Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Oct 10.  This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Wednesday, October 10th.  The sun will rise at 7:52.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 7:05.   The moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:22 tomorrow morning.

Let’s see how many bright planets we can find this week.  Mars and Saturn now set too close to the sun to be easily seen in the evening sky.  Both are in the west southwestern sky and very low in twilight.  Saturn will set at 7:45 p.m., while Mars will set at 8:56.  The planetary action moves to later in the evening and the morning. Jupiter, will rise at 9:45 p.m. in the east northeast.  It is located in the constellation of Taurus.  The last bright planet of the night is the morning star Venus which will rise at 4:28 a.m. also in the east northeast.  Venus is now in Leo outshining the star Regulus next to it.  The planets Venus and Jupiter and the winter constellations are a great sight for early risers.  You can enjoy for a few more weeks without danger of frost bite.

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

Addendum

Mars is approaching Antares at 8 p.m. on October 10, 2012. Created using Stellarium.

Morning Sky at 6 a.m. with Jupiter and Venus on October 11, 2012. Created using Stellarium.

Note that the moon is really a thin crescent and is over blown at this scale.