October 19, 2025: Before sunrise, find brilliant Venus low in the eastern sky with a slender crescent moon to its upper right. Capture earthshine as sunlight reflected from Earth softly illuminates the lunar night.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:08 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 6:03 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
Three Bright Planets Nightly
Three bright planets – Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn – are visible in the night sky.
Saturn is in the east-southeast shortly after sunset, appears in the south around midnight, and sets about the start of morning twilight.
Bright Jupiter rises in the east-northeast around midnight and is high in the southeast near the Gemini Twins during morning twilight.
Venus and Moon
Venus rises about the beginning of morning twilight and shines brilliantly in the eastern sky until sunlight blots it from view.
This morning, the crescent moon, only 4% illuminated, is 4.1° to Venus’ upper right. This is the final conjunction of the pair during this Venusian apparition that occurs in mid-twilight. Next month’s pairing takes place during bright twilight as Venus slides toward its solar conjunction early next year.
Here’s What to See
About 45 minutes before sunrise, find Venus and the moon about 10° up in the east. Brilliant Venus gleams through morning twilight, and the slender crescent moon is to its upper right.
If you have not spotted Venus recently, the planet is slipping deeper into morning twilight, rising two to three minutes later each morning compared to sunrise. You may need to adjust your observing spot to see the pair lower in the east than expected.
Photograph the Pair
Photograph the pair with a tripod-mounted camera and exposures up to a few seconds or with a steady smartphone camera. The pair fits within the frame of a 300 mm lens and a digital SLR.
Try to capture earthshine—sunlight reflected from Earth’s clouds, oceans, and land that softly illuminates the lunar night—by varying the exposure times. This is a little challenging because the moon is very thin and in brighter twilight than the past few mornings.
Look for this final grouping of Venus and the crescent moon for this Venusian apparition.
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