2024, March 26: Moon Passes Spica

March 26, 2024: The moon passes Spica.  Notice the lunar orb’s locations compared to Spica before sunrise and after sundown.

Moon and Spica, December 10, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, December 10: The moon is to the upper left of Spica.

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:43 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:10 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

Morning Moon and Spica

Moon Passes Spica
Chart Caption – 2024, March 26: The moon is in the western sky near Spica before sunrise.

An hour before sunrise, the bright gibbous moon, 99% illuminated, is over 15° above the west-southwest horizon, 5.7° to the lower right of Spica, Virgo’s brightest star.

Mars, Saturn, and Venus

A closeup of Saturn's rings from the Cassini spacecraft.
Photo Caption – A closeup of Saturn’s rings from the Cassini spacecraft (NASA photo).

Three bright planets are challenging to see in the increasing light before daybreak.  Mars rises 70 minutes before the sun.  Thirty-minutes later, the Red Planet is nearly 5° above the east-southeast horizon.  A binocular is needed to see the planet this morning.

Saturn rises about 30 minutes after Mars.  It is lost in morning twilight.  The Ringed Wonder rises two minutes earlier compared to sunrise each morning.

Mars marches eastward, overtaking Saturn on April 10th.

Venus, stepping eastward and overtaking the sun, passes superior conjunction during early June.  This morning it rises 33 minutes before the sun.  At fifteen minutes before sunup, it is over 3° above the eastern horizon.  It is visible, but the view is challenging because of the planet’s low altitude and the twilight level.

Evening Sky

Mercury at its Best Evening Appearance

2024, March 26: Jupiter and Mercury are in the western sky after nightfall.
Chart Caption – 2024, March 26: Jupiter and Mercury are in the western sky after nightfall.

Mercury continues its best evening appearance of the year.  The planet is dimming, but is nearly 10° above the horizon at 45 minutes after sundown.  Use a binocular to initially locate it. During the next several evenings, the planet dims so that a binocular is needed to see it.

This evening, do not confuse it with bright Jupiter that is about one-third of the way up in the sky, from horizon to overhead.  It slowly steps eastward in front of Aries, nearly 14° to the upper left of Hamal, the constellation’s brightest star.

This evening, Mercury sets 98 minutes after the sun.  After tonight, it sets two to three minutes earlier compared to sunrise.  By April 5th, the innermost planet sets 54 minutes after the sun.

Moon Passes Spica

Moon Passes Spica
Chart Caption – 2024, March 26: Three hours after sundown, the moon and Spica are in the east-southeast.

Tonight, the moon, 97% illuminated, rises two hours after sundown.  An hour later, the lunar orb is over 10° above the east-southeast horizon, 3.7° to the lower left of Spica.  Since this morning the moon passed the star, and the lunar disk is east of it.

Beginning June 16th, the moon begins a series of 20 occultations with Spica, where the moon eclipses the star.  The July 13th event is visible across a large region of North America.  The moon moves in front of the star and then uncovers it during about an hour.  On that evening, the night edge or limb initially covers the star, reappearing at the sunlight limb of the half-lit moon as the lunar orb treks eastward.

Jupiter and Uranus

2024, March 26: Through a binocular, Jupiter and Uranus appear in the same field of view.
Chart Caption – 2024, March 26: Through a binocular, Jupiter and Uranus appear in the same field of view.

Jupiter is visible in the same binocular field with Uranus.  Place the bright planet toward the bottom of the view.  Dimmer Uranus is toward the upper left.  Look before the moon rises and gets too high in the sky and Jupiter is too low in the west.

Use the accompanying chart to find the brighter stars in the field, such as Sigma (σ Ari on the chart), Pi (π Ari), Rho (ρ Ari), and Delta (δ Ari) in Aries.  Without the moon, notice that Rho is inside a triangle made by three dimmer stars.  Stars 53 and 54 appear near the aquamarine planet. Number 53 is bluish, while 54 is topaz like Delta.

Jupiter sets in the west-northwest less than three hours after the sun.  It sets four to five minutes later each evening.

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