August 24, 2024: This morning the bright gibbous moon is with Aries high in the southern sky, over halfway from Saturn to Jupiter. Mars is near the solar system’s largest planet.
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by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:09 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:36 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Morning Sky
Morning Aries Moon
An hour before sunrise this morning, the bright gibbous moon, 72% illuminated, is high in the southern sky, below Aries’ brightest stars. The lunar orb is 8.1° below Hamal, the Ram’s brightest star, meaning “the full-grown lamb.”
The constellation is mainly outlined by a few stars. Hamal and Sheratan are above the moon this morning. The others are washed out by morning moonlight.
Saturn in Southwest
The moon is over halfway from Saturn to Jupiter this morning. The Ringed Wonder is less than 25° above the southwestern horizon. It retrogrades in front of a dim Aquarius’ starfield.
Saturn is at opposition, Earth between this planet and the sun, on September 7th.
Watch the planet slowly retrograde, appear to move westward compared to the starfield through a binocular. The illusion is from Earth overtaking the more-distant world and the line of sight shifting westward.
Find Saturn in the east-southeast this evening.
Jupiter and Mars with Taurus
At this hour, Jupiter is the bright star over halfway up in the east-southeast. It slowly plods between the Bull’s horns, 9.3° to Aldebaran’s lower left, the constellation’s brightest star.
The Jovian Giant rises more than five hours before sunrise and shortly after midnight in the eastern regions of local time zones.
Mars, about the same brightness and color as Aldebaran, is 4.9° to Jupiter’s lower left. It marches away from the Jovian Giant and is nearly between the Bull’s horns, Elnath and Zeta Tauri. This morning it passes 5.6° from Elnath. Mars’ conjunction with the other horn occurs in three mornings.
Mercury
Mercury is rapidly moving into the morning sky, but still veiled by bright morning twilight. This morning it rises 38 minutes before the sun.
Evening Sky
Venus
The Evening Star continues its slow entrance into the western evening sky. Unlike most other celestial bodies, it shines through bright evening twilight. At 30 minutes after sunset, find it less than 5° above the western horizon.
The planet’s visibility suffers from a poor view of the solar system in the western sky after sundown. The solar system’s plane, known as the ecliptic, has a shallow tilt with the western horizon at this season. While a planet can be far from the sun, it is not very high in the western sky.
Evening ‘s Saturn
Saturn rises 38 minutes after sunset and about 20 minutes before Venus sets. The Ringed Wonder is not bright enough to shine through early twilight. A few nights after its opposition, the two become visible simultaneously – Venus in the western sky and Saturn toward the east-southeast.
Tonight at two hours after nightfall, Saturn is nearly 15° above the east-southeast horizon.
The moon rises nearly three hours after sundown.
Tomorrow morning, the three bright outer planets are once again stretched across the sky from east-southeast to southwest. The slightly gibbous moon nears the Pleiades star cluster.
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