July 19, 2024: The moon appears in front of the Teapot of Sagittarius, a boiled moon. Three bright planets – Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn are visible before sunrise.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:33 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:21 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
The three bright outer planets are visible this morning during morning twilight. The brightest, Jupiter is nearly 25° up in the east and about 5° to Aldebaran’s upper left. The Jovian Giant is plodding eastward in front of Taurus.
Mars, over 30° up in the east, is 13.0° to Jupiter’s upper right. Mars is 5.0° to the lower right of the Pleiades. It passes the cluster’s brightest star in two mornings.
Binocular View: Mars, Uranus, Pleiades
Mars and the Pleiades fit into the same binocular field along with dim planet Uranus. The more-distant world appears as a dimmer aquamarine star.
Mars is marching eastward toward a Jupiter conjunction on August 14th. Watch the gap close between them each morning.
Saturn
Farther westward, Saturn is less than halfway up in the southern sky, in front of a dim Aquarius’ starfield. It is above Deneb Kaitos, Cetus’ Tail, and Fomalhaut, the Southern Fish’s mouth.
The Ringed Wonder is retrograding in front of the starfield. Use a binocular to track the illusion of its westward trek compared to the sidereal background.
Evening Sky
Venus in Bright Twilight
Venus is slowly entering the evening sky. It sets 44 minutes after the sun, during bright evening twilight.
Mercury and Regulus
About the time Venus sets, Mercury is less than 7° up in the western sky. Nearing its greatest separation from the sun, the speedy planet dims each evening. Even with a binocular, the view is challenging.
Mercury nears a conjunction with Regulus, Leo’s brightest star, on the 25th, but they are low in the sky in bright twilight, a difficult view. Tonight. they are 5.6° apart and fit into the same binocular field, Regulus to the upper left and Mercury to the lower right.
Summer’s Boiled Moon
The bright moon, 98% illuminated, rises less than an hour before sunset. As darkness falls, the lunar orb is in front of the Teapot of Sagittarius, a modern nickname for the Archer’s brightest stars. It appears inside the pot tonight so it could be considered a boiled moon. In this moonlight use a binocular to trace the pattern’s shape. Later tonight, the moon occults or eclipses the star Tau Sagittarii (τ Sgr on the chart), in the Teapot’s handle, for sky watchers in New Zealand and Australia.
Scorpius is farther eastward. Its brightest star, Antares, is visible without a binocular’s optical assist. The shape begins at Dschubba or the forehead, traces through Antares, arcs toward the southern horizon, and bends upward to Lesath and Shaula at the stinger.
Saturn rises over two hours after sundown, and around the midnight hour, it is less than 15° above the east-southeast horizon. The moon sets about an hour before sunrise when Saturn is in the south, while Jupiter and Mars are in the eastern sky again.
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