Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Wednesday, February 9th.  The sun will rise at 7:51.  It’ll be up for 10 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 6:02.   The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 1:01 tomorrow morning.

Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week.  The planet Jupiter is up in the west southwestern sky in the early evening.  It is a spectacular sight in a telescope with its four satellites, shifting their positions from night to night, and the cloud bands running in the directions of the satellites.  Jupiter is the brightest star-like object in the evening.  It’s located left the Circlet in Pisces now and will set at 9:43 p.m.  The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 10:44 p.m.  in the east southeast and will move due south at 4:29 a.m.  Venus is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 5:18 a.m. in the east southeast.  Mercury is now too close to the direction of the sun to be seen, as is Mars which is now in the morning sky.  It’ll be a few months before it’s visible in the morning.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.