2025, January 24:  Four Bright Planets on Display, Morning Moon

January 24, 2025: Four bright planets – Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars – are on display after sundown. Appearing as stars, these worlds span the sky.

2022, March 28: A close bunching of Venus, Saturn, Mars, and the crescent moon.
Photo Caption – 2022, March 28: A close bunching of Venus, Saturn, Mars, and the crescent moon.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:10 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:56 p.m. CST.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Times of celestial events are described compared to sunrise and sunset.  Find those times in local sources.

Morning Moon, Mars

Four Bright Planets On Display
Chart Caption – 2025, January 24: The crescent moon is near Antares before daybreak.

The nightly display of planets is ending each morning during twilight.  This morning an hour before sunrise, start with the crescent moon, 26% illuminated, nearly 20° above the south-southeast horizon.  It is 5.8° to Antares’ upper right, the Scorpion’s brightest star.

Four Bright Planets On Display
Chart Caption – 2025, January 24: During morning twilight, Mars is low in the west-northwest near Pollux.

At this hour, Mars, the most easterly planet in the nightly display, is less than 10° above the west-northwest horizon, 2.4° to Pollux’ lower left, one of the Gemini Twins.  The planet begins the evening in the east-northeastern sky.  As Earth rotates during the night, the worlds and stars seem to move farther westward.  Mars is here during morning twilight.  Within a week, it is below the horizon and the morning sky is without a bright planet at this time interval before sunrise.

After its display last month, Mercury is moving toward its solar conjunction on February 9th.  It rises 25 minutes before the sun during bright twilight.  It appears in the western evening sky later next month.

Four Bright Planets on Display

Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, appearing as bright stars, seem to hang along an arc of the solar system’s plane after sundown.

Four Bright Planets On Display
Chart Caption – 2025, January 24: Venus and Saturn are in the southwest after nightfall.

Begin looking in the southwest as night falls.  Venus is the brilliant star about 30° up in the sky, one-third of the way from the horizon to overhead.  It is the brightest starlike body in the sky, rivaling bright airplane lights.

Venus is easy to spot not long after sunset, but to see Saturn, 5.7° below the Evening Star, the sky should be darker.  Venus is nearly 185 times brighter than Saturn, although the more distant planet is the 11th brightest starlike body in the sky at this hour after Venus, Jupiter, Sirius, Mars, Vega, Capella, Rigel, Procyon, Betelgeuse, and Aldebaran.

Jupiter

Four Bright Planets On Display
Chart Caption – 2025, January 24: An hour after sunset, bright Jupiter is high in the east-southwest with Venus.

Farther eastward, bright Jupiter is high in the east-southeast, 5.1° to Aldebaran’s upper left, Taurus’ brightest star.  The Jovian Giant is retrograding in front of Taurus – a region of the sky with pretty binocular views of the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. The planet’s retrograde ends early next month.

Mars

Four Bright Planets On Display
Chart Caption – 2025, January 24: After sundown, Mars is in the east-northeast to Pollux’ right.

Mars, the fourth planet in this display of four bright planets, is nearly 25° above the east-northeast horizon, 2.5° to the right of Pollux.

Try This!

Notice that the four bright planets are along an arc from southwest to east-northeast.  Demonstrate this by pointing toward Saturn, the western-most planet. In a continuous slow swing, move your hand eastward through Venus to Jupiter and then Mars.  Your hand swings along the ecliptic and the through the background stars, known as the zodiac.

Tonight, brilliant Venus sets nearly four hours after nightfall, 30 minutes after Saturn.  Bright Jupiter is south over three hours after sundown and sets after midnight and three hours before sunrise.  Finally, Mars is south around midnight and again low in the west-northwest before sunrise tomorrow morning.

Watch this nightly display of four bright planets until Saturn disappears into bright evening twilight later next month.

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