March 3, 2024: This morning’s Moon-Antares occultation occurs during the early morning hours for some sky watchers in the western hemisphere.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:21 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:44 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
March 3, 2024, Moon-Antares Occultation
For sky watchers in the Southeastern US states, Caribbean basin, and parts of Mexico, the moon occults or eclipses the star Antares, the heart of the Scorpion, early this morning. This occurs when the moon crosses a sky watcher’s sight line to a distant star, and for a short period, blocks the star’s view. Like a solar eclipse, observers along a limited track see this event, but there is no potential for eye damage like the solar eclipse.
The orbital path of the moon shifts along the ecliptic and the distant zodiacal stars during a cycle that recurs every 18.6 years.
Occultations of Antares began during August 2023 and occur nearly each lunation that end August 27, 2028. The next stellar eclipse of Antares occurs March 30th for sky watchers in the southwestern Pacific Ocean basin.
The event is easy to see. A binocular or spotting scope helps the view. This table shows the times when the star disappears behind the moon, then reappears.
| City | Disappear (local time, a.m.) | Reappear (local time, a.m.) |
| Atlanta, GA | 2:04 | 2:56 |
| Charleston, SC | 2:09 | 2:57 |
| Miami, FL | 1:58 | 3:03 |
| Tallahassee, FL | 1:59 | 2:59 |
| Cancun, MX | 1:54 | 3:01 |
| San Juan, PR | 3:13 | 4:24 |
In Chicago, the occultation is in progress when the moon rises at 1:16 a.m. The moon reappears at 1:45 a.m. The moon and star are low in the east-southeast when Antares disappears.
For every sky watcher, the star disappears at the sunlight edge or limb of the moon and reappears at the night limb.
For other locations not in the list above and in the region where the entire occultation occurs, find the nearest city in this reference to determine when the occultation occurs. Subtract the differential from the Universal Time listed in the reference’s table, five hours for Eastern Time and six hours for Central. While the event is not visible in western American time zones, the reappearance is visible in a large swath of Eastern and Central time zones.
Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Moon, Scorpius
During morning twilight, the moon is east of Antares and in front of Scorpius. The lunar phase nears the Last Quarter that occurs at 9:23 a.m. CDT.
Venus advances eastward against the distant stars that are awash in morning twilight. The brilliant planet rises 53 minutes before sunrise. About 25 minutes later, the planet is less than 5° above the east-southeast horizon. It is visible through a binocular, 4.7° to the lower left of Mars.
Venus and Mars
This time interval before sunrise is the optimal time to see Mars and Venus together. If attempted later, Mars is hiding in bright twilight. If earlier, Venus is not above the horizon. In a day or so, the lighting levels make this nearly an impossible observation. While Venus and Mars are in the same binocular field of view for another five mornings, this observation window is nearly finished.
Afterward, Mars appears earlier before sunrise, while Venus rises later compared to the sun’s appearance.
Saturn is slowly entering the eastern morning sky, but it is not easily visible until early April.
Evening Sky
Mercury is quickly moving into the evening sky for its best evening appearance of the year for northern hemisphere sky watchers. This evening its sets 17 minutes after the sun, and it gains five to six minutes of setting time each night. Begin looking for it with a binocular in about a week.
Jupiter
An hour after sundown, bright Jupiter is nearly halfway up in the west-southwest, east of an imaginary line from Hamal to Menkar.
The Jovian Giant sets less than five hours after sundown, and before midnight.
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