Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Wednesday, May 16th.  Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 9:05.   The moon, half way from last quarter to new, will rise at 4:16 tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:11.

Let’s see what’s happening with the bright planets for this week.  Venus is in the west as it gets dark.  Enjoy it now, because it will be gone in less than 3 weeks.  Venus will set at 11:40 p.m. in the west northwest.  That’s 29 minutes earlier than last week, so it’s drawing closer to the sun.  Venus is 32.1 million miles away and closing.  It is a beautiful brilliant growing crescent in telescopes.  Mars is high in the south southwest in the evening in the constellation of Leo with its unmistakable bright reddish color.  It’s up to 99 million miles from us and moving away.    Mars will be setting in the west at 3:28 a.m. Saturn will be in the southeast just to the left of the bright star Spica this evening.

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

Addendum

The Planets move westward at 10:30 p.m. May 16, 2012. Created using Stellarium