December 20, 2023: Brilliant Venus is in the southeast before daybreak. After nightfall the gibbous moon nears Jupiter in the southeast sky.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:14 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:22 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Venus, Morning Star
That bright star in the southeast before sunrise is Venus. The Morning Star is over 20° above the horizon at one hour before daybreak. It steps eastward in front of Libra, 3.8° to the lower left of Zubenelgenubi, and 6.4° to the lower right of Zubeneschamali, Libra’s brightest stars. Tomorrow, the planet passes the second star in a wide conjunction.
Through a telescope, Venus displays a morning gibbous phase that is 74% illuminated.
Dschubba, the Scorpion’s head, is nearly 10° above the horizon and nearly 15° to the lower left of Venus, and 3.0° to the lower right of Graffias, meaning “the crab.”
Mars continues its slow climb into the eastern predawn sky. The planet rises forty minutes before the sun, not yet early enough to easily see it.
Evening Sky
Mercury reaches inferior conjunction, between Earth and Sun in two days. Still east of the sun, it sets twenty-five minutes after the sun. The planet is at perihelion today, moving fastest through its orbital path. It quickly overtakes our planet and moves into the southeastern sky before sunrise during mid-January.
Moon Nears Jupiter
As darkness falls, the bright gibbous moon, 64% illuminated, is over halfway up in the south-southeast sky and over 20° to the right of bright Jupiter.
Jupiter is nearing the end of its retrograde against Aries’ distant stars. Tonight, the planet is 11.4° to the lower right of Hamal, the Ram’s brightest star, and 14.4° to the upper right of Menkar, part of Cetus. The planet does not fit into a binocular field of view with either star. An optical assist may be necessary to see the two stars in this moonlight.
Saturn in South-Southwest
Saturn, not as bright as Jupiter, is over 30° above the south-southwest horizon and over 40° to the lower right of the moon. The Ringed Wonder is over 20° to the upper left of Fomalhaut.
During the night, the stars, moon, and planets appear farther westward. Saturn sets in the west-southwest about five hours after sundown.
At 9:59 p.m. CST, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is visible through a telescope at the center of the planet in the southern hemisphere. Io, one of Jupiter’s four largest satellites, is visible silhouetted against the planet to the upper left of the long-lived storm. By 10:30 p.m., the moon’s shadow is projected on the cloud tops. An hour later, the spot is disappearing around the west edge of the planet as Io is again visible against the dark velvet of the sky. As Io revolves around the planet, the shadow leaves the cloud deck nearly thirty-five minutes into the new calendar day in the Central Time zone. The lunar orb sets nearly six hours before the sun and Jupiter follows ninety minutes later.
RECENT PODCASTS
LATEST ARTICLES
- 2026, October 11: Mars Appears in the Beehive Star Cluster Before Sunrise
October 11, 2026: Before sunrise, Mars appears in the Beehive star cluster while closing the gap to Jupiter. View the planets and the famous stellar bundle through a binocular. - 2026, October 10: New Materials for Energy Supply
October 10, 2026: Oregon researchers developed a new family of materials to convert light into energy. - 2026, October 9: Texas Researchers Modify OK’s Impact Date
October 9, 2026: University of Texas scientists modify the estimate of a meteorite impact in Oklahoma. - 2026, October 8: News From NASA’s Perseverance from Mars
October 8, 2026: NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft finds unexpected geological strata. - 2026, October 7: Predawn Alignment of Jupiter, Moon, and Regulus
October 7, 2026: Before sunrise, look for Jupiter, Regulus, and Moon align in the eastern sky.