March 20, 2024: Track Mercury each night in the west as it approaches its maximum separation from the sun for its best appearance of the year.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:53 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:04 p.m. CDT. 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, Mars, and Saturn
Mars is the easiest planet to see, although it is low in morning twilight and a binocular is needed. Rising 68 minutes before the sun, the Red Planet is nearly 5° above the east-southeast horizon nearly 30 minutes later. There is no bright star in the region to guide the view to Mars.
Venus rises about 30 minutes after Mars and at 20 minutes before daybreak, it is just above the east-southeast horizon. It is brilliant, but challenging to see with a cloudy, cluttered horizon.
Don’t attempt to find dimmer Saturn. It rises five minutes after Venus.
Evening Sky
Track Mercury from Night to Night
Find Mercury low in the western sky after sundown. At 45 minutes after nightfall, it is nearly 10° above the western horizon. The planet is making its best evening appearance of the year. It reaches its maximum separation from the sun – known as greatest elongation – in four nights. Mercury is bright enough to see without a binocular, but the optical assist helps with the initial identification.
Do not confuse Mercury with bright Jupiter that is about one-third of the way from the horizon to overhead. The Jovian Giant outshines Mercury that is lower, in the glow and hues of mid-twilight.
As Mercury appears higher each evening, the planet’s brightness diminishes, but it easily maintains visual brightness. Look for it each clear evening.
Gibbous Moon
At this hour the gibbous moon, 83% illuminated, is over halfway up in the southeast.
Fifteen minutes later, the lunar orb can be seen over halfway from Pollux to Regulus. The bright moon is in front of Cancer, appearing over 8° to the lower left of the Beehive star cluster. The moonlight washes out the stellar bundle’s dimmer features. Return with a binocular in a week when the moon is out of the region.
Jupiter and Uranus
An easier binocular view is to find Jupiter and Uranus in the same field. The bright planet passes the distant star Sigma Arietis (σ Ari on the chart) tomorrow evening.
With Jupiter toward the lower right portion of the binocular field, dimmer Uranus is to the upper left near 53 Arietis (53 Ari). The bright moonlight mutes the dimmer stars. Look carefully to find the dimmer world.
Jupiter sets over four hours after sunset and before midnight. The gibbous moon appears to move westward during the night. It sets tomorrow morning over an hour before daybreak.
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