November 27, 2023: Bright Moon reaches its full phase before sunrise. Venus-Jupiter gap expands towards 180° – opposition.
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Jeffrey L. By Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:54 am CST; Sunset, 4:22 pm CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory MICA computer program.
Summaries of current celestial events
A summary of Venus as a morning SThar, 2023-24
Here is today’s planetary prediction:
morning sky
November’s full moon, known as the Beaver Moon, reaches opposition with the Sun at 3:16 a.m. CST, the official time of full phase. The entire side of the Moon that faces Earth is illuminated by sunlight.
At one hour in the morning, the Moon is about 15° up in the west-northwest, 9.6° to the right of Aldebaran, the bright star Taurus, and 5.3° to the upper left of the Pleiades constellation. Use binoculars to see clusters with the moon.
A Venus-Jupiter opposition occurs on December 10Th. Jupiter Venus rises this morning and they are not visible in the sky at the same time for the remainder of the opposition. In late May, there is a close conjunction of the two planets, but this occurs much closer to the Sun. Currently, the planets are nearly 165° apart and low in the sky when visible at the same time. Three hours before dawn, both planets are 8° above their horizon. Jupiter is in the west and Venus is in the east-southeast.
An hour before sunrise, brilliant Venus is less than 30° to the southeast and 4.9° to the upper left of Virgo’s bright star Spica. Venus transits Spica in a broad conjunction on two mornings. After this event, Venus continues to step eastward, toward Jubenelgenubi, the northern claw of the Scorpion, nearly 24° to the planet’s lower left. The star is more than 5° above the horizon.
Mars rises fifteen minutes before sunrise and is lost in sunlight.
evening sky
Mercury is less than 10° southwest at sunset. The planet sets sixty-three minutes after the Sun. At 45 minutes after sunset, Mercury is less than 3° below the horizon.
An hour after sunset, the bright moon, 99% illuminated, is less than 10° above the east-northeast horizon.
Jupiter is almost 40° to the upper right of the Moon, more than 25° above the eastern horizon. The planet retrogrades in front of Aries, 11.3° to the lower right of the constellation’s brightest star, Hamal, and 13.3° above Mengar. Jupiter lies to the west of the imaginary line between this pair of stars.
Look south at Saturn at 35° above the southern horizon. It moves eastward before Aquarius, 7.2° to the upper left of Deneb Algedi, the tail of Capricorn. The ring wonder and the star fit tightly together in a single telescope view.
Find Fomalhat, the mouth of the southern fish, almost 20° to the lower left of the planet.
Two hours after sunset, the Moon is nearly 20° up in the east, 9.5° to the upper left of Aldebaran and 9.2° to the upper right of Elnath.
Capella, the third brightest star in the northern sky, is more than 20° to the upper left of the Moon.
Saturn sets before midnight. Jupiter is low in the western sky when Venus rises. The moon is in the west before sunrise tomorrow.
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