Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Monday, May 7th.  The sun rises at 6:23.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 8:54.   The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 11:10 this evening.

The planet Venus now is spectacular both to the unaided eye and through a telescope.  To the eye Venus is the  brilliant evening star in the west in the evening.  In a telescope it appears as a bright crescent like the moon.  This surprised some of the folks that came out to out star party last Friday.  The dark side of Venus is the night side of the planet because Venus is now moving between us and the sun, so it’s shining mostly on the other side of the planet.  This effect will get more pronounced as Venus becomes more in line with the earth and the sun over this month.  When Venus crosses between the earth and the sun June 5th, our time it will actually pass in front of the sun, a rare transit of Venus that will start a little past 6 p.m. That evening.

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