April 10, 2024: Before sunrise, a Saturn-Mars conjunction occurs. After sundown, a look for a rare Jupiter-Uranus-Moon gathering.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:18 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:27 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
Saturn-Mars Conjunction
Mars passes closely to Saturn this morning in the east-southeast before sunrise. At 45 minutes before daybreak, the pair is about 5° above the horizon. Mars is 0.5° above Saturn.
At this level of twilight, Mars blends in with the rosy colors of morning twilight. Use a binocular to find the planets.
While the planets appear close in the sky, they are nearly 786 million miles apart in space. This separation is nearly 3,300 times the Earth-Moon distance.
Tomorrow morning, Mars is 0.6° to Saturn’s upper left. Mars continues to march eastward and a wide gap opens between this pair.
The next four Saturn-Mars conjunctions occur when the two planets are in very bright sunlight and near the sun. The next visible conjunction occurs on June 25, 2034, when the two planets are low in the west-northwest after sundown.
Venus
This morning, brilliant Venus is overwhelmed by the sun’s glare. It rises only 25 minutes before the sun.
Evening Sky
Mercury
Mercury moves toward the morning sky, but tonight it sets only 11 minutes after the sun. Tomorrow, the planet passes between Earth and Sun – known as inferior conjunction – and moves west of the sun. Its morning appearance is disappointing compared to the recent evening display.
Lovely Evening Moon
Step outside an hour after nightfall. A lovely evening moon, 7% illuminated, stands nearly 20° up in the west-northwest and 4.5° to the upper right of bright Jupiter.
Look for earthshine on the moon’s night portion, between the cusps or horns. This effect is sunlight reflecting from Earth’s features to softly light the lunar night. Photograph it with a tripod mounted camera. The view is highlighted through a binocular.
Rare Jupiter-Uranus-Moon Gathering
This evening a rare gathering of Jupiter, Uranus, and the moon occurs. The three pack fits into the same binocular field of view. The accompanying chart shows the three bodies along with the distant starfield. Identify the stars in the field, such as Delta Arietis (δ Ari on the chart) and Tau Arietis (τ Ari). Uranus is dimmer than Delta, but brighter than 53 Arietis (53 Ari) and 54 Arietis (54 Ari). The planet is fairly easy to find in this starfield, especially with Jupiter nearby.
Regular readers might notice that Zeta Arietis (ζ Ari) is missing on the chart. The moon is eclipsing or occulting the star after sundown. From the US Midwest, the star reappears at 8:51 p.m. CDT as the lunar orb inches eastward.
Jupiter overtakes Uranus on April 20th, but when the moon passes through again, Jupiter and Uranus are lost in the sun’s glare. After solar conjunction, Jupiter is too far east of Uranus for this planetary pair to fit into the same binocular field.
Jupiter revolves around the sun nearly every 12 years, while Uranus revolves in 84 years. What this means is that we see Jupiter take 12 years to appear in front of all the ecliptic’s background stars, known as the zodiac. Uranus takes 84 years to make the trek. When Jupiter passes Uranus again on September 8, 2037, the more distant planet has only moved two constellations eastward, Taurus and Gemini, but Jupiter moves one complete circuit and an additional 63° from tonight’s position.
Jupiter, Uranus, and the moon appear in the same binocular field again on September 6, 2037. They snugly fit into the field of view. On October 3, 2037, they easily fit into a binocular field and inside a circle only 3.6° in diameter.
This evening Jupiter sets less than 150 minutes after sundown, ending today’s planet display.
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