December 20, 2024: Before sunrise a morning celestial display includes Mercury, Mars, and the gibbous moon. Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are visible after sunset.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:15 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 4:23 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Evening Planet Display
Four bright planets are visible after sunset. Brilliant Venus is in the southwest, appearing as early as 30 minutes after sunset. This evening it sets nearly 220 minutes after sundown.
Venus is closing the gap to dimmer Saturn, less than 30° to the Evening Star’s upper left. The Ringed Wonder is about 20° above the star Fomalhaut.
Bright Jupiter is over 20° up in the east, retrograding in front of Taurus. Aldebaran, the Bull’s brightest star, is 6.5° to the right.
Mars rises nearly 150 minutes after sundown. At three hours after nightfall, find the Red Planet nearly 5° above the east-northeast horizon, while Venus is about the same altitude – height above the horizon – in the west-southwest. Four planets, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus, seem to hang along the arc of the ecliptic spanning 169°.
Morning Celestial Display
Before sunrise a morning celestial display has Mercury, Mars and the gibbous moon. An hour before sunrise, the gibbous moon, 73% illuminated, is over halfway up in the southwest. It is 2.5° to Regulus’ upper left, the brightest star in Leo.
Moon
While the moonlight washes out dimmer stars, Regulus is at the bottom of the Sickle of Leo, a backwards question-mark shape, representing the Lion’s head. The haunches and tail, Denebola, are made by a triangle to the moon’s upper left.
Mars
After its nearly all-night traverse of the sky, Mars is in the western sky at this hour, to the upper left of Pollux and Castor, the Gemini Twins. The Red Planet is the brightest starlike body in the sky this morning. It is over twice as bright as Arcturus, the brightest star in the northern half of the sky that is high in the southeast this morning.
Mars continues to retrograde in front of Cancer, near the Beehive star cluster. In this moonlight, the cluster is visible, but it is not as prominent as on moonless nights. Opposition and the planet’s closest approach to Earth occurs next month.
Mercury
At 45 minutes before sunrise, Mercury is making its final appearance of the year, nearly 10° above the southeast horizon and 4.7° to Graffias’ lower left and 6.8° to Dschubba’s lower left, the Scorpion’s forehead.
Mercury is bright enough to shine through the colorful hues of morning twilight. Use a binocular to see it with the two stars.
Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali, the Scorpion’s classic claws, are higher in the sky.
From Mercury through the moon to Mars, this morning celestial display spans over 130° of the ecliptic.
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