2025, April 25: Don’t Miss This Rare Venus–Saturn–Moon Gathering Before Daybreak

April 25, 2025: A rare Venus-Saturn-Moon gather occurs in the eastern sky before sunrise. This morning Venus passes Saturn, a Venus-Saturn conjunction.

Photo Caption – 2023, November 9, Venus appears with the crescent moon in the east-southeast before sunrise.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:55 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:43 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Rare Venus-Saturn-Moon Gathering

morning sky has pretty celestial events — Chart Caption – 2025, April 25: Venus, Saturn, and the moon gather in the eastern sky before sunrise.

Before sunrise, a rare gathering of Venus, Saturn, and the crescent moon occurs in the eastern sky. The next close clustering of these three bodies does not occur again until June 28, 2030!

This morning, about 45 minutes before daybreak, brilliant Venus is about 10° up in the east. The crescent moon, 8% illuminated, is 5.4° to Venus’ lower left. Dimmer Saturn is 4.0° to Venus’ lower right.

Saturn’s visibility to the unaided eye is questionable because it is dimmer than average. The Ringed Wonder’s Rings have a shallow angle and the sunlight they reflect is directed away from Earth. Further the planet’s low altitude – height above the horizon – affects its visibility. When near the horizon, Earth’s atmosphere dims and blurs celestial objects.

Neptune is not far from the moon, but with a low altitude and morning twilight, the solar system’s most-distant planet is not visible even with optical help. The sky is brighter than the planet.

Binocular View

Venus, Saturn, Moon, April 25, 2025 — Chart Caption – 2025, April 25: A binocular view of a compact Venus-Saturn-Moon gathering is visible before sunrise.

Venus, Saturn, and the lunar crescent fit into a circle 5.8° across and easily in the same binocular field of view. The next gathering this compact does not occur again until 2030, when they fit into a circle 7.1° across and tightly into a binocular field.

During the evening hours on February 29, 2028, the three bodies fit in a circle 9.9° across, but not in the same binocular field.

This is a clip from Stellarium software for April 25, 2025, at 5:30 a.m. CDT, of the conjunction making what people are calling a “smiley face.”

Venus-Saturn Conjunction

A Venus-Saturn conjunction occurs today, though their separation closes to 3.8° on the mornings of April 27 and 28th. Venus crosses the ecliptic, the solar system’s plane, on May 7 allowing the small separations after the conjunction.

Set an alarm to see this compact gathering of Venus, Saturn, and the crescent moon.