January 20, 2024: Before sunrise, planet Mercury races into bright morning twilight. It is to Venus’ lower left. After sunset the moon is with the Pleiades.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:13 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:50 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
Mercury Races into Brighter Twilight
Mercury is racing toward the sun and a superior conjunction – occurring on the far side of the sun – on February 28th. The planet is the second brightest starlike body in the morning sky. Find it over 5° above the southeast horizon at forty-five minutes before sunrise.
Mercury is bright enough to be seen without optical assistance, but initially locate it with a binocular.
To locate Mercury, first find brilliant Venus less than 15° above the southeast horizon. It is stepping eastward in front of Ophiuchus, over 15° to the lower left of Antares, the Scorpion’s heart in celestial artwork.
Venus sets earlier each morning. It lost forty minutes of rising time since New Year’s Day. The planet is lower in the sky at this time interval. To see the bright Morning Star, it may be necessary to look around any obstructions in the neighborhood.
Mercury is 11.2° to Venus’ lower left. The gap between the two planets is widening each morning, since Mercury’s eastern pace is faster than Earth’s Twin planet.
Through a telescope, Venus shows a morning gibbous phase that is 83% illuminated, slightly lit more than tonight’s moon phase.
Mars
Mars seems to struggle to climb into morning twilight. While rising nearly sixty minutes before the sun, the Red Planet is just above the horizon when Venus and Mercury are visible and hidden by its lack of brightness and dimming effects of the air when we look toward the horizon.
Mercury passes by in a challenging-to-see conjunction in a week.
Evening Sky
Moon and Jupiter
After sundown, the bright moon, 79% illuminated, is high in the southeast. Notice Jupiter, about the same altitude – height above the horizon – as the lunar orb, nearly 30° to the right of the moon.
This evening, the gibbous moon is near the Pleiades star cluster. Under less moonlight, the cluster is relatively easy to locate in the eastern January evening sky. With tonight’s moon, the cluster is largely washed out by the moon’s glow. The cluster is 5.4° to the upper left of the lunar orb.
Moon, Pleiades
Through a binocular, the Pleiades and the moon are in the same binocular field of view. Aim the binocular at the moon and place it to the lower left part of the field. The cluster is to the upper right.
To avoid an afterimage in your vision, move the binocular slightly to the upper right to move the lunar orb from the view and center the star cluster. Even in this bright moonlight, the binocular reveals a few dozen stars.
Without the binocular, find Aldebaran, nearly 10° to the lower left of the moon. The star is the brightest in Taurus.
Saturn in West-Southwest
At this hour, Saturn is about 20° above the west-southwest horizon. It moves eastward in front of Aquarius. Notice the star Fomalhaut, nearly 20° to the lower left and less than 10° above the southwest horizon.
During the night, Earth’s rotation seems to make the stars move westward. Saturn sets less than three hours after sundown.
Jupiter’s Red Spot
At 10:41 p.m. CST, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is at the center of the planet in the southern hemisphere. Look for Jupiter’s moon Europa, silhouetted against the planet immediately south of the long-lived atmospheric disturbance. The moon Ganymede is about to move in front of the planet.
As Jupiter approaches the horizon for Chicago sky watchers, the moons’ revolutions are easily seen. Europa’s shadow appears on the cloud tops and Ganymede moves in front of the planet during the new calendar day. For those in more westerly time zones, continue to watch the moons dance with the planet as the Jovian Giant disappears into the blurring haze near the horizon.
Moonset occurs nearly three hours before sunup tomorrow morning.
Before sunrise, look for Mercury is it races into brighter morning twilight.
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