2024, April 2: Morning Moon, Evening Jupiter

April 2, 2024: A thick crescent morning moon is east of Sagittarius’ Teapot.  After sundown, Jupiter shines brightly from the western sky.

Venus and Moon, December 11, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, December 11: One hour before sunrise, the crescent moon is to the upper right of brilliant Morning Star Venus.

PODCAST FOR THIS ARTICLE

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:31 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:18 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

Solar Eclipse 2017
2017: Great American Solar Eclipse – The corona is visible.

Next week’s solar eclipse promises to be a spectacular event. If possible, go to the thin ribbon of darkness that spreads across North America.  There are plenty of web sites advising where to go and the best equipment to use.

Here’s some simple advice: Wear your eclipse glasses.  Take many photographs, but look at the eclipse during totality.  It passes quickly. Wonder in amazement about this event.

Two considerations:

First, stay for the entire eclipse.  Don’t pack up and leave after totality.  Enjoy the entire eclipse.

Second, plan for the trip home. Ask, “How can I return home at a reasonable time?”  Map out multiple trips on backroads.  Avoid the interstates. Purchase an atlas such as the Gazetteer for the state where you plan to observe.  While GPS is useful, a good navigator with a map that shows the backroads is better. After the 2017 eclipse, my return trip from Casper to Denver took nearly 11 hours, for a typical five-hour drive. 

Here is today’s planet forecast:

Morning Sky

Morning Moon

Morning Moon, Evening Jupiter
Chart Caption – 2024, April 2: The moon is east of Sagittarius before sunrise.

An hour before sunup, the thick crescent moon, 47% illuminated, is over 15° above the south-southeast horizon and to the Teapot’s lower left.  The moon is bright enough to illuminate the ground and cast shadows.

The Teapot is a modern moniker for Sagittarius’ brightest stars, and with this morning’s moonlight, use a binocular to see the shape.  The stars form the foreground for the Milky Way’s center, likely at least 25,000 light years away behind dust, stellar bundles, and fluorescing hydrogen clouds.

Morning Planets

Saturn (NASA)
Photo Caption: Saturn (NASA)

Farther eastward, Mars rises 71 minutes before sunrise.  The Red Planet is visible through a binocular over 5° above the east-southeast horizon at 40 minutes before daybreak.  The Red Planet is overtaking Saturn, 5.6° to the lower left, although the Ringed Wonder is blurred and dimmed by the air near the horizon.  Mars passes by on the 10th.

Brilliant Venus is moving toward a solar conjunction in two months.  This morning it rises only 29 minutes before the sun and for casual sky watchers, it is not visible.

Evening Sky

Evening Jupiter

Morning Moon, Evening Jupiter
Chart Caption – 2024, April 2: Jupiter is in the western sky after sundown.

Mercury is overtaking our world, passing between Earth and Sun on the 11th.  It is still east of the sun.  This evening forty-five minutes after sundown, it is quite dim and nearly 5° above the west-northwest horizon.  We said, “Goodbye,” to Mercury in yesterday’s article.  The planet is still there, but very challenging to see.

Bright Jupiter is “that bright star” in the west after sundown.  It is about 20° above the horizon as darkness falls.  The planet is overtaking planet Uranus.

Use a binocular to first spot some of Jupiter’s bright moons.  About the brightness of the brightest stars in the field, the Jovian satellites closely hug the planet. 

Jupiter and Uranus

2024, April 2: Through a binocular Jupiter and Uranus are in the same field of view.
Chart Caption – 2024, April 2: Through a binocular Jupiter and Uranus are in the same field of view.

Once the moons have been spotted, move Jupiter off center and toward the bottom of the field.  Use the accompanying chart to find Rho Arietis (ρ Ari on the chart), inside a triangle of three dimmer stars to the planet’s right, and Delta Arietis (δ Ari) to the upper right.  Then find dimmer stars, 53, blue-white in color, and topaz 54, about the same color as Delta. 

Aquamarine Uranus, brighter than 53 and 54, is to the upper left of the former and to the left of the latter.  It resembles a dim star, and before careful observations during the 18th century, it was cataloged as a star.  A telescope is needed to see its globe.

Jupiter sets less than three hours after sunset and long before midnight.

The moon rises tomorrow morning over two hours before the sun and it is in the southeast during morning twilight.

RECENT PODCASTS

LATEST ARTICLES