Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Wednesday, February 1st.  The sun will rise at 8:01.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:50.   The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 3:46 tomorrow morning.

Let’s see what’s happening with the bright planets for this week.  Venus is brilliant in the southwestern sky after sunset and will set at 9:19 in the west.  Jupiter is the most prominent planet of the evening sky, once Venus sets.  It’s located high in the southwest as it gets dark and is seen against the stars of the constellation Aries.  It will set at 12:48 a.m.. Mars is the up and coming planet.  It will rise at 9:05 p.m in the east and is below the hind end of the  constellation Leo the lion.  It is 73 million miles away and closing and is getting brighter.  It’s now as bright as most first magnitude stars.  Mars will pass due south at 3:33 a.m.  Saturn will rise at 12:22 a.m. just to the left of the bright star Spica in the east southeast.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.