May 10, 2024: Mercury is difficult to see before sunrise, although Saturn and Mars are easier to locate. The crescent moon is in the west-northwest after sundown.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:35 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:00 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
The sun sets after 8 p.m. in Chicago beginning tomorrow evening. This occurs until August 7th.
Mercury’s Poor Morning View
Mercury passed its greatest elongation yesterday. It is in a poor morning exhibition from the low angle the plane of the solar system makes with the eastern horizon.
The greatest elongation is a geometrical term explaining that the Sun-Earth-Mercury angle is at its maximum. With our planet at the angle’s vertex, it measures 26.4°. With the ecliptic’s low angle to the horizon, Mercury is only 9° above the east horizon at sunrise, making the planet nearly invisible during morning twilight when it is very low in the eastern sky.
Mercury is hardly visible in a dark sky, mostly rising during morning twilight or setting in sunset’s afterglow. From our location, the planet is always near the sun. When the solar system’s angle is high and visibility is best, Mercury stands around 10° above the horizon during mid-twilight, 45-60 minutes before sunrise or after sunset.
In comparison, southern hemisphere sky watchers see a wonderful view of the innermost planet this morning.
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 are considered morning planets. Mercury, as explained above, is not visible. Likewise, Venus is near the sun, reaching its solar conjunction during early June.
Saturn, rising over two hours before sunrise, is about 15° above the east-southeast horizon and hour later. The planet is easily visible with an uncluttered and clear horizon, but it is not bright like Venus or Jupiter.
Mars follows Saturn across the horizon about forty minutes after the Ringed Wonder rises. The Red Planet is almost 7° above the east horizon and over 20° to Saturn’s lower left. Use a binocular to find it among the colorful hues of morning twilight.
Mars moves eastward faster than Saturn. The gap between them continues to grow each morning.
Evening Sky
Evening Moon and Star Cluster
At an hour after sundown, a lovely crescent moon, 11% illuminated, is in the western sky. Find it nearly 25° above the west-northwest horizon and 5.7° to the upper left of Elnath, the Bull’s northern horn.
Again, this evening, look for earthshine on the moon’s night portion between the cusps or lunar horns. This soft light is from sunlight reflected from Earth’s features.
The effect is visible to the unaided eye, although the view is accented through a binocular. Photograph it with a tripod-mounted camera and exposures up to a few seconds.
After admiring earthshine, move the binocular slightly so the lunar crescent is toward the lower right. The star cluster cataloged as Messier 35 (M 35 on the chart) is 5.1° to the moon’s upper left in the binocular field.
This open or galactic cluster has several blue stars. It is 2,800 light years away, appearing as a cloud in a dark location.
The moon sets over three hours after sundown and before midnight.
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