04/13/11 – Ephemeris – The Bright planets this week
Wednesday, April 13th. The sun will rise at 7:02. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 22 minutes, setting at 8:24. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 4:45 tomorrow morning.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets for this week. The ringed planet Saturn is rising before sunset and will be visible low in the southeast as it gets dark. It will cross the meridian due south at 1:07 a.m. and will set at 7:12 a.m. In telescopes Saturn shows its rings which are a year and a half along their seven and a half year period of opening along with at least one satellite, the large moon Titan. Venus is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 6:00 a.m. in the east.. It is really a beautiful sight in the morning twilight, though disappointingly small in a telescope. Jupiter, Mars and Mercury are all too close to the direction of the sun to be visible.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.