January 31, 2025: The waxing crescent moon leads the nightly planet parade. A Mars-Castor conjunction occurs in the eastern sky.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:04 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:05 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
At month’s end, daylight lasts 10 hours, 1 minute at Chicago’s latitude. Daylight gained 48 minutes during January.
Moon Leads Nightly Planet Parade
The waxing crescent moon leads the planet parade tonight. It passed the New moon phase two days ago. The new lunation signaled the Lunar New Year.
At 45 minutes after sunset, the thin crescent moon, 8% illuminated, is 3.4° to Saturn’s lower right. Look for earthshine – sunlight reflected by Earth’s oceans, clouds, and land – that softly lights the lunar night. Photograph it with camera exposures up to a few seconds.
Brilliant Venus is again in the west-southwest, 10.7° above Saturn. The Evening Star’s greatest brightness occurs during mid-February. Through a telescope, the planet is 38% illuminated, an evening crescent phase.
Super Crescent Moon Tomorrow Night
Tomorrow evening, Venus and the moon appear together, a spectacular view. Since the moon is near its closest point to Earth, known as perigee and its near Venus, we are calling this a Super Crescent Moon.
Jupiter with Taurus
Farther eastward, bright Jupiter, the second brightest starlike body in tonight’s sky, is high in the southeastern sky. It is 5.1° to Aldebaran’s upper left, Taurus’ brightest star.
Jupiter’s retrograde ends on February 4th, and it resumes its eastward trek. The Jovian Giant stops 1.1° of ecliptic longitude short of a conjunction with Aldebaran. One degree is equal to two Full moon diameters.
Mars-Castor Conjunction
Reddish Mars, 30° up in the east, passes Castor, a Gemini Twin, in a wide conjunction. The gap is 5.9°. Another conjunction, the final in a triple conjunction series, occurs March 21, after Mars’ retrograde ends on February 23rd.
Pollux, the second Twin, is 3.9° to Mars’ lower left.
Nightly Parade Moves Westward
With Earth’s rotation, the parade marches westward. The lunar crescent sets nearly three hours after sundown, followed by Saturn less than 15 minutes later. Brilliant Venus sets nearly four hours after nightfall. Bright Jupiter is in the south about the time the moon sets. It sets in the west-northwest about four hours before sunrise. Mars is south before midnight and sets in the west-northwest during morning twilight.
The planet parade continues tomorrow evening with a spectacular Venus-Moon conjunction in the southwestern sky.
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