July 7, 2025: Discover which bright planets are visible before sunrise (including dazzling Venus and ringed Saturn) and after sunset (Mars and Mercury). Learn how to spot Uranus, Neptune, and star clusters like the Hyades, plus where the Moon is positioned near Antares.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:23 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:28 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 and the moon are easily visible during the nighttime hours. Before sunrise, Venus and Saturn are in the eastern sky.
Saturn in Southeast
Step outside an hour before sunrise and look to the southeast. Saturn is nearly halfway from the horizon to overhead. In about a week, it begins to retrograde in front of Pisces.
The star Deneb Kaitos is about halfway from the horizon to Saturn.
Binocular View: Neptune near Saturn
Neptune, appearing as a dim bluish star, is near Saturn through a binocular. The best view occurs before the beginning of morning twilight, about two hours before daybreak when the sky is dark. Find the stars 27 Piscium (27 Psc on the chart) and 29 Piscium (29 Psc). For comparison, they are brighter than Neptune.
Morning Star Venus
Venus is “that bright star” in the eastern sky before sunrise. As the Morning Star, it outshines all other stars in the sky. At this hour it is nearly 20° above the horizon. It steps eastward against Taurus, 7.1° to the lower right of the Pleiades star cluster and 7.7° to Aldebaran’s upper right, the Bull’s brightest star.
From morning to morning, the planet’s eastward trek is easy to spot as it passes stars that are visible through a binocular, even from suburban settings. This morning, it is visible with Uranus and the Hyades star cluster.
Binocular View: Venus and Uranus
First place Venus off the field’s center toward the lower left edge. It is 3.8° to the lower left of Uranus, an aquamarine star. Even a small telescope with 100x magnification can see the planet’s tiny globe.
Venus and Hyades
Shifting the binocular downward a bit, the Hyades cluster joins the field of view. The checkmark shape contains over a hundred stars. The stellar swam has been studied for decades. From Earth, the individual stars’ movements have been measured, and as a group the stars are moving toward a point to the east of Elnath, one of the Bull’s horns.
The star cluster is made of yellow-white and blue-white stars that seem to be about the same age – around 600 million years.
The star Aldebaran, not in this binocular field this morning, is mistakenly thought to be part of the Hyades because together they make the “V” of Taurus that outlines the Bull’s head. It is less than halfway from the sun to the star cluster.
Beginning tomorrow and for the next week, Venus appears in the same field of view with Aldebaran and the cluster.
Jupiter Entering Eastern Morning Sky
Jupiter is slowly climbing into the morning sky through bright twilight. This morning it rises about 40 minutes before the sun. Start looking for it in about a week. Venus overtakes it on the morning of August 12th for a pretty conjunction.
During mid-August, after Mercury appears west of the sun, six of the seven bright planets are in the morning sky. While the planets are visible during various phases of nighttime, they are not seen simultaneously.
Mars in West after Sunset
After sunset, Mars, marching eastward in front of Leo, is nearly 20° up in the west and less than 15° to Regulus’ upper left, the Lion’s brightest star. The Red Planet sets less than three hours after sundown.
Mercury Leaving Evening Views
Mercury is sliding into evening twilight. Planet aficionados can track it into brighter twilight. At 45 minutes after sundown, this speedy planet is less than 5° above the west-northwest horizon and visible through a binocular.
Gibbous Moon near Antares
Farther eastward, the moon, heading toward the Full (Buck) moon phase, is less than 20° up in the south-southeast. It is in front of Scorpius, 4.7° to the lower left of Antares, the Scorpion’s heart. Earlier tonight, it occults or eclipses this star from southern Africa.
The major planets, except for Mars begin to congregate in the eastern sky before sunrise. Watch Venus pass the rich star fields in Taurus.
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