2024, April 23: Pink Moon

April 23, 2024: Tonight’s Full moon is known as the Pink Moon.  Find Mars and Saturn before sunrise, Jupiter after sundown.

Flowering trees for the Pink Moon
Flowering trees

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:57 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:41 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

Pink Moon
2024, April 23: The bright moon and Spica are in the southwestern sky at two hours before daybreak.

Two hours before sunrise, the bright, nearly-full moon is almost 20° above the southwest horizon.  It is 2.4° to the upper left of Spica.  Since last night, the pair appear farther westward from Earth’s rotation.  The lunar orb moved eastward through its orbit and opened a gap larger than described in yesterday’s note.  Look for a larger gap this evening.

The official Full moon occurs before the moon rises tonight.

Four Morning Planets

2024, April 23: Looking toward the east-southeast, Mars and Saturn are low in the sky at 45 minutes before sunrise.
Chart Caption – 2024, April 23: Looking toward the east-southeast, Mars and Saturn are low in the sky at 45 minutes before sunrise.

Venus and Mercury are not visible.  Brilliant Venus is lost in the bright predawn light.  It is moving toward a solar conjunction during early June.

Mercury, rising 36 minutes before the sun, is moving toward a difficult-to-see morning appearance, peaking on May 9th.  This morning, it is lost in bright twilight.

Mars and Saturn are in the eastern sky before sunrise.  At 45 minutes before daybreak, Saturn is nearly 10° up in the east-southeast.  Rising two minutes earlier compared to sunrise each day, the planet is easier to see.

Mars is nearly 7° above the eastern horizon and 8.5° to Saturn’s lower left.  The Red Planet’s visibility is marginal without a binocular, although the two planets are too far apart to fit into the same field of view.  First find Saturn. Then move the binocular to the lower left to see Mars.

Evening Sky

Pink Moon

Pink Moon
Chart Caption – 2024, April 23: After sundown, the Pink Moon is in the southeastern sky.

The Full (Pink) moon occurs this evening at 6:49 p.m. Central Daylight Time. The lunar orb rises as the sun sets.  An hour later, it is about 10° up in the east-southeast, nearly 12° to Spica’s lower left, a much larger gap between them since this morning.

At this hour, Jupiter is low in the west-northwest.  It sets four minutes earlier each evening and it is heading toward solar conjunction on May 18th.

Jupiter

Jupiter is trekking eastward after its conjunction with planet Uranus three nights ago.  It is generally moving toward the Pleiades star cluster, over 9° above the planet, but they disappear into sunlight before the conjunction occurs.

Jupiter sets 93 minutes after the sun this evening.  During the night the Pink Moon appears farther westward.  Tomorrow morning during twilight, the lunar orb is in the southwest, to the lower right of Zubenelgenubi, the Scorpion’s southern claw.

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