May 9, 2024: Look for earthshine on the moon’s night portion this evening. Mars and Saturn are morning planets.
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by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:36 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:58 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Earthshine
This evening the crescent moon returns to the western sky after sundown. As the moon waxes during the next few evenings look for earthshine on the moon’s night portion. Its light softly illuminates the night portion of the moon. Look carefully to see it complete the moon’s circular appearance.
Earthshine is from sunlight that reflects from Earth’s oceans, clouds, and land.
When the moon is bright, its light illuminates terrestrial features and casts shadows. Near the Full phase, it is easy to take a nighttime stroll without a flashlight.
Earthshine illuminates the moon’s night in the same manner that moonlight brightens Earth’s dark hours.
The effect on the moon is visible to the unassisted eye, but highlighted through a binocular. Photograph it with a tripod-mounted camera with exposures up to a few seconds.
Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Morning Planets
Four bright planets qualify as morning planets, but Mercury and Venus are in the veil of bright morning twilight. Additionally, Mercury suffers from our poor view of the solar system at the eastern horizon this month.
In comparison, southern hemisphere sky watchers are seeing Mercury easily, along with Saturn and Mars. From Sydney, Australia’s latitude, the planet is 15° above the east-northeast horizon at 45 minutes before daybreak. Reddish Mars, one-third of the way up in the sky, is to Mercury’s upper left. Mercury is noticeably brighter. Saturn, a beautiful sight through telescopes, is over halfway up in the sky and to Mars’ upper left.
At this season, southern hemisphere sky watchers have the advantage of seeing the solar system make a higher angle with the eastern horizon so that Mercury is making its best display of the year.
For all sky watchers, Venus is lost in sunlight, nearing its solar conjunction next month. This is followed by a wide swing into the western sky after sundown.
For the mid-norther latitudes at one hour before daybreak, Saturn is nearly 15° above the east-southeast horizon. It rises two minutes earlier each morning. It moves eastward slower than Mars, and the gap between them continues to widen.
The Red Planet is nearly 20° to Saturn’s lower left and over 6° above the east horizon. It continues to compete with the brightness of morning twilight. While slightly brighter than Saturn, use a binocular to find Mars.
Evening Sky
Evening Moon
At an hour after sundown, the crescent moon, 5% illuminated, stands over 10° up in the west-northwestern sky. This evening it is 8.2° to Elnath’s lower right. The star dots the Bull’s northern horn.
Tonight, the moon sets about 150 minutes after sundown.
Tomorrow evening, the moon has a slightly thicker phase that is displaying earthshine for a second night. It is higher in the west, setting about an hour later than this evening.
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