Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 24th.  The sun rises at 6:42.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 56 minutes, setting at 8:39.   The moon, 3 days past new, will set at 12:05 tomorrow morning.

This evening the moon will appear near Venus with the brilliant planet above and right of the moon.  The moon should still exhibit earthshine.  On the 30th Venus will attain its greatest brightness of -4.6 magnitude.  Only the moon and sun are brighter.  In a telescope Venus has a crescent phase and as you view Venus for the next month its phase will get thinner and its size gets larger.  This is as it approaches us as it moved more closely between us and the sun.  It’s quite a show to watch for.  Folks with a low western horizon and clear skies should be able to follow Venus to within a few days of its transit across the face of the sun.  Then in bright twilight Venus will have the thinnest of crescents, and appear larger than Jupiter.

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

Addendum

Venus and the moon at 9 p.m. April 24, 2012. Created using Stellarium.