Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Monday, May 13th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 45 minutes, setting at 9:01. The moon, 4 days past new, will set at 12:10 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:15.

For the rest of the year Venus will be in our evening sky. However it will not appear high in the west. It is making its appearance just when the path of the planets will begin to lie down south of the sun. The best time to see planets in the west after sunset is generally between December to June. The other six months they are best seen in the morning sky in the east. Since Venus lies between the earth and the sun, it never strays far from it. Right now Venus is emerging from behind the sun, and is nearly fully illuminated by the sun and far from us. The last two months of this year Venus will be close to us and exhibiting a crescent phase as it approaches and is about to pass between the earth and the sun.