August 25, 2024: The moon joins the Pleiades. Find it in the eastern sky before sunrise and in the east-northeast near midnight. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are visible during the night.
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by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:10 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:35 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
Moon Joins Pleiades
An hour before daybreak, the bright gibbous moon, 61% illuminated, is high in the south-southeast. The lunar orb reaches its morning half-full phase, known as Last Quarter, at 4:26 a.m. Central Time tomorrow.
Look carefully for the Pleiades star cluster, over 10° to the moon’s lower left. Block the moon with your hand as you would to shield your eyes from the sun’s light or use a binocular to see them. The star cluster and moon do not fit into the same binocular field of view.
Bright Jupiter, over halfway up in the east-southeast, is nearly 30° to the moon’s lower left. The Jovian Giant is the brightest star in the sky this morning. It plods eastward in front of Taurus, nearly 10° to Aldebaran’s lower left, the Bull’s brightest star.
Mars marches away from Jupiter. After their conjunction nearly two weeks ago, it is 5.4° to Jupiter’s lower left. The Red Planet is about the same brightness and color as Aldebaran.
Mars is slowly moving between Elnath and Zeta Tauri, the Bull’s horns. From the Americas, the planet does not appear precisely between the two points. Tomorrow morning, it is west of an imaginary line between them and the next morning it is east of the line when it passes 2.6° from Zeta Tauri.
Crab Nebula
Mars is in the region of the Crab Nebula, the remnants of an exploded star that was visible in 1054. Chinese astronomers recorded the event. The supernova was visible for two years before it faded from the view of the human eye.
In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, some astronomers suspect that the supernova was recorded on a rocky overhang, because during July 1054, the crescent moon appeared near the brilliant star. Archeologists counter that the practices of the culture across the southwest during the 11th Century did not record events in artwork. Rather, artwork carved into and painted on the rock walls recorded everyday life, not specific events.
The Crab’s Importance
The Crab Nebula, listed as Number 1 on Charles Messier’s list of celestial objects not to be confused with comets, is a very important celestial body. First, the expanding cloud, represents the terminal state of the life cycle of a star. It confirms stellar evolution theory, similar to the existence of stellar black holes and white dwarfs.
Secondly, the nebula’s luminescence is from accelerating atomic particles through magnetic fields, like those produced in particle accelerators in scientific laboratories. It does not shine from fusion processes like the stars.
The late astronomer Geoffrey Burbidge noted the importance of the Crab Nebula by saying that there are two parts of astronomy – “the astronomy of the Crab Nebula and the astronomy of everything else.”
The Crab is an oval cloud in the typical telescope and visible through a binocular as a dim, hazy patch. Time exposure photography collects light to provide the details of the tangles of gas. The cloud is rushing outward from a rotating neutron star, the rapidly spinning mass of the collapsed stellar core. The rotating pulsar sends out a stream of light, like that of a lighthouse. When the star turns earthward, we record a flash of radio waves. When timing equipment is used, the pulsar can be seen flashing.
Mars is passing the region, where the Crab Nebula glows by synchrontron radiation, at a distance of about 6,000 light years.
Saturn
At this hour, Saturn is over 20° above the southwest horizon, in front of a dim Aquarius’ starfield.
Mercury
This morning, Mercury is rapidly moving into the predawn sky, but still veiled by bright morning twilight. This morning it rises 46 minutes before the sun, gaining seven minutes of rising time each morning. At 45 minutes before daybreak on September 1st, Mercury and the thin crescent moon fit into the same binocular field of view.
Evening Sky
Venus
Venus struggles to climb into the western evening sky. Its visibility continues to suffer from the low angle the ecliptic makes with the western horizon. At 30 minutes after sundown, the Evening Star is less than 5° up in the west. It shines through evening twilight. Initially, look for it with a binocular, although the planet is visible without the optical assist.
Evening Saturn
Saturn, approaching opposition, rises 38 minutes after nightfall. A week ago, it was at opposition with Venus. This means that Venus was setting as Saturn appeared in the east-southeast, however, this occurred during bright twilight, when Saturn is challenging to see. Expect to see them simultaneously, Saturn in the southeast and Venus in the western sky, around September 10th.
Binocular View: Uranus, Moon, and Pleiades
The moon rises over three hours after nightfall. Around the midnight hour, the lunar orb is low in the east-northeast. Through a binocular spot it with the Pleiades star cluster and dim planet Uranus. The moon is 1.3° to the lower left of Alcyone, the brightest Pleiad.
Tonight, from central Africa, the moon occults or eclipses Alcyone, also known as Eta Tauri.
With the moon near the left edge of the field of view, stars 13 Tauri (13 Tau on the chart) and 14 Tauri (14 Tau), about the same brightness as Uranus are to the right. The more-distant planet is to the upper right of the stellar pair.
Once the stellar background is located, move the binocular slightly to the right so the moon and star cluster leave the field and the two stars are near the center. Without the moon in the view, the dimmer stars and planet Uranus are easier to see.
By tomorrow morning, the moon and the star cluster are still in the same binocular field, but the lunar disk is too far eastward to include Uranus.
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