August 26, 2024: Mars passes between Taurus’ horns and the Last Quarter Moon is near the Pleiades star cluster before sunrise.
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by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:11 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:33 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 With Pleiades
Before sunrise, the Last Quarter moon is high in the southeast. This morning the lunar orb is in the same binocular field of view with the Pleiades star cluster, part of Taurus.
Mars between Horns
Jupiter, the brightest star in the sky this morning, is over halfway up in the east-southeast, nearly 15° to the moon’s lower left and 9.5° to Aldebaran’s lower left, the Bull’s brightest star. The Jovian Giant is plodding eastward between the Bull’s horns.
Mars, about the same brightness and color as Aldebaran, is 5.9° to Jupiter’s lower left. After their conjunction on the 14th, Mars opens a widening gap to Jupiter each morning.
This morning the Red Planet is about to pass between the tips of the Bull’s horns, Elnath and Zeta Tauri. Mars is 5.7° to Elnath’s lower right and 2.2° to Zeta Tauri’s upper right. The planet is west of an imaginary line between the two stars. Tomorrow morning, the planet is east of the line. For sky watchers in the Americas, Mars does not appear precisely between the stars.
Morning Saturn
Farther westward, Saturn is over 20° above the southwest horizon. The planet is the brightest star in the region and slightly brighter than Mars.
The Ringed Wonder slowly retrogrades in front of Aquarius. Track the planet’s westward course through a binocular until November.
Mercury
Mercury continues its rapid climb into the morning sky. Eight days after its inferior conjunction, between Earth and Sun, the speedy planet, rising 53 minutes before the sun, is washed out by morning twilight. Look for it on September 1st, when it appears in the same binocular field with the crescent moon.
Evening Sky
Venus
Venus’ entry into a darker evening view is delayed by an unfavorable tilt of the solar system’s plane at this season. The Evening Star, nearly 5° above the west horizon, shines through bright evening twilight. The planet is about the same height in the sky, known as the altitude, at this time interval each evening for the next few weeks.
Evening Saturn
Earth is quickly overtaking Saturn. On September 7th, our planet passes between Saturn and the sun. The two bodies are in opposite directions in the sky, an astronomical configuration known as opposition. Saturn rises in the eastern sky as the sun sets at the western horizon. It is in the south around midnight, setting in the western sky when the sun rises in the east. So, the planet appears in the evening sky as well as in the morning sky.
Tonight, as opposition approaches, Saturn rises 33 minutes after sundown. About 90 minutes later, it is over 15° above the east-southeast horizon. Tomorrow morning it is again in the southwestern sky, while the thick crescent moon is near Jupiter and Mars.
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