August 14, 2025: Venus moves farther from Jupiter in the morning sky while setting up a rare gathering with Pollux and the crescent moon. Don’t miss this multi-planet display and the final nights of the Perseid meteor shower.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:57 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:53 p.m. CDT. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
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Venus Summary Article
Venus and Jupiter in Morning Sky
As Venus steps away from Jupiter in the eastern predawn sky, other events are unfolding and concluding. First, find the planetary pair. One hour before sunrise, step outside and look eastward. Brilliant Venus is nearly 20° above the east-northeast horizon, 2.2° to Jupiter’s lower left, nearly twice yesterday’s gap.
Approaching Rare Gathering
Venus steps eastward faster than Jupiter. The Morning Star approaches a wide conjunction with Pollux, a Gemini Twin, in six mornings. This conjunction is combined with a gathering with the crescent moon. The three celestial wonders tightly fit into the same binocular field of view. They are not this close again until 2039!
Saturn and Gibbous Moon
This morning the moon, 71% illuminated, is high in the southern sky and nearly 80° to the upper right of Venus. The lunar orb is nearly 30° to Saturn’s upper left. The Ringed Wonder slowly retrogrades in front of Pisces’ dim stars.
Look carefully for Hamal, Aries’ brightest star, over 10° to the moon’s upper left.
After Peak Perseid Meteors
The bright moonlight washes across the sky, muting the brightness of fainter planets, stars, and the Perseid meteor shower that is slowly winding down. After midnight and before twilight brightens as many as 10 meteors can be seen emerging from high in the east-northeastern sky, though they can be seen anywhere in the sky.
The moon continues to wane, passing through the morning half-full phase, known as Last Quarter, on the 18th at 11:36 p.m. Central Time, when it is below the horizon across most of the Americas.
Six-Planet Parade
As the moon passes into the waning crescent phase, a six-planet parade ramps up, though all of them are not visible simultaneously. Faint Neptune, in the same binocular field with Saturn, can be found before morning twilight begins. Uranus, brighter than the most-distant world in the modern solar system model, is in the same field with the Pleiades star cluster, and is revealed through a binocular in a dark sky and during the early phases of morning’s light.
Mercury rises into view low in the east-northeast, during brighter morning twilight, when the illumination is brighter than Uranus and Neptune. The order from the east-northeast horizon: Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn. They span over 125° of the sky.
Mars after Sundown
Mars is the lone bright planet that is not part of this planet parade. It is east of the sun, setting 100 minutes after nightfall. This evening it is visible in twilight through a binocular. It marches eastward in front of Virgo, 5.9° to Porrima’s lower right, also known as Gamma Virginis. Spica, Virgo’s brightest star, is over 10° above the west-southwest horizon and nearly 20° to Mars’ upper left.
Saturn Entering Evening Sky
Saturn rises in the east five minutes before Mars sets. By three hours after sundown, the Ringed Wonder is over 25° above the east-southeast horizon. While not as bright as Venus and Jupiter, it nearly stands alone as the brightest star in the region at this hour.
The gibbous moon, 61% illuminated and nearly 15° up in the eastern sky, is 6.9° to the lower right of Hamal.
By tomorrow morning, Saturn is about halfway up in the south-southwest while the moon nears its Last Quarter phase. The Venus-Jupiter gap is wider as the rare Venus-Moon-Pollux gathering approaches.
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