March 10, 2024: Daylight Saving Time resumes this morning when clocks across nearly all US states and Canadian provinces are advanced one hour at 2 a.m. local time.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:10 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 6:52 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Daylight Saving Time Resumes
Clocks across most US states and Canadian provinces advance one hour at 2 a.m. local time to 3 a.m. While the clock advances 60 minutes, daylight only gains three minutes at Chicago’s latitude to 11 hours, 42 minutes.
Contrary to some perceptions, advancing the clock does not create another hour of daylight. Rather, it merely advances the clock one hour ahead of the sun, humanity’s celestial clock. By advancing the clock, a shifted-hour of sunlight at the end of a traditional workday provides outdoor opportunities.
Politicians continue to advocate for the US Congress to permanently implement daylight saving time across the country. As has been noted in previous articles, there is no daylight to save during late fall and early winter (article). This was tried once (article) and the public quickly advocated for a return to standard time during the months when daylight is short. Keep year-round standard time is the best answer to this question that temporarily boils around dates when the clock advances to daylight time or returns to standard time.
Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Venus, Mars, and Saturn
Brilliant Venus is a challenging view as it heads toward superior conjunction with the sun during early June. The planet rises 46 minutes before the sun. As the third brightest celestial object, the planet can be seen near the horizon during bright twilight. At 20 minutes before the sun reaches the horizon, the Morning Star is less than 5° above the east-southeast horizon.
Dim Mars rises 20 minutes before Venus, but it is a challenge to see without a nearby bright body to use as a reference. At 30 minutes before sunrise, the Red Planet is over 5° above the horizon and nearly 8° to Venus’ upper right. Try with a binocular, but this is a challenging view.
After its solar conjunction about two weeks ago, Saturn rises only 12 minutes before the sun and it is awash in the central star’s brilliance.
Evening Sky
Mercury and Moon
Mercury is quickly moving into the western evening sky, gaining five to six minutes of setting time compared to sunset each evening. It sets 53 minutes after the sun tonight. By thirty minutes after sundown, it is nearly 4° above the horizon. It is bright and Mercury aficionados can make their first attempt to look for the planet with a binocular and a clear western horizon.
The crescent moon is easy to locate tomorrow evening. Tonight, it sets about 15 minutes before Mercury.
Jupiter and Uranus
Jupiter is the easiest of the bright planets to see in the evening sky. An hour after sundown, it is less than halfway up in the west-southwest. It is slowly ambling eastward in an Aries’ starfield, east of an imaginary line from Hamal to Menkar.
Each evening the planet closes in on planet Uranus. In three evenings, Jupiter passes Omicron in Aries (ο Ari on the chart). Find it in a binocular field of view to the Jovian Giant’s upper left.
To locate Uranus, place Jupiter toward the lower right portion of the field. Uranus is near the upper left edge of the field of view, near dimmer star 53 (53 Ari). To locate the more-distant world, it may be necessary to shift the binocular upward slightly so that Jupiter disappears out of the lower right side of the view. To verify that you are in the right place, look for a triangle of three stars with brighter Rho (ρ Ari) at the center.
Jupiter sets less than five hours after sunset and before midnight.
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