2025, March 5: Evening Planet Display, Mercury at Perihelion

March 5, 2025:  The moon is near Jupiter in the evening planet display.  Mercury is at perihelion.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Jupiter greets the moon during morning twilight.
Photo Caption – Jupiter greets the moon during morning twilight.

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:19 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:46 p.m. CST.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Mercury at Perihelion

Mercury at perihelion, March 5, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, March 5: Mercury is at perihelion or closest to the sun.

With Mercury on its best evening display of the year for northern hemisphere sky watchers, the innermost planet is closest to the sun, or perihelion today. It has the most elliptical orbit of any major planet, with its distance from the Sun varying by about 50% between its closest point (perihelion) and farthest point (aphelion).

Additionally, from our perspective, the planet is approaching its greatest separation from the sun in three nights.

Evening Planet Display

Mercury and Venus, March 5, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, March 5: Brilliant Venus and Mercury are in the west after nightfall.

This evening four bright planets are lined up from the western horizon to the east-southeast. After mid-month only two remain.  See the quartet for about the next week.

Begin at 45 minutes after sundown. Locate brilliant Venus over 15° above the horizon.  If you have not seen it for several days, it is noticeably lower. 

The Evening Star is overtaking Earth, passing between our world and the sun on the 22nd. Then it reappears as the Morning Star in the east-northeast before sunrise at month’s end.  Tonight, through a telescope, it displays an evening crescent, 10% illuminated. Venus is nearly 30 million miles from Earth, about 125 times the moon’s distance. 

Use a binocular to initially locate Mercury, though it is visible without the optical assist.  Find it 9.2° to Venus’ lower left and nearly 10° above the horizon.  They planetary pair is too far apart to fit into the same binocular field of view.

Tonight, Mercury sets 92 minutes after sundown, followed by Venus less than 50 minutes later. Mercury’s window of visibility is short before Earth’s atmosphere dims and blurs the planet when it is lower in the sky.

Jupiter, Moon

Jupiter, Moon, Taurus, March 5, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, March 5: The nearly half-full moon appears near Jupiter after sunset.

Jupiter is easy to locate high in the southwest, 7.9° to the left of the moon.  The Jovian Giant is rambling eastward in front of Taurus, 5.7° above Aldebaran, the constellation’s brightest star.  The planet is generally moving toward the Bull’s horns, Elnath and Zeta Tauri, about 12° to Jupiter’s upper left.

The moon’s phase is nearly half-full. The First Quarter phase occurs tomorrow at 10:32 a.m. Central Time.

Mars and the Twins

Mars, Gemini, March 5, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, March 5: At 45 minutes after sundown, Mars is in the east-southeast with the Gemini Twins.

Mars is farther eastward, high in the east-southeast, over 35° to Jupiter’s lower left.  The Red Planet marches eastward in front of Gemini, 6.8° to Pollux’s upper right and 7.3° to Castor’s lower right.  Watch the planet move eastward compared to the starfield.  It passes Castor in a wide conjunction on the 21, followed by one with Pollux 10 nights later.

Be sure to see this evening four-planet display before Mercury and Venus leave our view.

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