Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Wednesday, April 27th.  The sun rises at 6:39.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 8:41.   The moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:17 tomorrow morning.

It’s Wednesday and time again to take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the bright planets.  The ringed planet Saturn 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 12:09 a.m. and will set at 6:01 a.m.  In telescopes Saturn shows its rings which are slowly opening up along with at least one satellite, the large moon Titan.  Our only other planet visible is Venus which is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 5:42 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.