February 26, 2025: Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars parade westward during the night.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:30 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:38 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
7 Planets are not Visible
It is important to note that only four bright planets are easily visible. Saturn and Neptune are bathed in bright twilight and not visible through a binocular or modest telescope. Uranus is visible through a binocular near Taurus’ Pleiades star cluster.
Evening’s Four Planet Parade
Four evening planets parade westward for a short spell after sundown. At 45 minutes after sunset, bright Mercury, emerging from bright twilight, is about 5° above the western horizon. On its way to its best evening appearance of the year, tonight, it sets 71 minutes after sundown. The planet is bright, use a binocular to initially locate it.
Brilliant Venus gleams in the sky above Mercury. The Evening Star is the brightest starlike body in the sky tonight. It is overtaking Earth. Tonight’s distance is nearly 33 million miles.
Through a telescope, Venus displays an evening crescent, 16% illuminated.
Jupiter and Taurus
Farther eastward, bright Jupiter is high in the south-southwest. It plods eastward in front of Taurus, 5.4° above Aldebaran, the Bull’s brightest star. Look for the Bull’s horns, Elnath and Zeta Tauri, to Jupiter’s upper left. Jupiter passes between them as it disappears into bright evening twilight during May.
Mars and Gemini Twins
Tonight’s fourth bright planet, Mars, is over halfway up in the east-southeast, over 35° to Jupiter’s lower left. The Red Planet’s retrograde ended three nights ago. It is beginning its westward march against the starfield again. Tonight, it is 7.2° to Pollux’s upper right and 7.4° to Castor’s lower right, making nearly an isosceles triangle.
From Mercury to Mars, the four bright planets span nearly 115°. They line up along the plane of the solar system, known as the ecliptic.
Four Planets Parade
During the night, Mercury disappears below the horizon quickly. Venus sets less than three hours after nightfall, losing 4-5 minutes of setting time each night.
Jupiter sets about 90 minutes after local midnight, while Mars sets about three hours later and before the beginning of morning twilight. Look for the new planet parade during the next several nights as Mercury becomes easier to see.
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