February 12, 2024: Before sunrise, Venus targets Mars. The gap between them is less than 5°. Look for Jupiter and the lunar crescent after sunset.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:51 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:20 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
Venus before Sunrise
Brilliant Venus is performing a slow fade into brighter twilight in the southeastern sky, leading to its superior conjunction with the sun later this year. At forty-five minutes before daybreak, the Morning Star is over 5° above the horizon. It steps eastward in front of Sagittarius. Find its stars with a binocular.
Venus Targets Mars
Fifteen minutes later, Venus is nearly 10° above the horizon and 4.6° to the upper right of dim Mars. The planetary pair is visible through a binocular. Venus passes the Red Planet in ten mornings.
Mercury, moving toward superior conjunction at month’s end, is immersed in bright sunlight. It rises about twenty minutes before the sun.
Evening Sky
Evening Lunar Crescent
An hour after sunset, the crescent moon, 13% illuminated, is nearly 30° up in the west, about one-third of the way from the horizon to overhead.
Earthshine
The lovely crescent is displayed with earthshine, a soft glow of sunlight reflected from Earth’s oceans, clouds and land. The effect is improved with a binocular, although it is visible to the unassisted eye. Look for earthshine during the next few evenings.
Photograph earthshine with a tripod-mounted camera and exposures up to a few seconds, depending on the camera’s settings.
The crescent leaves the sky this evening over four hours after nightfall.
Saturn has disappeared into evening twilight, although Saturn aficionados can locate it with a binocular about forty-five minutes after nightfall. It sets sixty-seven minutes after the sun sets.
Jupiter
Bright Jupiter is higher in the southwest, over 30° to the upper left of the lunar crescent. The Jovian Giant slowly moves eastward in front of Aries, approaching an imaginary line from Hamal, 11.0° to Jupiter’s upper right, to Menkar, 13.0° to the lower left.
Jupiter sets in the west-northwest before midnight. Tomorrow evening, it is high in the southwest after sunset.
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