March 28, 2025: Venus is visible before sunrise. Jupiter and Mars can be seen after sunset.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:40 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:12 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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Venus Summary Article
VENUS AS A MORNING STAR, 2025
Three Bright Planets
After a four-planet extravaganza in the evening sky, three planets are visible during nighttime hours. Two bright planets hide in morning twilight.
Venus continues to emerge from bright morning twilight in the eastern sky. Find it less than 5° up in the east at 30 minutes before daybreak. Initially use a binocular to see it, though it is bright enough to shine through morning’s light.
Each morning, Venus rises earlier and appears higher in the sky.
Tomorrow’s Solar Eclipse
The moon is nearing the end of this lunation. The New moon occurs tomorrow at 5:58 a.m. Central Time. This is accompanied by a partial solar eclipse visible from Europe, western Africa, eastern Canada, and northeastern US.
Mercury and Saturn are west of the sun and obscured by bright morning twilight, rising about 25 minutes before the sun.
Jupiter
Meanwhile, bright Jupiter and Mars are in the evening sky. Jupiter, brighter than all the stars tonight, is about halfway from the horizon to overhead in the west-southwest. It rambles eastward in front of Taurus, nearly halfway from Aldebaran, the Bull’s brightest star, to the horns, Elnath and Zeta Tauri.
Betelgeuse, Orion’s shoulder, is about 20° to Jupiter’s left.
Before the moon returns next week and its light washes out dimmer celestial wonders, use a binocular to explore the Pleiades star cluster and the “V” of Taurus, outlined by Aldebaran and the Hyades star cluster. Planet Uranus is nearly in the same binocular field with the Pleiades star cluster. After the moon washes it out, it is too low in the sky for easy visibility. Then it passes behind the sun and reappears in the eastern sky before sunrise. It is visible again during the summer.
Mars Nears Pollux
Mars – noticeably dimmer than Jupiter, but brighter than most stars tonight – is high in the south. It marches eastward in front of Gemini, near the Twins. It is 7.6° to Castor’s lower left and 4.0° to Pollux’ lower right. The Red Planet passes Pollux in three evenings for the final meeting of a triple conjunction.
During the night the planets appear farther westward. Jupiter sets near the midnight hour. Mars sets about three hours after Jupiter and less than three hours before sunrise, long before Venus appears during morning twilight.
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