June 1. 2024: Before sunrise, the lunar crescent is between Saturn and Mars in the eastern sky. Find the Big Dipper after evening twilight ends.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:18 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:20 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
Crescent Moon between Saturn and Mars
An hour before sunrise, the crescent moon, 32% illuminated, is about 20° above the east-southeast horizon, about midway from Saturn to Mars.
Look for earthshine on the lunar night side between the cusps or horns. This effect is sunlight reflecting from Earth’s oceans, clouds, and land.
Saturn is 15° to the lunar crescent’s upper right and over 25° above the southeast horizon. It rises earlier each morning and at this time interval before sunrise, it is higher in the sky.
Similarly, Mars – rising before the beginning of morning twilight – is nearly 15° up in the east and 25° to the moon’s lower left. The Red Planet continues to open a wide gap to Saturn. This morning the separation is over 35°.
Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter
Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter hide in bright morning twilight. Venus reaches its solar conjunction in three days, while Mercury follows in a week.
Jupiter is slowly moving into the morning sky. It becomes visible in the eastern sky in a few weeks.
Evening Sky
Big Dipper High in North
Without any bright solar system bodies in the evening sky, look for bright stars and familiar star patterns. At about two hours after sundown, about the time evening twilight ends, step outside, face north, and look overhead.
The Big Dipper, formally part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is nearly overhead and slightly toward the west. The seven stars are fairly easy to see even in urban and suburban settings, especially when they are high in the sky, like tonight. Four stars – Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, and Megrez – outline the bowl, while Aliot, Mizar, and Alkaid are on the curved handle.
Big Dipper Identifies Other Stars
Dubhe and Merak are nicknamed “The Pointers.” A line connecting them and extending out of the bowl, points to Polaris’ general location, about halfway up in the north.
Looking the opposite direction takes us to Leo.
Starting a line at Megrez and extending through Dubhe takes the eye to Capella.
The curved handle “arcs to Arcturus.” It has spurred the saying, “Follow the arc [of the Big Dipper’s handle] to Arcturus and drive a spike to Spica.”
Mizar has a dimmer star nearby named Alcor, meaning “the abandoned or friendless one.” The pair is known as the horse and rider, among many others. It is said to be a test of eyesight. Those with sharp visual acuity, can see the brighter Mizar with the dimmer Alcor nearby.
The Big Dipper is “circumpolar” for sky watchers at the mid-northern latitudes and northward. Unlike the seasonal constellations, like Orion, Leo, and Taurus, the pattern is somewhere in the northern sky at every hour of the night. During December, the dipper scrapes along the northern horizon.
Use the Big Dipper to help in the identification of Polaris, Arcturus, Leo, Capella, and Spica.
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