2024, November 25-28:  Morning Crescent Moon, Lunar Occultation

November 25-28, 2024: A waning crescent moon appears in the eastern sky during morning twilight.  Four bright planets are visible during nighttime hours.

Moon and Spica, December 10, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, December 10: The moon is to the upper left of Spica.

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Four Bright Planets Nightly

The visibilities of the planets and moon are described relative to sunrise and sunset.  Find those times in local sources.

Mercury as Never Seen Before
Photo Caption – Mercury as Never Seen Before. (NASA photo)

As Mercury overtakes Earth, before it appears in the eastern morning sky in about a month, the four other bright planets shine during the night.

Venus from Galileo (NASA photo)
Photo Caption – Venus as viewed from the Galileo spacecraft (NASA photo)

Venus is the first to appear after sundown.  It can be found as early as 30 minutes after sunset in the southwest.  By an hour after sunset, it is easily found, rivaling the brightness of low-flying airplanes’ lights.

Saturn
Image Caption – This NASA Hubble Space Telescope photo of Saturn reveals the planet’s cloud bands and a phenomenon called ring spokes.

As darkness falls, Saturn is less than halfway from the south-southeast horizon to overhead.  Not as bright as Venus, it is the brightest starlike body in the region.

Jupiter' Great Red Spot
Photo Caption – Jupiter (NASA Photo)

Jupiter rises in the east-northeast less than 45 minutes after sunset.  It is visible simultaneously with Venus, although in opposite directions, beginning 90 minutes after nightfall for about 30 minutes.  They are visible outside this window, although Venus is lower in the sky, setting nearly three hours after sundown.

Jupiter is visible nearly all night as it makes its nightly western passage.  By the time of morning twilight, it is in the western sky.

2007, December 1: Late winter in the northern hemisphere shows clouds above the northern polar cap and some above the southern cap.
Photo Caption – 2007, December 1: Late winter in the northern hemisphere shows clouds above the northern polar cap and some above the southern cap. (NASA Photo)

Mars, marching eastward in front of Cancer near the Beehive star cluster, rises in the east-northeast nearly three hours after Jupiter and four hours after sunset.  During morning twilight, it is high in the southwest, to Jupiter’s upper left.

Morning Crescent Moon

Morning Crescent Moon, Lunar Occultation
Chart Caption – 2024, November 25-28: With Virgo as a backdrop, the moon appears farther eastward and lower in the sky each morning.

With Jupiter and Mars gleaming during morning twilight, the crescent moon wanes in the southeastern sky in front of Virgo’s stars.  Here’s what to look for one hour before daybreak:

  • November 25: The lunar crescent, 27% illuminated, is nearly halfway from the southeast horizon to overhead.  It is 10.1° to Porrima’s upper right, also known as Gamma Virginis, and nearly 25° to Spica’s upper right, the constellation’s brightest star. Begin looking for earthshine, reflected sunlight from Earth’s oceans, clouds, and land that softly lights the lunar night.
2024, February 7: Moon with Earthshine
Photo Caption – 2024, February 7: Moon with Earthshine
  • November 26: The morning crescent, 20% illuminated, is over 30° above the southeast horizon, 4.4° to Porrima’s lower right and 11.6° to Spica’s upper right. Earthshine is pretty this morning.
Morning Crescent Moon, Lunar Occultation
Chart Caption – 2024, November 27: After this morning’s lunar occultation, the moon is near Spica through a binocular.
  • November 27: The crescent moon, 12% illuminated, is over 20° about the southeast horizon, and immediately to Spica’s lower left. Earlier, the crescent occults or eclipses the star for sky watchers across the eastern US and Canada.  From New York City, the moon begins to cover the star at 5:36 a.m. Eastern Time and Spica is visible again beginning at 6:51 a.m. In Detroit the disappearance and reappearance times, 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time, 6:41 a.m.; Chicago, 4:28 a.m. Central Time, 5:37 a.m.; and Dallas, 4:34 a.m. Central Time, 5:14 a.m. The occultation is visible through a binocular or a spotting scope.  Afterward the moon and star make a pretty scene through a binocular.
  • November 28: The crescent is 7% illuminated and less than 15° above the southeast horizon.  It is over 10° to Spica’s lower left.

The moon reaches the New moon phase after midnight on December 1st.  Before the next lunation begins, watch the moon appear lower in the eastern sky each morning.

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