2024, July 5: Earth at Aphelion, See Four Bright Planets

July 5, 2024: Earth is at aphelion today. Earth is farthest from the sun. Four bright planets, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are visible during nighttime hours. 

2021, July 2: Sunrise!
Photo Caption – 2021, July 2: Sunrise!

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:22 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:29 p.m. CDT.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Earth at Aphelion

Earth is at perihelion, the point in the orbit closest to the sun. Aphelion, the point farthest from the sun occurs in over six months.
Chart Caption – 2024, January 2: Earth is at perihelion, the point in the orbit closest to the sun. Aphelion, the point farthest from the sun occurs in over six months.

Our planet is at aphelion, farthest from the sun, six minutes after midnight Central Time.  The sun’s distance is 94.6 million miles from Earth. 

Astronomical Unit

In the solar system, the standard yard stick is known as an astronomical unit or A.U.  Earth is considered 1 A.U. or 93 million miles, in round numbers, from the sun.  Today’s aphelion distance is 1.016725295 A.U., as calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. The closest point, known as perihelion, occurs January 4, 2025, when Earth is 0.983327543 A.U. from the solar system’s central star.

The average distances of the classic planets range from Mercury’s 0.39 A.U. to Pluto’s 39.6 A.U.  Beyond the solar system, the nearest star is over 210,000 A.U. away. At that point the light year is used.  Commonly, light years are combined to make a parsec.  One parsec equals 3.26 light years.  Prefixes such as kilo and mega to make kiloparsec or 1,000 parsecs and megaparsec, 1 million parsecs, are used for very large distances.

New Moon

Today, the moon’s next lunation begins with the New moon phase at 5:57 p.m. when the moon is between Earth and the sun, but it is above the ecliptic.  When the moon crosses the ecliptic at this phase, solar eclipses occur.

Four bright planets, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, are visible during nighttime hours.

Here is today’s planet forecast:

Morning Sky

Saturn

Four bright Planets
Chart Caption – 2024, July 5: An hour before sunrise, Saturn is in the south-southeast above Deneb Kaitos.

Three bright planets are in the eastern sky before sunrise.  Saturn is the highest and dimmest of the three bright outer planets.  Rising before midnight, the Ringed Wonder is less than halfway up in the south-southeast, retrograding in front of an Aquarius’ starfield.

Saturn Retrogrades
Chart Caption – 2024, June 30: Saturn appears to move westward against the stars until November 15th.

Retrograde is an illusion as Earth overtakes an outer planet.  The line of sight that normally moves eastward, reverses direction and points westward for a few months.  Saturn does not reverse its travel direction.

Two stars, Deneb Kaitos, part of Cetus, and Fomalhaut, the Southern Fish’s mouth, are below Saturn.

Mars and Jupiter

Four bright Planets
Chart Caption – 2024, July 5: Bright Jupiter and Mars are in the eastern sky during morning twilight.

Farther eastward, Mars and Jupiter shine among the stars that are prominent on winter evenings.  The Red Planet, marching eastward along the plane of the solar system in front of Aries, is over 25° up in the east.  The planet is heading toward Jupiter for a conjunction on August 14th.  It passes the Pleiades star cluster on July 21st.

This morning bright Jupiter is 20° to Mars’ lower left.  Do not confuse the Jovian Giant with the star Capella, over 25° to Jupiter’s upper left and over 20° above the northeast horizon.  Jupiter is nearly 15° above the east-northeast horizon and 4.9° to Aldebaran’s upper left.  Jupiter passes this star in five mornings.

Evening Sky

Venus

Venus is slow to enter the evening sky. After its solar conjunction on June 4th, it sets only 35 minutes after the sun.

Mercury

Four Bright Planets
Chart Caption – 2024, July 5: Mercury is in the west-northwest during bright evening twilight.

Mercury sets nearly 45 minutes after Venus, but its visibility is affected by long evening twilight and a poor view of the solar system in the western sky near the horizon at this season.  It is bright but veiled by bright twilight at 30 minutes after sunset when it is about 8° above the west-northwest horizon. Use a binocular.

The best evening to see Mercury occurs on the 7th when the crescent moon appears above the speedy planet and in the same binocular field.

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