2024, February 6: Contrasting Views of the Morning Planets

February 6, 2024: Contrasting views of the morning planets occur from different latitudes.  Look for Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn.

2019, February 28: Morning Star Venus, Saturn, Moon, and Jupiter arch across the southeastern morning sky. The moon as about midway between Jupiter and Saturn.
Photo Caption – 2019, February 28: Morning Star Venus, Saturn, Moon, and Jupiter arch across the southeastern morning sky. The moon as about midway between Jupiter and Saturn.

PODCAST FOR THIS ARTICLE

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:58 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:12 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

Contrasting Views of the Morning Planets

Contrasting views of the morning planets - 2024, February 6: Venus and the crescent moon are in the eastern sky before sunrise.
Chart Caption – 2024, February 6: Venus and the crescent moon are in the eastern sky before sunrise.

Look for brilliant Venus and the crescent moon in the southeast at forty-five minutes before daybreak.  The Morning Star is less than 10° above the horizon, while the moon, 16% illuminated, is slightly higher in the sky, about 20° to the right of the planet.

Venus is over 7° to the upper right of Mars, but the Red Planet is not easily observed at the mid-northern latitudes.  Mercury, rising thirty-five minutes before the sun, is lost in the sun’s glare.  It reaches superior conjunction on the far side of the sun at month’s end.

Contrasting views of the morning planets - 2024, February 6: From the southern hemisphere, Venus, Mercury, Mars, and the moon are easily visible before sunrise.
Chart Caption – 2024, February 6: From the southern hemisphere, Venus, Mercury, Mars, and the moon are easily visible before sunrise.

In contrast, southern hemisphere sky watchers see the moon, Venus, Mars, and Mercury standing above the east-southeast horizon before sunrise.  From Sydney Australia’s latitude, tomorrow morning (February 7th), the moon is over 30° above the horizon, about 14° above Venus.  The Morning Star is nearly 20° above the horizon, 7.4° to the upper left of Mars, and 14.8° to the upper left of Mercury.

Evening Sky

Saturn

2024, February 6: Beginning to slide into brighter evening twilight, Saturn is low in the west-southwest after sundown,
Chart Caption – 2024, February 6: Beginning to slide into brighter evening twilight, Saturn is low in the west-southwest after sundown,

An hour after sundown, Saturn is over 5° above the west-southwest horizon.  It is slipping into brighter evening twilight as it heads for solar conjunction later this month.  In a few evenings at this hour, the Ringed Wonder appears to move into the haze that dims and blurs celestial objects. This evening, the planet sets over ninety minutes after the sun.

Jupiter

2024, February 6: Jupiter is high in the west-southwest after sunset.
Chart Caption – 2024, February 6: Jupiter is high in the west-southwest after sunset.

Bright Jupiter is high in the south-southwest to the upper left of Saturn.  The planet moves eastward in front of Aries, 10.9° to the lower left of Hamal, Aries’ brightest star, and 13.3° to the upper right of Menkar, the Sea Monster’s nostril.

Jupiter is slowly, but noticeably moving eastward compared to the starry background.  Watch it approach an imaginary line from Hamal to Menkar.

Before the moon returns to the evening sky, locate Uranus that is nearly between the Jovian Giant and the Pleiades star cluster.  The planet is relatively easy to find through a binocular.  See the notes in an earlier article.

Jupiter Close up from Hubble Space Telescope
Photo Caption – This Hubble Space Telescope view of Jupiter, taken on June 27, 2019, reveals the giant planet’s trademark Great Red Spot, and a more intense color palette in the clouds swirling in Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere than seen in previous years. The colors, and their changes, provide important clues to ongoing processes in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Through a telescope at 9:54 p.m. CST, when Jupiter is over 20° up in the west, the Great Red Spot is visible at the center of the planet in the southern hemisphere.

Jupiter sets in the west-northwest after midnight and the beginning of a new calendar day.

RECENT PODCASTS

LATEST ARTICLES