2023, November 24: Vega Double Take, Jupiter-Moon Conjunction

November 24, 2023: Vega appears before sunrise and after sunset.  The moon passes Jupiter during the nighttime hours.

Jupiter, Saturn, Moon, October 22, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, October 22: The nearly first quarter moon, overexposed in the image above, makes a nice triangle with Jupiter and Saturn. The planets are 5.9° apart. The moon is 4.4° to the lower left of Jupiter and 4.2° to the lower right of Saturn.

PODCAST FOR THIS ARTICLE

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois:  Sunrise, 6:51 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:24 p.m. CST.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

2023, November 24: Vega is in the northeast before sunrise.
Chart Caption – 2023, November 24: Vega is in the northeast before sunrise.

The bright star Vega is appearing before sunrise and during evening hours.  This morning the second brightest star in the northern half of the sky is low in the northeast, making its first morning appearance or its heliacal rising.

Vega is a bright blue-white star, shining at a distance of twenty-five light years and a visual intensity of nearly fifty suns.

With Vega’s entry into the morning sky, nearly all the ten brightest stars visible from the mid-northern latitudes are visible before sunrise.  The list is Sirius, Arcturus, Vega, Capella, Rigel, Procyon, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Spica.  Altair, number eight, is below the eastern horizon at this hour.  

2023, November 24: Vega, Altair, and Deneb are in the southwestern sky after nightfall.
Chart Caption – 2023, November 24: Vega, Altair, and Deneb are in the southwestern sky after nightfall.

After sunset, Vega, Altair, and Deneb – known as the Summer Triangle – are high in the west-southwestern sky.  The triangle is visible in the eastern sky after sunset about the time of the summer solstice.  From Earth’s revolution around the sun, it starts the night in tonight’s location. 

Vega sets around midnight, but with the sun’s more southerly location it reappears in the northeast before sunrise.

Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24

Here is today’s planet forecast:

Morning Sky

2023, November 24: Jupiter and the moon are in the eastern sky after sunset.
Chart Caption – 2023, November 24: Jupiter and the moon are in the eastern sky after sunset.

At three hours before daybreak, Venus and Jupiter are nearly the same altitudes, height above the horizon.  They are about 10° up, Venus in the east-southeast and Jupiter in the west.  The gap between them is over 160°.

2023, November 24: Venus, Spica, and Arcturus are in the eastern sky before daybreak.
Chart Caption – 2023, November 24: Venus, Spica, and Arcturus are in the eastern sky before daybreak.

An hour before sunrise, the Morning Star is nearly 30° up in the southeast, 7.8° above Spica.  Venus passes the star in a wide conjunction in five mornings.

This morning Arcturus is nearly 35° up in the east and nearly 30° to the upper left of Venus.

The Scorpion is beginning to crawl across the horizon.  Its claws, Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgenubi, are above the east-southeast horizon.  Like Vega, they are making their first morning appearance.  Each morning these stars are higher in the sky.

After its conjunction with Spica, Venus continues to move eastward, passing between the claws December 18th.

Mars rises a few minutes before the sun.  It is not easily visible again until early next year.

Evening Sky

Mercury’s greatest elongation occurs December 4th. The planet appears farthest from the sun, but it is still in bright twilight.  At sunset this evening, the planet is less than 10° above the southwest horizon.  The planet sets less than an hour later.  At its best, Mercury is challenging to see for northern hemisphere sky watchers.

2023, November 24: Jupiter and the moon are in the eastern sky after sunset.
Chart Caption – 2023, November 24: Jupiter and the moon are in the eastern sky after sunset.

The bright gibbous moon, 93% illuminated, is about 30° up in the east after sundown.  Jupiter is the “bright star” to the lower left of the lunar orb.  The separation is 5.7°.  During the evening as Earth rotates, the moon moves eastward to close in on the planet.

2023, November 25: Three hours before sunrise, Jupiter appears near the moon in the western sky.
Chart Caption – 2023, November 25: Three hours before sunrise, Jupiter appears near the moon in the western sky.

Tomorrow morning, the gibbous moon passes Jupiter.  Early risers see Jupiter 2.2° to the left of the gibbous moon in the western sky about two hours before daybreak.  The duo is close to the western horizon in middle America.  For sky watchers in the Central Time zone look earlier when the pair is higher in the sky.  Western locales see the moon pass Jupiter at 3 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, although the moon is below the horizon in the eastern Americas.

2023, November 24: Saturn and Fomalhaut are in the southern sky after sundown.
Chart Caption – 2023, November 24: Saturn and Fomalhaut are in the southern sky after sundown.

After sundown, Saturn is in the southern sky, over 35° above the horizon.  The star Fomalhaut, meaning “the mouth of the southern fish,” is about 20° to the lower left of the planet.  Saturn sets in the west-southwest before midnight.

RECENT PODCASTS

LATEST ARTICLES