October 24, 2023 Jeffrey L. Hunt Astronomy, Sky Watching
November 13, 2023: Uranus is at opposition and closest to Earth. It is visible through a binocular during the night.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:38 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:32 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Earth’s closest celestial neighbor reaches the New moon phase at 3:27 a.m. CDT. It begins lunation 1248, the number of moon phases cycles since the count began a century ago. In two evenings, a crescent moon is low in the southwest after sunset.
Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24
Here is today’s planet forecast:
Morning Sky
Rising nearly four hours before sunrise, brilliant Venus is over 30° above the east-southeast horizon three hours later. The Morning Star is stepping eastward in front of Virgo’s stars. This morning the planet passes 0.5° to the lower left of dimmer Zaniah, meaning “the corner.”
Use a binocular to see the planet with the star.
Venus quickly moves from the star, as it heads toward a wide conjunction with Spica on the 29th. In four mornings, it passes Porrima, also known as Gamma Virginis. Beginning November 22nd, Venus is within 10° of Spica and the gap closes about 1.0° each morning, an easy observation.
At this hour, Jupiter is below the western horizon. Step outside two hours before sunrise. The Jovian Giant is over 10° up in the west, over 146° from Venus. On December 10th, Venus and Jupiter are 180° apart in the sky, a planet-to-planet opposition, where Jupiter sets as Venus rises. Afterward, Jupiter sets before Venus rises. They have a close conjunction in bright sunlight May 24, 2024. They are not visible together in the sky simultaneously again until the autumn of 2024.
Evening Sky
Mercury and Mars are not visible. Mercury sets thirty-five minutes after sundown. For observing purposes, it is lost in the sun’s glare. Mars nears its solar conjunction, setting only a few minutes after the sun. It is not visible until next year, when it emerges from bright sunlight into the predawn eastern sky.
Jupiter and Saturn are visible during the early evening hours. Saturn is the easier of the giant planets to find. It is over 30° above the south-southeast horizon at one hour after sundown. The star Fomalhaut, slightly dimmer than Saturn, is about 20° to the lower left of the Ringed Wonder.
Saturn is slowly moving eastward in front of Aquarius, generally toward Skat, the Aquarian’s leg, and Lambda Aquarii (λ Aqr on the chart). This evening it is 6.8° to the upper left of Deneb Algedi, Capricornus’ tail. Both are in the same binocular field of view.
Jupiter, over 15° up in the east, is farther eastward from Saturn. The Jovian Giant is retrograding in front of Aries, 11.6° to the lower right of Hamal, the Ram’s brightest star.
Uranus is at opposition. Earth is between the planet and the sun. The distant world is over 1.7 billion miles away, nearly twice Saturn’s distance and almost five times Jupiter’s separation from Earth. It is at the limit of eyesight and might be visible without an optical assist, nearly between Jupiter and the Pleiades star cluster, for sky watchers with exceptional vision in a dark location. At three hours after sundown, Jupiter is less than halfway up in the east-southeast.
It is not in the same binocular field with either the bright planet or the star cluster. Aim your binocular between the two celestial wonders. It is in the same starfield with Delta (δ Ari on the chart), Zeta (ζ Ari), Tau (τ Ari) and 63 (63 Ari) in Aries. The stars are noticeably brighter than the planet that is aquamarine. A telescope is needed to see the planet’s globe.
Uranus is less than one hundred times dimmer than Saturn and over two thousand five hundred times dimmer than Jupiter. Even at this brightness, the planet is relatively easy to find with a binocular.
While other astronomers spotted the planet without an optical assist, it was frequently identified as a background star. During 1781, William Herschel noted that it moved against the starry background from mid-March to late April. Since the planet’s initial observations, it has revolved around the sun nearly three times.
During the night, Saturn is south two hours after sundown, setting in the west-southwest around midnight. Jupiter is south over six hours after sundown, setting about an hour before sunrise tomorrow morning.
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