Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 21st.  Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 9:10.   The moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 4:17 tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:07.

Over the next week there will be a planet grouping low in the west about 10 p.m. as Jupiter continues it slide toward the sun while Venus and Mercury move away from the sun.  Mercury will earn its title as the messenger of the gods, and fastest planet by overtaking Venus and Jupiter on consecutive nights.  The group of the three planets will be their most compact on Sunday night he 26th.  Tonight however Mercury will be to the right and a bit below Venus with Jupiter above and left of them both.  Tomorrow night Mercury will have moved to be almost level with Venus, while Jupiter drops toward them.  On bobmoler.wordpress.com there is an animation of these planets for the next 8 days.

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

Addendum

Dance of the planets Jupiter, Venus and Mercury, May 21 thru May 28, 2013. Created using Stellarium. Click on the image to start animation.