November 4, 2022: During the evening hours, a bright Jupiter-moon conjunction occurs. Before sunrise, Mars is above the Bull’s horns – Elnath and Zeta Tauri.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:27 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 5:41 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times for your location.
The Great Red Spot’s transit times, when it is in the center of the planet in the southern hemisphere: 2:10 UT, 12:06 UT, 22:01 UT. Convert time to your time zone. In the US, subtract four hours for EDT, five hours for CDT, and so on. Use a telescope to see the spot.
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
SUMMARY OF PLANETS IN 2022 MORNING SKY
An hour before daybreak, Mars is high in the western sky, above the horns of Taurus, Elnath and Zeta Tauri. The planet is beginning to pick up a westward pace after it began to retrograde five nights ago.
This morning the Red Planet is 2.9° to the upper right of Zeta Tauri, the southern horn. In three nights, Mars passes Zeta. The planet moves between the horns on the 13th and passes Elnath, the northern horn, on the 18th.
Mercury is moving toward its superior conjunction on the 8th. It rises in bright twilight only 13 minutes before the sun.
Evening Sky
Venus is slowly moving into the western evening sky. The pace is very slow at this time. It sets only 11 minutes after the sun.
The bright moon is near Jupiter tonight. An hour after sundown, the gibbous orb, 87% illuminated, is over 3° to the lower left of the bright planet. This is a striking sight. The moon reaches its Full phase on the 8th.
Jupiter continues to retrograde in front of a dim Pisces starfield. This continues until the 24th.
Saturn, moving slowly eastward in front of Capricornus, is about one-third of the way up in the south-southeast.
Over three hours after sundown, Jupiter and the moon are in the southern sky. Saturn is low in the southwest and Mars is about the same altitude – height above the horizon – in the east-northeast. Three bright outer planets and the moon are along an arc of the solar system’s plane.
Saturn sets about seven hours after sundown, before local midnight. Jupiter and the moon set over four hours before sunrise. This leaves Mars as the lone bright planet in the morning before sunrise.
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