2024, May 6: Look for Mercury and the Moon

May 6, 2024: Look for Mercury and the moon with a binocular during morning twilight.  Mars and Saturn are visible earlier during predawn light when the sky is darker.

Venus, Mercury, Spica, and Moon, November 13, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, November 13: Sparkling Venus – nearly 18° up in the east-southeast – is 8.1° to the upper right of the old moon and 5.5° to the upper left of Spica. The lunar crescent is 6.9° to the lower left of Spica and 5.1° above Mercury.

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:40 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:55 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

Mars and Saturn

2024, May 6: At 45 minutes before daybreak, Mars and Saturn are in the eastern sky.
Chart Caption – 2024, May 6: At 45 minutes before daybreak, Mars and Saturn are in the eastern sky.

Mars and Saturn are easier to see each morning.  At 45 minutes before daybreak, Saturn is 15° above the east-southeastern horizon.  The planet is not as bright as might be expected, appearing as a yellow-orange star. 

Saturn is not yet high enough in the sky for a good telescopic view.  At this altitude, the air blurs and dims the planet.

Mars, slightly brighter than the Ringed Wonder, is nearly 10° above the east horizon and over 17° to Saturn’s lower left. 

The gap between the two planets is larger each morning.  Saturn rises two minutes earlier each morning as Mars marches away toward the east. 

Mars is marginally visible because its reddish tint blends in with the rosy hues of morning twilight.  It rises before the beginning of morning twilight near month’s end.  Use a binocular to see the Red Planet.

Look for Mercury and the Moon

Look for Mercury and the moon
Chart Caption – 2024, May 6: During bright twilight, Mercury and the crescent moon are visible through a binocular in the eastern sky.

In comparison, Mercury is a challenging view, rising 50 minutes before the sun.  The solar system makes a low angle with the horizon and Mercury is below that orbital plane.  Even with this rising time interval before sunrise and nearing its greatest elongation, theoretically Mercury’s best viewing opportunity, the planet appears very low in the sky.

This morning the crescent moon is a guide to the speedy planet.  At 30 minutes before sunrise, the moon is 5° above the eastern horizon.  With a binocular start at the east point with the horizon along the bottom of the field of view.  The moon is less than one and one-half binocular fields to the left of the east cardinal direction.  The crescent is 4% illuminated.  Mercury is 4.0° to the lower right of the moon and in the same field when the crescent is toward the upper left in the view.

This is about the best view of the planet.  It brightens during the apparition, but the planet’s altitude is low, and it is visible during brighter twilight.

Venus is lost in bright sunlight. It passes on the far side of the sun next month and begins a wide swing into the evening sky.

Evening Sky

Bright Stars

2024, May 6: Procyon, Pollux, Castor, and Capella are in the western sky after sundown.
Chart Caption – 2024, May 6: Procyon, Pollux, Castor, and Capella are in the western sky after sundown.

The evening is without any bright solar system body. Jupiter is in bright sunlight, setting 43 minutes after the sun.  It reappears in the eastern morning sky later next month.

With Sirius, Aldebaran, and Betelgeuse near their heliacal settings, they are disappearing into evening twilight.  Four stars – Procyon, Pollux, Castor, and Capella – are higher in the western sky.

Procyon, the Little Dog Star, is one-third of the way up in the west-southwest.  The Twins – Pollux and Castor – are halfway up in the western sky.  Capella is in the west-northwest, about the same altitude as Procyon.

Later this month, Capella is visible near this location after sunset and low in the north-northeast before sunrise.  Like Arcturus, Vega, and Deneb, Capella is far northward so that it rises before sunrise and appears in the western sky after sunset.  Each star cycles through this process during a year.

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