November 18, 2025: Before sunrise, the crescent moon appears near Venus for the final time during this apparition. The Morning Star rises shortly before daybreak, retreating into brighter twilight as it heads toward superior conjunction early next year. Look for Venus low in the east-southeast with the delicate crescent moon above the horizon.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:44 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:27 p.m. CST. 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-Moon Conjunction
Avid sky watchers can see the final appearance of Venus and the moon together before sunrise during this Venusian apparition. During the last lunation, the moon passed Venus in a darker sky, described here as the final conjunction of the pair that occurred in mid-twilight.
Venus retreats into brighter twilight as it approaches superior conjunction on the sun’s far side early next year. While it is visible near the horizon, like the sun, moon, and Jupiter when they rise, sky watchers look for it closer to sunrise, when the sky is brighter.
Today, the Morning Star rises 62 minutes before sunrise. Twenty minutes later, it is over 5° above the east-southeast horizon.
The crescent moon, only 3% illuminated, rises about 30 minutes before Venus and appears 8.5° to the brilliant planet’s upper right, too far apart to fit into the same binocular field of view.
After finding a clear horizon toward the southeast, begin observing about an hour before sunrise. Look for Spica, Virgo’s brightest star, over 20° above the southeast horizon, and Arcturus, the second-brightest star visible from mid-northern latitudes, nearly halfway up in the east. Watch twilight brighten the sky as the crescent moon and then Venus rise, and track Venus and Arcturus until they disappear.
Into Brighter Twilight
One way to follow celestial bodies as the sky brightens is to locate them first in a darker sky and note a nearby terrestrial feature, such as a building or tree branch, as a reference. It may require moving a few steps to align the object with the feature. As the sky brightens, use the landmark to relocate the celestial body.
The moon reaches its New Moon phase on the 20th at 12:47 a.m., beginning lunation 1273 — the number of lunar cycles since the count began over a century ago. It reappears low in the southwest on the evening of the 22nd.
Look for this final Venus-Moon pairing during brighter twilight before sunrise.
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