October 19, 2024: After sundown, Venus and a comet are in the western sky. Arcturus is at its heliacal rising, the first appearance before sunrise.
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by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:08 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 6:02 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Here is the planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Morning Jupiter and Moon
An hour before sunrise, the bright gibbous moon, 94% illuminated, is less than halfway up in the western sky. It is near the Aries-Taurus border, in the region of the Pleiades and planet Uranus. The star cluster and distant planet are overwhelmed by the bright moonlight. To see them return to this region in about a week when the moon is dimmer.
Jupiter, the brightest star in the sky this morning and nearly 30° to the moon’s upper left, is retrograding in front of Taurus, near the horns, Elnath and Zeta Tauri. It is 12.0° to the upper right of Aldebaran, the Bull’s brightest star.
Mars near Pollux
Mars, dimmer than Jupiter, is marching eastward in front of Gemini, the next constellation along the solar system’s plane east of Taurus. At this hour, the Red Planet is high in the south-southeast, 5.7° to Pollux’s lower right, one of the Twins.
Watch Mars’ march as it approaches a line that begins at Castor and passes through Pollux. The three are in a line on the 30th, the morning Mars first appears in front of Cancer.
Fifteen minutes later, look for Arcturus, the brightest star in the northern half of the sky, over 5° up in the east-northeast. It is at its heliacal rising at the mid-northern latitudes. Like Vega and Capella, the second and third brightest stars in the northern half of the sky, respectively, Arcturus is visible during the evening and morning. This occurs for Vega during winter and Capella during spring.
Specifically, these stars are north of the celestial equator, a great circle in the sky above Earth’s equator. Sirius is south of the celestial equator, ranking as the brightest star in the southern sky and brightest of all the stars.
Sirius, Canopus, and Rigil Kentaurus – popularly known as Alpha Centauri – perform similarly for southern hemisphere sky watchers, at various times during the year when they are visible before sunrise and again after sunset.
The northern trio of bright stars, along with a host of other stars, are in the sky longer than the sun – especially when the sun is south of the celestial equator during autumn and winter. The farther north a celestial body, the longer it is in the sky in northern hemisphere.
Evening Sky
Mercury, the fifth bright planet visible without a telescope, hides in bright evening twilight, setting less than 30 minutes after the sun. It is visible next month.
Evening Venus, Comet
At 45 minutes after sundown, Venus is easily visible nearly 10° above the southwest horizon. The planet steps eastward in front of Scorpius.
This evening, it passes 0.8° to the upper right of the star at the Scorpion’s forehead or crown, known as Dschubba. Use a binocular to see the planet near the star.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is nearly 25° to Venus’ upper right and 30° above the west-southwest horizon. The comet’s frozen mass, known as the nucleus, appears starlike through a binocular. It is surrounded by a cloud of vaporizing gas, called the coma, appearing cloudy and fuzzy. The sun’s solar wind drives the tail away from the sun – to the upper left in the sky. How far can you trace the tail through the binocular?
Evening Arcturus
At this hour, Arcturus is less than 20° up in the west and nearly 50° to Venus’ upper left, making its second appearance today.
Saturn
Saturn is farther eastward, nearly 25° up in the southeast and over 20° to Fomalhaut’s upper left, the mouth of the Southern Fish. The Ringed Wonder is not exceptionally bright, like Evening Star Venus, but it is the brightest star in the region.
Saturn looks dimmer than other years. Earthbound sky watchers are seeing the rings edge on. Sunlight reflected from the rings’ icy particles contribute to the planet’s brightness in our sky. Now we see less of the rings, so the planet is dimmer.
The Venus-Saturn gap is over 100°. During the next few months, the gap closes until Venus passes Saturn on January 18, 2025.
Tonight, the gibbous moon, rises 75 minutes after sundown. By three hours after sunset, the lunar orb is nearly 20° above the east-northeast horizon.
Tomorrow morning, the moon is to Jupiter’s lower right and Aldebaran’s upper right.
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