Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Wednesday, April 20th.  The sun rises at 6:50.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 8:33.   The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 12:13 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 in the southeast as it gets dark.   It’s near the bright star Spica to its lower left.  Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will cross the meridian due south at 12:38 a.m. and will set at 6:30 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 5:51 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.