2024, January 29:  Sirius Rises at Sunset

Astronomy, Sky Watching

January 29, 2024: This evening Sirius rises at Sunset.  Find it low in the east-southeast after sunset with the bright stars in the Orion region of the sky.

Venus and the stars during morning twilight, September 5, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, September 5: Morning Star Venus appears during twilight with Sirius, Procyon, Orion, and Gemini.

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:06 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:02 p.m. CST.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24

Sirius Rises at Sunset

Sirius rises at sunset - 2024, January 29: Bright Sirius appears in the eastern sky after sunset with stars in the Orion region of the sky.
2024, January 29: Bright Sirius appears in the eastern sky after sunset with stars in the Orion region of the sky.

The night’s brightest star, Sirius, rises in the east-southeast at sunset.  By an hour after sundown, the Dog Star is nearly 10° above the horizon.

Sirius is part of Canis Major, the Greater Dog.  The star is less than ten light years away and shines with the brightness of about 20 suns.

Brightest Stars

Seven of the ten brightest stars visible from the mid-northern latitudes are in the sky tonight.  In order of brightness, they are:  Sirius, Vega, Capella, Rigel, Procyon, Betelgeuse, and Aldebaran.  Vega is not part of the Orion region of the sky.  It is low in the west-northwest at this hour.

Jupiter, noticeably brighter than Sirius, is high in the south at this hour.  In these articles, the planets are noted as “starlike bodies.”  Venus and Jupiter, and sometimes Mars, outshine all other nighttime stars.  They are distant worlds that revolve around the sun and shine by sunlight reflecting from their features, but they resemble the stars.

Sirius and the other stars are similar to the sun.  They generate their own heat and light through nuclear fusion, but they are far away, so far that they do not light up the ground like our nearby sun.

The stars seem to be in fixed patterns that we call constellations.  As the planets revolve around the sun, we see them move against these patterns.

Orion Region

The constellation Orion rises into view during the early evening hours of February each year.
Photo Caption – The constellation Orion rises into view during the early evening hours of February each year.

In some artwork, Canis Major, along with the Lesser Dog, Canis Minor, are Orion’s hunting dogs. The Hunter is easily identified above Sirius.  His belt stars are of nearly equal brightness and almost in a line.  Betelgeuse, above the belt, marks one of his shoulders, while Rigel dots a knee.  The belt stars point downward generally toward Sirius and upward toward Taurus, with its topaz star Aldebaran.  The Pleiades star cluster is nearby.

The Gemini Twins, Castor and Pollux, are to the left of Orion.  This star pattern somewhat resembles two side-by-side stick figures.

Bright Capella, with pentagon-shaped Auriga, is high in the east-northeast.

Each night Sirius rises about four minutes earlier than the previous night.  This is from Earth’s revolution around the sun and seems to create a seasonal westward march of the constellations.  By mid-February, Sirius is in the southeast at one hour after sunset.  During mid-March it is south at this time interval, and in the southwest a month later.  By mid-May, it disappears into bright evening twilight in the west-southwest.  The star reappears before sunrise during mid-August in the east-southeast, repeating the cycle.

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