July 7, 2024: Before sunrise, morning planets Jupiter and Mars race in the eastern sky. Saturn is in the south-southeast. After sundown in bright twilight, the crescent moon is near Mercury.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:23 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:28 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Morning Planets: Jupiter, Mars, Saturn
With the gap from Jupiter to Mars less than 20°, look for a planetary race in the eastern sky from morning to morning. Mars is overtaking a slower-moving Jupiter. One hour before sunrise, find the Red Planet over 25° up in the east. It moves eastward more than the diameter of the Full moon each night.
At arm’s length, the width, from right to left, of your pinky finger nail covers a full moon, about the distance Mars travels across the distance starfield each night. Jupiter travels the distance in a week. While this could be a set up for the classic algebra problem about two trains leaving a station at different times and different speeds, the idea here is to watch Mars move eastward and overtake the more distant and brighter Jupiter.
This morning Jupiter is nearly 15° above the east-northeast horizon and 4.8° to the upper left of Aldebaran. The Jovian Giant makes a wide pass with the star in four mornings.
Mars Approaches Pleiades
As Mars moves eastward against the stars, watch it pass the Pleiades star cluster on the 21st. Mars and the cluster fit into the same field of view from the 15th through the 27th. It overtakes Jupiter on August 14th. Take a look each clear morning.
Saturn Retrogrades
At this hour, Saturn is nearly halfway up in the south-southeast, in front of a dim Aquarius starfield, washed out by the perpetual nighttime glow of outdoor lighting. It is above two stars in nearby constellations, Deneb Kaitos, the Sea Monster’s tail, and Fomalhaut, the Southern Fish’s mouth.
While seeming to move even slower than Jupiter, Saturn is retrograding, appearing to move westward compared to the stars. During the next several months, Saturn’s motion fits into a single binocular field of view.
To note the distance Mars moves, it passed the Ringed Wonder on April 10th. The gap between them this morning is over 60°. In comparison, Jupiter passed Saturn during late 2020. During the nearly four-year period, Jupiter is 80° east of Saturn. By the time Jupiter completes a circuit through the zodiacal constellations and catches Saturn again, Mars will have completed the same trip and passed both planets eight times.
Evening Sky
Mercury, Moon in West-Northwest
In a challenging view, the crescent moon reappears in the western sky after sundown, near Mercury. At 30 minutes after sunset, the moon, only 5° illuminated, stands over 10° above the west-northwest horizon. Mercury, appearing as a bright star, is 3.0° below the crescent.
Binocular View
Use a binocular to see the razor-thin lunar crescent above the innermost planet. The sky is too bright for earthshine this evening, even to photograph it. As the sky darkens during the next 15 to 25 minutes, the pair is lower, but the sky is slightly darker, making a short window of visibility.
Venus
Venus slowly makes its way into the western evening sky, but setting only 37 minutes after the sun.
Tomorrow evening, the moon is higher in the western sky and the crescent is growing.
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