November 24, 2025: Daily guide to the Sun, Moon, and planets. Venus descends, Mercury climbs, and Jupiter reigns the night with Saturn’s rings nearly edge-on.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:51 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:23 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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Today’s Almanac for the Sun, Moon, and Planets
Sun: The central star continues to rise and set farther southward. Today, the sun is overhead at noon for locations at latitude 21° south. Even about a month before the solstice, the sun is nearing the Tropic of Capricorn. At Chicago’s latitude, daylight lasts 9 hours, 32 minutes; 10 hours, 45 minutes in Miami; and 6 hours, 32 minutes in Anchorage.
Moon: The lunar orb is in the west-southwest after sunset. The phase on the 4.7-day-old moon is 19%. Look for earthshine on the moon’s night side.
Inner Planets
Mercury: A few days after inferior conjunction, the innermost planet races into the morning sky for its best appearance of the year, peaking during the first week of December. This morning it rises 50 minutes before sunrise and, 20 minutes later, it is 1.4° to Venus’ lower left. While brightening each morning, bright twilight veils its view.
Venus: The Morning Star rapidly descends into morning twilight. Rising about five minutes before Mercury, Venus stands only 4° above the east-southeast horizon at 30 minutes before daybreak. It is visible from a spot with ideal viewing conditions—an unobstructed natural horizon. Use a binocular for its initial identification.
Outer Planets
Mars: The Red Planet is heading toward its conjunction with the sun early next year. Its visibility is inhibited by bright evening twilight as it sets less than 40 minutes after sunset.
Jupiter:With Venus retreating into sunlight, the Jovian Giant reigns the night as the brightest starlike body in the sky. Rising in the east-northeast less than four hours after nightfall, it reaches its highest point in the south about four hours before sunrise. During morning twilight, it is high in the west-southwest. It retrogrades—appears to move westward against the starry background—in front of Gemini, 6.7° to the lower left of Pollux, one of the Twins. Through a small telescope, see up to four of its largest moons and a few atmospheric cloud bands.
Saturn:The Ringed Wonder is nicely placed for evening view. One hour after sunset, it is less than halfway up in the southeastern sky, reaching its highest point in the south over three hours after nightfall and about the time Jupiter rises. Through a telescope, the rings are seen nearly edge-on, appearing as a line running through the planet. This view occurs about every 15 years. Saturn ducks out of sight in the west about six hours before sunrise.
Uranus: The Tilted World rises in the east-northeast a few minutes before sunset, beginning its all-night westward journey. It gently retrogrades in front of Taurus near the Pleiades star cluster, which resembles a miniature dipper. With the moon still a crescent, the planet is visible to the unaided eye from rural areas. Through a binocular, it appears as an aquamarine star, about the same brightness as the stars 13, 14, 32, and 37 Tauri (Tau).
Neptune: The solar system’s most distant planet appears in the same binocular field as Saturn. It is quite faint and likely seen with averted (peripheral) vision. Look above Saturn; it appears as a dim bluish star near the edge of vision.
During the night, Jupiter reigns the sky with Saturn showing its rings edge-on. Find the moon after sunset, and Uranus and Neptune with optical help. Venus and Mars leave the sky, while Mercury heads toward its best morning appearance of the year.
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