July 21, 2025: Before sunrise, Venus, Jupiter, and a crescent moon create a stunning scene in the eastern sky. Watch Venus close in on Jupiter and try spotting Neptune in a dark sky.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:34 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:19 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Related Articles
Venus Summary Article
Venus, Jupiter, and Crescent Moon
Before sunrise Venus, Jupiter, and the crescent moon are visible in the eastern sky. Step outside an hour before sunrise and look for them.
The crescent moon, 15% illuminated, is less than one-third of the way from the eastern horizon to overhead and 7.7° to Venus’ upper left.
Earthshine
Capture a photo of earthshine, a soft glow on the moon’s night portion. The effect is sunlight reflected from Earth’s features. Photograph it with a tripod-mounted camera and exposures up to a few seconds, though a steady smartphone camera can capture the scene.
Venus steps eastward in front of Taurus between the Bull’s horns, Elnath and Zeta Tauri. It is 9.3° to Aldebaran’s lower left, the constellation’s brightest star. It passes Zeta in five mornings.
Through a telescope. Venus shows a morning gibbous phase, 72% illuminated.
Look for Jupiter over 5° above the east-northeast horizon and over 20° to Venus’ lower left. Because of its low altitude, height above the horizon, find a clear view toward the Jovian Giant.
Venus-Jupiter Conjunction, August 12, 2025
Venus closes in on Jupiter by about 1° each morning, two full moon diameters. The Venus-Jupiter conjunction occurs on August 12th.
Saturn, Neptune
With the moon at a thin crescent phase and soon moving into the evening sky, begin a search for dim Neptune, the most-distant major planet in the modern solar system model. Begin at least two hours before daybreak. Any later, morning twilight washes out the planet.
At this hour, Saturn is nearly halfway from the east-southeast horizon to overhead. The star Deneb Kaitos, Cetus’ tail, is about halfway from the horizon to the Ringed Wonder.
The star Fomalhaut, slightly brighter than Saturn, is low in the southern sky, over 25° to Deneb Kaitos’ lower right.
Neptune is only 1° above Saturn, though, in space, they are 1.9 billion miles apart, over 20 times the distance from Earth to the sun. Neptune is too dim to see without optical assistance.
Look for Neptune through a Binocular
Through a binocular, place Saturn at the center of the binocular field of view. At this magnification, its rings are still not visible. Look for the stars 27 Piscium (27 Psc on the chart) and 29 Piscium (29 Psc). Notice their respective colors, yellow-white and blue-white. They are still 10 times brighter than Neptune.
Neptune is a dim bluish star to Saturn’s upper left. Another reddish star with an obscure catalog name, still twice as bright as Neptune, is to the upper right. This may take attempts across multiple clear mornings. The planet’s globe is visible through a large diameter telescope.
The important aspect is to look for Neptune in the darkest sky possible. This observation is very difficult or nearly impossible from suburban backyards. Use the accompanying chart for the next few weeks. Saturn and Neptune do not move far during this period.
Upcoming Morning Planet Display
A morning display of six of the seven major planets is beginning to set up. Mercury is still east of the sun, setting only 25 minutes after the central star. It is overtaking our planet, passing between our world and the sun, inferior conjunction, at month’s end. It joins Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune, though the dimmer worlds are not visible when Mercury appears during brighter morning twilight.
Mars in West
This leaves Mars as the lone major planet in the western evening sky after sundown. An hour after nightfall, it is less than 15° above the western horizon. It fades as it slowly slides into evening twilight.
The Red Planet sets less than 20 minutes after the end of evening twilight. Until it passes behind the sun early next year, it appears in brightening sunlight.
This is one of the last evenings to see Regulus, known as the heliacal setting. It is moving toward its conjunction with the sun on August 22nd and reappearance in the eastern sky during September.
Look for a pretty crescent moon near Venus this morning as the Morning Star closes in on Jupiter.
LATEST ARTICLES
- 2026, October 11: Mars Appears in the Beehive Star Cluster Before Sunrise
October 11, 2026: Before sunrise, Mars appears in the Beehive star cluster while closing the gap to Jupiter. View the planets and the famous stellar bundle through a binocular. - 2026, October 10: New Materials for Energy Supply
October 10, 2026: Oregon researchers developed a new family of materials to convert light into energy. - 2026, October 9: Texas Researchers Modify OK’s Impact Date
October 9, 2026: University of Texas scientists modify the estimate of a meteorite impact in Oklahoma. - 2026, October 8: News From NASA’s Perseverance from Mars
October 8, 2026: NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft finds unexpected geological strata. - 2026, October 7: Predawn Alignment of Jupiter, Moon, and Regulus
October 7, 2026: Before sunrise, look for Jupiter, Regulus, and Moon align in the eastern sky.