Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Wednesday, May 18th.  Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 9:06.   The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 10:54 this evening.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:10.

It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets.  The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the south 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 10:42 p.m. and will set at 4:36 a.m.   The morning planet traffic jam is breaking up.  Rising first will be Jupiter at 4:52 on the east. Mars will rise at 5:13 followed by Venus 3 minutes later.  Mercury will rise at 5:24.  Unless we have very clear skies and you have a very flat eastern horizon, you’d have to wait until maybe 5:45 to try to spot them.  It will take binoculars to first locate Venus and Jupiter.  Good luck finding the others.

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