August 30, 2024: The morning crescent moon passes Pollux in the eastern sky before sunrise – a wide morning Moon-Pollux Conjunction. The five bright planets are visible during nighttime hours.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:15 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:26 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 Moon-Pollux Conjunction
A pretty crescent moon, 12% illuminated, is in the eastern sky before sunrise. An hour before sunup, it is nearly 30° up in the east-northeast, 4.1° below Pollux, a Gemini Twin. This is a wide morning Moon-Pollux conjunction.
Pollux is too far north of the ecliptic, 6.7°, for the moon to have a close conjunction with it. Similarly, the bright planets, moving along the plane of the solar system, do not pass close to the star.
Morning Earthshine
Look for earthshine, sunlight reflected from Earth’s oceans, clouds, and land, that gently lights up the lunar night, on the moon. It is visible to the unaided eye or with an optical assist from a binocular or spotting scope. Photograph the effect with a tripod-mounted camera and exposures up to a few seconds.
Mercury
At this hour, Mercury is just above the east-northeast horizon, over 25° to the lunar crescent’s lower left. Wait another 15 minutes to get a better view, when the planet is about 5° above the horizon.
This morning the speedy planet rises 77 minutes before the sun, gaining three to four minutes of rising time during the next few mornings.
Mercury brightens each morning, slightly outshining Pollux this morning. In two mornings, when the moon passes by, it is nearly as bright as Procyon, the 6th brightest star visible at the mid-northern latitudes.
At an hour before daybreak, Jupiter and Mars are higher in the sky, moving eastward in front of Taurus. Jupiter, the brightest starlike body in the sky this morning, is high in the east-southeast, 10.1° to Aldebaran’s lower left, the Bull’s brightest star.
Mars, heading toward the Taurus-Gemini border, is about the brightness and color of Aldebaran. The Red Planet, east of an imaginary line that connects Elnath and Zeta Tauri, is 8.9° to Jupiter’s lower left.
Morning Saturn
Saturn is less than 20° up in the west-southwest. Each morning, it is lower in the sky at this time interval. The planet’s best viewing times are after midnight when it is higher in the sky.
With Mercury’s appearance in the morning sky, four of the five bright planets are visible simultaneously.
Evening Sky
Venus
Brilliant Venus is visible after sundown. Setting nearly an hour after the sun sets, it is low in the western sky 30 minutes earlier. Unlike most celestial objects, Venus shines through bright twilight. This evening, find it about 5° up in the west.
During a single nighttime cycle starting at sunset, Venus leads a planet-parade that ends with Mercury’s appearance before sunrise. During this overnight period, all five planets are visible in this order – Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury.
Evening Saturn
Saturn rises 23 minutes after sundown, but it is not yet visible when Venus appears in the western sky. Early evening twilight is too bright to see them simultaneously. They were at opposition on the 18th, but with Venus suffering from a poor view of the solar system at this season in the western sky, Saturn is veiled in bright evening twilight. Beginning about September 10th, they appear simultaneously, but in opposite sections of the sky.
Tomorrow morning, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury are visible from the west-southwest to east-northeast. The crescent moon is above Mercury.
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