January 26, 2024: The bright moon is in front of Cancer and approaches Leo. Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn are easily visible during the night.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:09 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:58 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
Cancer Moon Approaches Regulus
An hour before sunrise, the bright Wolf moon is in the western sky, midway from Gemini’s Pollux to Leo’s Regulus. The lunar orb is in front of Cancer’s dim stars.
Venus with Sagittarius
Farther eastward, brilliant Venus gleams from the southeast. By forty-five minutes before sunup, the Morning Star is over 10° above the horizon. It steps eastward in front of Sagittarius.
Use a binocular to see Kaus Borealis, meaning “the northern part of the bow” of the Centaur, 4.1° to Venus’ lower left. It marks the top of the lid of the Teapot of Sagittarius, a modern moniker for Sagittarius’ brighter stars.
Kaus Borealis and Antares, in Scorpius, somewhat bracket the southern extent of the Milky Way that glows from remote areas during spring mornings and summer evenings.
Mercury and Mars
Mercury appears to approach Mars during bright twilight. At thirty minutes before daybreak, the speedy planet is over 5° above the southeast horizon and 0.8° to the upper right of the Red Planet. Mercury is bright, while Mars is dimmer. Mercury passes closely tomorrow morning.
Evening Sky
Sirius and Winter Stars
An hour after sundown, bright Sirius is twinkling wildly in the east-southeastern sky. The Dog Star rises at sunset in three evenings. It appears to cross the sky during the night, setting about four hours before daybreak tomorrow morning.
Look at the twinkling effect through a binocular. The star appears to show alternating colors from red to blue. This is from air currents breaking the star’s light into prismatic colors that are visible individually.
Sirius is the brightest star visible in the night sky from any latitude, although the star does not rise above the horizon from lands north of 74° latitude, north of the Arctic Circle.
The star is less than ten light years from Earth, shining with a brightness of about 20 suns. While the star is close to our solar system, nine other stars are closer, but they are quite dim.
Notice that Sirius, Procyon – the Little Dog Star, and Betelgeuse – Orion’s shoulder – make the Winter Triangle. Note the scale of the shape. This helps when looking for the first appearance of Sirius after its solar conjunction, known as the star’s heliacal rising, next summer.
Orion is easy to locate above Sirius. Three stars of equal brightness that nearly line up make the Hunter’s belt. An imaginary line between the stars extending downward points toward Sirius and upward it goes toward the Pleiades star cluster.
Rigel is one of Orion’s knees. Notice the contrasting star color between Betelgeuse and Rigel.
Jupiter
At this hour, bright Jupiter is high in the southern sky. It moves eastward in front of Aries, 11.1° to the lower left of Hamal, the Ram’s brightest star, and 13.9° to the upper right of Menkar, part of Cetus. The planet ambles eastward toward an imaginary line between the two stars. Use this celestial landmark to watch the Jovian Giant’s eastward trek.
Jupiter sets in the west-northwest shortly after the new calendar day begins.
Saturn is farther west, nearly 15° up in the west-southwest. The planet sets, less than two hours, thirty minutes after sunset and it loses about four minutes of setting time compared to sunset each night. It passes behind the sun on February 28th, reappearing in the eastern morning sky during early spring.
Moon Approaches Leo
The moon, 98% illuminated, rises around ninety minutes after sundown. By three hours after nightfall, the lunar orb is over 20° up in the east and 8.6° above Regulus. The moon and the star are visible in the western sky before sunrise tomorrow. The lunar disk occults or eclipses the star Eta Leonis tomorrow from southwest Australia.
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