February 19, 2024: This evening features February Evening’s Gemini Moon. Jupiter is visible in the southwest after nightfall.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:41 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:28 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
Venus is slipping into brighter morning twilight. The planet rises seventy-one minutes before the sun and by forty-five minutes before daybreak, the Morning Star is less than 5° above the east-southeast horizon. While the stars are dim, Venus steps eastward in front of Capricornus.
Venus and Mars
Fifteen minutes later, use a binocular to see Venus and Mars in the same field of view. Dimmer than might be expected, Mars is 1.5° to the lower left of Venus. The Red Planet slowly emerges from brighter twilight into the predawn eastern sky. It marches eastward at about half Venus’ speed.
Venus overtakes Mars in three mornings, passing 0.6° from the slower planet.
Mercury is still west of the sun and considered a morning planet. It rises a few minutes ahead of the sun and is not easily visible.
Evening Sky
Like morning’s Mercury, Saturn slips into brighter evening twilight. It moves toward a solar conjunction near month’s end, reappearing in the eastern morning sky during early spring. Mars passes the Ringed Wonder on April 10th.
February Evening’s Gemini Moon
As night falls, the bright gibbous moon, 82% illuminated, is high in the east-southeast with Gemini. The lunar orb is over 10° to the upper right of Castor and 12° to the upper right of Pollux.
The bright moonlight washes across the sky and hides the night’s fainter stars. The moon’s phase continues to wax until the Full phase on the 24th. This month’s bright moon is known as the Snow Moon.
Jupiter
Bright Jupiter is over halfway up in the southwestern sky. It moves eastward in front of Aries, 11.0° to the lower left of Hamal and 12.6° to the upper right of Menkar. The Jovian Giant continues to slowly approach an imaginary line between the stars. With this moonlight, use a binocular to locate Menkar.
Jupiter sets before midnight in the west-northwest. The moon is in the sky longer, setting over one hundred minutes before tomorrow’s sunrise and after the beginning of morning twilight.
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