April 21, 2024: After sundown, the waxing gibbous moon is above Virgo’s Spica. Find Mars and Saturn before sunrise.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:00 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:39 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
In Chicago, sunrise occurs before 6 a.m. Central Time beginning tomorrow through August 14th. During this interval daylight lengthens from 13 hours, 40 minutes to 15 hours, 13 minutes at the solstice. Then it returns to several minutes short of 14 hours.
Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Morning Moon
Two hours before sunrise, the gibbous moon, 94% illuminated is low in the west-southwest. It sets an hour later.
Four Morning Planets
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn are considered morning planets because they are west of the sun, rising before the central star, although the inferior planets, Mercury and Venus, are hiding in bright sunlight.
Mercury rises 33 minutes before the sun and is not bright enough to be seen. Venus rises 13 minutes later and it is washed out by the sun’s intense light.
Mars and Saturn
Mars and Saturn are emerging from their solar conjunctions, although Mars’ appearance has been very slow after its solar conjunction last November. Saturn is easier to locate.
At forty-five minutes before daybreak, Saturn is nearly 10° above the east-southeast horizon. Depending on local weather conditions, including the clarity of the sky, the Ringed Wonder could be visible without a binocular’s optical assistance.
While Mars is slightly brighter than Saturn, the Red Planet is lower in the sky and 7.1° to Saturn’s lower left.
For sky watchers with “wide field binoculars” see the two planets in the same field of view for the final time until 2026.
Saturn’s visibility improves throughout spring. It rises two minutes earlier compared to sunrise each morning. Mars’ emergence from twilight’s veil improves slowly. It greatly improves after it rises before the beginning of twilight near the end of May.
Evening Sky
April Virgo Moon
After sundown, the bright gibbous moon, 97% illuminated, is about one-third of the way up in the southeast, over 12° to the upper right of Spica, Virgo’s brightest star.
Spica, meaning “the ear of corn,” is distinctly blue-white. It is the 10th brightest star visible from the mid-northern latitudes. Shining from a distance of 250 light years, it has the intrinsic brightness of nearly 2,000 suns.
Tomorrow evening, the lunar orb is 1.0° to the upper left of Spica.
Beginning June 16th, the moon begins a series of 20 occultations or stellar eclipses of Spica that concludes on November 17, 2025. The first occurs for sky watchers in Asia.
Jupiter
This evening Jupiter is low in the west-northwest. An hour after sundown, it is over 5° above the horizon. After last night’s conjunction with Uranus, sky conditions are very unfavorable to see the pair again tonight, although persistent sky watchers can watch Jupiter move way from Uranus for the next few evenings through a spotting scope.
The Jovian Giant sets 100 minutes after nightfall. It loses four minutes of setting time each evening. The moon and Spica appear farther westward during the night. Two hours before daybreak, they are in the west-southwest.
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