December 24, 2023: The moon appears near the Pleiades star cluster during the earlier morning hours. Antares is at its first morning appearance, known as the heliacal rising.
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.
Earthrise over the Moon
Fifty-five years ago, three humans saw the first earthrise from lunar orbit. Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders captured two life-changing photographs, known as Earthrise over the Moon. The most famous is a color photograph with the moon noticeably above the lunar surface.
This photography reset our views of our place in the universe and notably inspired Archibald MacLeish’s short poem, Riders on Earth Together.
On the fiftieth anniversary of the lunar mission, a colorized black and white photograph was published showing Earth and Moon closer together.
The astronauts returned home after ten revolutions around the moon to much acclaim and celebration, the first humans to see Earth rise from the orbit of another celestial body.
Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Morning Moon, Pleiades
Late-night holiday revelers can see bright Jupiter and the gibbous moon, 92% illuminated, in the western sky after midnight and six hours before daybreak. The bright planet is over 15° above the western horizon, setting nearly ninety minutes later.
The moon is over 20° to Jupiter’s upper left and less than halfway up in the west. The lunar orb is 2.0° to the lower left of the Pleiades star cluster, but overwhelmed by the moonshine.
Look for Aldebaran, 14.0° to the moon’s upper left.
Use a binocular to look for the Pleiades. They are in the same field of view with the moon. Through the binocular, the moonlight may leave a temporary afterimage in your vision, like “seeing spots” after a camera flash.
Venus, Morning Star
Antares, the Scorpion’s brightest star, marking the heart of the arachnid, is making its first morning appearance, or heliacal rising. The star’s rosy hue, though, easily blends into the light of approaching daybreak. Use a binocular to initially find it. If it is not easily visible without the optical assist, look each clear morning.
To find Antares, first look for Venus at forty-five minutes before sunrise. The Morning Star, that bright star in the southeast, is over 20° above the horizon. It is less than 10° below Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgenubi, the Scorpion’s claws, that are about the brightness of the Big Dipper’s stars. The Scorpion’s head, Dschubba, is 10.2° to the lower left of the planet.
Venus passes the star Graffias, 3.1° to the upper left of Dschubba, in nearly a week.
Antares is 5° above the horizon and nearly 18° to the lower left of Venus. To find the star with a binocular, locate Graffias, Dschubba, and Pi Scorpii (π Sco on the chart). They fit snugly into the same field of view. Then move the binocular slightly to the lower left so the three stars disappear. Antares enters the field from the bottom. Can you see the star without the optical assist?
Mercury and Mars
Mercury is entering the morning sky for an appearance in the same region as Venus during mid-January. The planet rises nearly thirty minutes before the sun. It gains about ten minutes of rising time compared to sunrise each morning.
Mercury passes Mars, rising forty-three minutes before the sun, in three mornings, but both are faint and immersed in bright morning twilight. A challenging-to-see Mercury-Mars conjunction occurs in about a month.
Evening Sky
Evening Moon and Jupiter
The bright moon shines brightly from the eastern sky after sunset. The Full moon phase occurs in two evenings. Known as the Cold Moon, this December lunar presence, shines from in front of Taurus’ faraway stars. An hour after sundown, the lunar orb, over 30° above the eastern horizon is 8.6° to the upper left of Aldebaran, the Bull’s brightest star, and 8.2° to the lower left of the Pleiades star cluster that rides on the animal’s back in celestial art. Use a binocular to see the stellar bundle in this moonlight.
Bright Jupiter, over halfway up in the east-southeast, is over 30° to the upper right of the moon. The planet is slowing its westward trek as retrograde nears its completion in less than a week. It is in front of Aries distant stars, 11.4° to the lower right of Hamal, the constellation’s brightest star, and 14.5° to the upper right of Menkar, part of Cetus. Use a binocular to see them.
Saturn
Saturn, markedly dimmer than Jupiter, shines from the south-southwest, about 30° above the horizon. It is about 20° to the upper right of Fomalhaut, the “mouth of the southern fish.” The planet is moving eastward in front of Aquarius’ dim stars that are under moonlight’s cloak.
Saturn sets in the south-southwest about five hours after sunset and long before midnight. Jupiter is south about an hour before Saturn sets. The moon is south about an hour after the Ring Wonder leaves the sky. Jupiter sets tomorrow morning nearly five hours before daybreak. The moon is low in the west-northwest at two hours before sunup when Venus is low in the eastern sky.
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