2025, March 26: See Venus before Sunup, Jupiter and Mars after Sundown

March 26, 2025: Venus appears during bright twilight before sunrise.  Jupiter and Mars are easy to see after sunset.

Venus is low in the east-northeast during morning twilight, June 6, 2020.
2020, June 16: Venus is low in the east-northeast during morning twilight. Use a binocular to see its tiny crescent phase.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:43 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:10 p.m. CDT.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

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See Venus Before Sunup

Venus, Moon, March 26, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, March 26: At 30 minutes before sunrise, Venus and the crescent moon are in the eastern sky.

Look for Venus before sunrise.  Thirty minutes before daybreak, find the brilliant Morning Star and the crescent moon in the eastern sky.

The crescent moon, 12% illuminated, is less than 10° above the east-southeast horizon, over 35° to Venus’ upper right.

The Morning Star is easy to see over 5° above the eastern horizon from a viewing location with a clear view of the horizon.  A hilltop or elevated structure is helpful.

Venus rises three to four minutes earlier each morning.  By mid-April, it rises almost 90 minutes before the sun and stands nearly 10° up in the east in a darker sky, 45 minutes before sunup.

This morning, find a clear eastern horizon to initially locate Venus and the crescent moon.  Can you find them without the optical assist?

Mercury and Saturn Not Visible

Saturn and Mercury are hiding in bright twilight.  They rise at about the same time, around 20 minutes before the sun, though the sky is too bright to see them.

See Jupiter After Sundown

Jupiter, March 26, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, March 26: Bright Jupiter is in the west-southwest after sundown, in front of Taurus.

After sundown, bright Jupiter and Mars are easy to locate.  The Jovian Giant is the brightest starlike body in the evening sky.  At one hour after nightfall, find it over halfway up in the west-southwest. It rambles eastward in front of Taurus, 7.2° to Aldebaran’s upper right, Taurus’ brightest star.  It is moving toward the horns, marked by Elnath and Zeta Tauri.

Taurus Treasures through a Binocular

The Pleiades star cluster.
Photo Caption – The Pleiades star cluster. (U.S. Naval Observatory)

Use a binocular to explore the “V” of Taurus, made by Aldebaran and the Hyades star cluster, and the Pleiades, a cluster that resembles a miniature dipper.  As the sky darkens further, find planet Uranus below the Seven Sisters, a popular name for the Pleiades.

When the moon returns to the evening sky early next month, its bright light washes over the sky and covers these fainter features.

Mars is high in South

Mars, March 26, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, March 26: Mars is near Pollux, one of the Gemini Twins, in the southern sky during the early evening.

Mars – about 10% Jupiter’s brightness, but brighter than most stars this evening – is high in the southern sky, over 35° to Jupiter’s upper left.  The Red Planet marches eastward in front of Gemini.  Five nights ago, it passed the star Castor in a wide conjunction.  On the 31st, it passes Pollux for the third time – a triple conjunction – during this Martian apparition.  Look for its movement to the east compared to the stars each evening.

During the night, as Earth rotates, the planets and stars appear farther westward.  Jupiter sets nearly six hours after sunset and at about midnight.  Mars sets nearly three hours after Jupiter and less than three hours before sunup.

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