Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Wednesday, December 5th.  The sun will rise at 8:04.  It’ll be up for 8 hours and 58 minutes, setting at 5:02.   The moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 12:03 tomorrow morning.

Let’s check out the planets for this week.  All 5 classical planets are visible now.  Mars can be seen low in the southwest.  Mars will set at 7:05.  The planetary action will have already picked up on the other side of the sky. Jupiter is located in the constellation of Taurus on the southeast in the evening.  It will transit or pass due south at 12:18 a.m, and will set at 7:51.  Saturn will be the next planet to rise at 4:48 a.m. in the east southeast.  Venus will rise at 5:44 and is below and left of Saturn.  Mercury will rise at 6:16 a.m.  Below and left of Venus.  A half an hour later it should be high enough to spot .  The three planets will appear in a straight line and nearly equally spaced.  After about a week, Mercury will not be visible again until next spring.

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

Addendum

Mars low in the southwest at 6:15 p.m. on December 5, 2012. Created using Stellarium.

Jupiter and the winter stars at 9 p.m. on December 5, 2012. Created using Stellarium.

Mercury animation from December 4 to thru 12, 2012. Created using Stellarium