2025, February 6:  Four Bright Planets, Jupiter-Moon Conjunction

2025, February 6:  Four Bright Planets, Jupiter-Moon Conjunction

January 6, 2025:  Four bright planets – Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars – parade westward after sundown.  A Jupiter-Moon conjunction occurs tonight.

Jupiter, Mars, Moon gather, August 27, 2024
Image Caption, 2024, August 27: Jupiter, Mars, Moon gather before sunrise

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:57 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:13 p.m. CST.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

The events described below are related to sunrise or sunset.  Find those times in local sources.

Planets Parade Westward after Sunset

Venus, Saturn
Chart Caption – 2025, February 6: Venus and Saturn are in the west-southeast after sundown.

Four bright planets are strung across the evening sky, from the west-southwestern sky to the east.  The moon passes bright Jupiter tonight.

The evening display of four bright planets continues, though Saturn is becoming more difficult to see.

Venus, approaching the brightest interval of its evening appearance, continues to dominate as the brightest starlike body in the sky. While there is no other reference point in the sky, it can be found during the daytime.  The best time is about 3 p.m. local time, when it is around 50° up in the south.

The Evening Star is visible as early as 30 minutes after sunset in the west-southwestern sky.  Thirty minutes later, it is about 30° above the horizon, one-third of the way from the horizon to overhead. 

Through a telescope, the planet is 34% illuminated, an evening crescent phase.  Venus is brightest at mid-month. At this visual intensity, it can cast shadows.

Tonight, Saturn, the dimmest of the four planets, is about halfway from the horizon to Venus. It slowly moves eastward against a faint Aquarius’ background,

Saturn

Saturn, Ring-Plane Crossing
Photo Caption – In one of nature’s most dramatic examples of “now-you see-them, now-you-don’t,” NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured Saturn on May 22, 1995 as the planet’s magnificent ring system turned edge-on. This ring-plane crossing occurs approximately every 15 years when the Earth passes through Saturn’s ring plane. (NASA photo)

Through a telescope, Saturn’s rings are seen nearly edge on, like looking at the edge of a dinner plate.  Earth passes through the ring plane on March 23rd, but this occurs when the Ringed Wonder appears in bright twilight.  When it emerges from twilight into a darker sky, we see the underside or south side of the rings for nearly 15 years.

Tonight, Saturn sets about 2.5 hours after sunset.  In six nights, it sets 30 minutes earlier.  As the planet slips into evening twilight, Mercury emerges.

Jupiter-Moon Conjunction

Jupiter-Moon conjunction
Chart Caption – 2025, February 6: A Jupiter-Moon conjunction occurs in the southeast during the night.

Farther eastward, the gibbous moon, 69% illuminated, is 5.2° to Jupiter’s upper left.  Their conjunction occurs a few minutes before 10 p.m. Central Time, though it is nearly at the same gap as earlier in the evening.

Jupiter’s retrograde ended two nights ago.  While slowly advancing eastward, it is 5.1° to Aldebaran’s upper left, Taurus’ brightest star.  During the next several weeks, watch the Jovian Giant appear farther eastward in the starfield each night opening a gap to Aldebaran and moving toward Elnath and Zeta Tauri.  It moves between them as the Bull disappears into bright western evening twilight during mid-May.

Mars and Gemini

Mars, Gemini
Chart Caption – 2025, February 6: Mars is near the Gemini Twins after sunset.

Mars, the fourth brightest starlike body, after Venus, Jupiter, and Sirius, is 40° up in the east and over 35° to Jupiter’s lower left.  It retrogrades in front of the Gemini Twins, 5.3° to Pollux’s upper right and 6.2° to Castor’s lower right.  The illusion of retrograde continues through the 23rd.

The four bright planets span over 120° from Saturn to Mars.  This gap continues to shrink until Mars’ retrograde ends, although Saturn is a challenge to see on that date.

 In three nights, the bright gibbous moon is near Mars.

Tonight, Jupiter is in the south about the time Saturn sets. Venus follows Saturn to the horizon about 80 minutes after the Ring Wonder sets.  The Jovian Giant sets about three hours before sunrise tomorrow, while Mars sets in the west-northwest near the beginning of morning twilight.

The planets are visible again tomorrow evening after sundown, while the moon is near Elnath.

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