Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon Tonight , March 24, 25, 26 and 27, 2012

For Photos, see below the description.

After the closest pairing of Jupiter and Venus, the moon appears in the western sky with them during the next several days. Here’s what to look for at approximately 8:15 p.m. CDT in Chicago:

March 24: The waxing crescent moon appears below Jupiter and Venus, near the western horizon.
March 25: Jupiter and the moon are paired nicely, with the moon appearing slightly higher and to the right of Jupiter
March 26: Tonight, Venus and the moon are nicely paired with both objects appearing about the same height above the western horizon. This is the night to catch a classic photographic view of the moon and Venus together.  Use a variety of automatic settings on your digital camera.  If the camera has a manual exposure setting, set it for 4 seconds with the aperture at its lowest setting (number).
March 27: The moon stands above Venus and Jupiter as the planetary pair continues to separate.

This 2-second photo was made at 8 p.m. CDT on March 25, 2012. After a promising early twilight, the clouds moved in.

After missing the best evening (March 26), Venus with the moon, because of mostly cloudy skies where the sky was clear in patches at varying intervals, the skies were hazy on March 27 in the Chicago area. This two-second time exposure was made at 8:10 p.m. CDT shows Venus, Jupiter, the moon, and Aldebaran.