Morning Stars Venus and Jupiter are seen at 5:05 a.m. CDT this morning in this 30-second image made in the Chicago area. These planets sparkle among the bright predawn stars in the eastern sky well into bright twilight.
Venus is among the dim stars of Cancer and well below Castor and Pollux (Gemini). Procyon (Canis Minor) appears to the right of Venus along the horizon.
Bright Jupiter is nearly 55 degrees to the upper right of Venus in the southern skies among the stars of Taurus. Because of their separation its difficult to capture them in the same photographic frame. The separate image above was made at 5:10 a.m. CDT to show the solar system’s largest planet and the starry background.
Jupiter appears near Aldebaran, the brightest star in Taurus. The Pleiades star cluster is higher in the sky. Elnath and Zeta Tauri, the bull’s horns, appear nearby. The bright star Capella (Auriga) also appears in the image.
For our monthly sky watching posting, click here. Watch the planetary pair in the morning sky throughout the next several months. Read more about Venus as a Morning Star. (Click the image to see it larger.)