December 23, 2023: Look for the planet Uranus and the Pleiades star cluster through a binocular during nighttime hours.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:15 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:23 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
For holiday revelers, bright Jupiter and the moon are in the western sky after midnight. About six hours before sunrise, the Jovian Giant is over 15° above the horizon, 10.0° below the gibbous moon that is 85% illuminated.
At this hour, the planet Uranus is in the same binocular field of view with the moon. The planet, dimmer than all the stars in the field that includes Pi (π Ari on the chart) Rho (ρ Ari), Sigma (σ Ari), and 40 (40 Ari) in Aries, is to the upper left in the field when the moon is placed to the lower right. The moon may create a temporary afterimage in human vision, like the “spots” from a camera flash. Move the binocular to the upper left slightly, so the moon disappears from the view. Then the planet is near the center of the field. In a week or so, when the moon is dimmer and farther away, point your binocular between Jupiter and the Pleiades star cluster to find this planet that shines near the limit of human vision.
An hour before sunrise, brilliant Venus is 20° up in the southeast. Quite simply, “It is that bright star in the southeast during morning twilight.” The planet is stepping eastward in front of Libra’s brighter stars, below Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali. It is heading for a conjunction with Graffias, meaning “the crab,” part of Scorpius and over 11° to the planet’s lower left.
Mars is slowly moving into the eastern predawn sky, rising this morning forty-three minutes before daybreak.
Mercury is racing into the morning sky, already rising seventeen minutes before the sun. Its best views occur near mid-January when it is over 10° to the lower left of Venus.
Evening Sky
Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon are in the evening sky after nightfall. The bright gibbous moon, 94% illuminated, is less than halfway up in the east and over 20° to the lower left of bright Jupiter. The moonlight washes out the dimmer stars.
The Pleiades star cluster is 5.1° to the lower left of the moon. Use a binocular to see them in the same field of view, then move the binocular slightly left to remove the dazzling lunar orb from the view. Return to this part of the sky with the binocular in ten days when the moon has moved on and it is dimmer than tonight.
Saturn, considerably dimmer than Jupiter, is over 30° up in the south-southwest. The brightest star in the region, Fomalhaut, meaning “the mouth of the southern fish,” is nearly 20° to the planet’s lower left.
From Earth’s rotation, Saturn sets in the west-southwest about five hours after sunset. Jupiter is south about an hour before Saturn sets. The Jovian Giant sets nearly four and one-half hours before sunrise and an hour before Venus rises. The gibbous moon sets about two hours before daybreak.
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