August 11, 2026: A razor-thin crescent moon joins Mercury before sunrise while Mars shines near Taurus’ horns and Sirius makes its first morning appearance.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:55 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:56 p.m. CDT. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
Venus as an Evening Star
Mercury, Moon
As the moon completes this lunation, it joins Mercury low in the east-northeast.
Step outside with a binocular an hour before sunrise and look eastward. The sky contains several bright stars as Sirius makes its first morning appearance, known as a heliacal rising, across the mid-northern latitudes during brighter twilight.
Bright Stars in Eastern Sky
Orion is easy to identify. Red-orange Betelgeuse is about 20° above the eastern horizon, while blue-white Rigel is nearly 20° to the right. The Hunter’s belt stars point downward toward Sirius.
Taurus is above Orion. Its sideways “V” outlines the Bull’s head with bright topaz-colored Aldebaran. The bovine’s long horns are Elnath and Zeta Tauri. Mars is 5.5° to Zeta Tauri’s lower left. The Red Planet passed between the horns over a week ago and continues its eastward march against the starry background.
Mars
Mars is over 180 million miles away, causing it to be dimmer than might be expected. It is about the same color as Betelgeuse and Aldebaran, but noticeably dimmer than both stars. The planet brightens throughout the year as Earth closes its distance to Mars before passing between the planet and the sun early next year.
The Gemini Twins, Castor and Pollux, are nearly 25° to Mars’ lower left.
Mercury
Mercury and the moon are the next stop on this morning tour of the eastern sky. As the moon ends this lunation before tomorrow’s total solar eclipse across the Arctic, Greenland, Spain, and the ocean regions between them, it passes Mercury, which is retreating into bright morning twilight and approaching superior conjunction with the sun on August 27.
At this hour, Mercury and the very thin lunar crescent are about 10° below Pollux and less than 5° above the horizon. They are 2.0° apart and easily fit into the same binocular field. Find a clear view toward the east-northeast horizon.
The Mercury–Moon pair rises higher into the sky as sunrise approaches, although the sky brightens quickly. Use a binocular to see the old moon and the Elusive Planet before they are overwhelmed by twilight. The thin crescent and earthshine are especially striking through a binocular.
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