February 4, 2024: February’s Scorpion moon is in the southeastern sky before sunrise. Today is winter’s mid-point.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:00 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:09 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Winter’s Midpoint
Winter’s mid-point occurs today at 9:16 a.m. CST. The season’s length is eighty-eight days, twenty-three hours, and thirty-nine minutes, leading up to the Vernal equinox on March 19th at 10:06 p.m. CDT.
The seasonal midpoints, also known as cross-quarter days, are approximately marked by several notable consistent dates, Groundhog Day (February 2), May Day (May 1), Lammas Day (August 1), and Halloween (October 31) (source). Regardless of what the local subterranean rodent predicted for your location, there is still six more weeks of astronomical winter, until the sun crosses north of the celestial equator.
Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
February’s Scorpion Moon
Forty-five minutes before daybreak, the crescent moon, 35% illuminated, is over 20° up in the south and 6.6° to the upper right of rosy Antares, the Scorpion’s brightest star. The moon glides eastward against the stellar background, creating an occultation or stellar eclipse with the star tomorrow morning in southeastern Asia and Indonesia.
Scorpius continues to emerge from bright sunlight in the southeastern sky before sunrise. Shaula and Lesath, that mark the Scorpion’s stinger, are nearly 5° up in the east-southeast.
The Scorpion’s pattern somewhat resembles its namesake. The arachnid’s body and tail resemble a fish hook or letter “J”. The curved part of the body does not appear in the sky before sunrise until later during early March for sky watchers at Chicago’s latitude. The star Sargas dots this section of the constellation’s shape, although sky watchers south of Memphis, Tennessee’s latitude see the complete Scorpion in the southern sky.
Venus, Mars, Mercury
Brilliant Venus is farther eastward stepping eastward in front of Sagittarius. Find it less than 10° above the southeast horizon. The moon makes a pretty scene with the Morning Star on the 7th.
Use a binocular to find Kaus Borealis and Nunki, two of the constellation’s brighter stars, although they are about the brightness of the Big Dipper’s stars.
Mars shows on the accompanying chart, but it is not easily spotted this morning. The planet is only a few degrees above the horizon, over 8° to the lower left of Venus.
Venus steps eastward about twice as fast as Mars. Earth’s Twin planet overtakes the Red Planet on the 22nd.
After a pretty morning display, Mercury rapidly heads toward a solar conjunction near month’s end. This morning it rises during brighter twilight, forty minutes before daybreak.
Evening Sky
Saturn
An hour after sundown, Saturn is less than 10° above the west-southwest horizon. The Ringed Wonder is slipping into bright evening twilight, reaching its solar conjunction on the 28th, the same date as Mercury’s superior conjunction.
Jupiter
Bright Jupiter is high in the south-southwest at this hour. It moves eastward in front of Aries, 11.1° to the lower left of Hamal and 13.4° to the upper right of Menkar, Cetus’ nostril. The Jovian Giant slowly moves eastward, approaching an imaginary line between these stars. It passes between them toward month’s end.
At 9:15 p.m. CST, when Jupiter is about halfway up in the western sky, the planet’s Great Red Spot is visible at the center of the planet in the southern hemisphere through a telescope.
Jupiter sets in the west-northwest after midnight.
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