Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Wednesday, April 4th.  The sun will rise at 7:17.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 8:14.   The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:13 tomorrow morning.

Let’s see what’s happening with the bright planets for this week.  Venus and Jupiter are separating in the western sky after sunset.  Jupiter is way below Venus, the brighter planet. Jupiter will set at 10:41 p.m. followed by Venus at 12:28 a.m.  It is 59.6 million miles away and closing.  Mars is in the southeast to south in the evening with its unmistakable bright reddish color.  It’s in the constellation Leo the lion now.  It is 71.1 million miles and moving away.    Mars will pass due south at 11:16 p.m. and will be setting in the west at 6:10 a.m. Saturn will rise at 9:01 p.m. just to the left of the bright star Spica in the east southeast.  It will pass due south at 2:31 a.m.  All the bright planets except Mercury are now visible in the evening.

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

Addendum

Animation of the planets and moon at sunrise for April 2012

Click on the images to enlarge.

Animation of the planets and moon at sunset for April 2012