October 2, 2024: An annular solar eclipse today for sky watchers in southern South America. Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are visible during nighttime hours.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:49 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 6:30 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Look for Four Bright Planets Each Night
Each night four bright planets are visible, not simultaneously. After sundown, brilliant Venus shines through the colorful layers of evening twilight. At 40 minutes after nightfall, the Evening Star is over 5° above the west-southwest horizon. It passes Zubenelgenubi, part of Libra in a few evenings. Use a binocular to see the planet and the star together.
Farther eastward, Saturn is over 15° above the east-southeast horizon. It retrogrades in front of a dim Aquarius’ starfield.
During the night, as Earth rotates, Venus sets 74 minutes after nightfall. By four hours after sunset, Jupiter is above the east-northeast horizon and Saturn is nearly above the south cardinal direction. Mars rises nearly two hours after Jupiter.
After midnight, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars line up along the solar system’s plane, known as the ecliptic.
Saturn sets 75 minutes before sunup, disappearing into the filtering effects of Earth’s atmosphere about 30 minutes earlier.
By an hour before sunrise, bright Jupiter is high in the south. Its eastward plod slows as the illusion of retrograde begins on the 9th. It is near Taurus’ horns, 6.3° from Elnath, the northern point.
Mars, marching eastward in front of Gemini, is nearly 25° from Jupiter and 10.0° from Pollux, one of the Twins. Watch Mars approach the star and pass widely on the 19th. After retrograde begins, the planet passes again during January.
Mercury sets less than 10 minutes after the sun. It appears next month.
Here is today’s sky watching highlight:
Annular Solar Eclipse
The New moon phase occurs today at 1:49 p.m. Central Time, beginning lunation 1259 – the number of lunar cycles since the count began in 1923.
At the New moon phase, an annular or ring eclipse occurs for sky watchers across southern South America, while others across the continent see a partial eclipse. Most of the event occurs over the Pacific Ocean.
This eclipse is a near-repetition with respect to the annular eclipse that was visible across the US nearly a year ago, although today’s eclipse is visible in the southern hemisphere and across a large part of the Pacific Ocean.
An annular eclipse occurs when the moon crosses our line of sight with the sun. At the maximum eclipse, a thin ring of light surrounds the moon. The lunar orb appears too small to perfectly match with the sun’s size, unlike a total solar eclipse when the sun’s corona is visible at maximum eclipse. Today, the moon is near apogee, the point farthest in the orbital path from Earth. The moon reaches this distant celestial point today at 2:39 p.m. Central Time.
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