our Stargazing Nights event. We should expect to observe Saturn well into the winter months at Frosty Drew.
