Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Wednesday, April 23rd.  The sun rises at 6:45.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 8:37.   The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 4:06 tomorrow morning.

Wednesday is Bright Planets Day, or should I say classical planets day here on Ephemeris.   Bright Jupiter will be in the western sky as darkness falls tonight.  It will set at 2:17 a.m.  Reddish Mars is in Virgo and outshines the bright bluish star Spica below it as darkness falls.  Mars is up at sunset in the east.  It will pass due south at 12:26 a.m.  It’s 58.1 million miles (95.5 million kilometers) away now, and moving away.  It will set at 6:14 a.m.  Saturn will rise at 9:54 p.m.  It’s in the faint constellation of Libra the scales this year.  It will pass due south at 2:52 a.m.  The telescope will bring out Saturn’s beautiful rings, whose short dimension now is as wide as the planet.  Brilliant Venus will rise in the east at 5:14 a.m. and will stay pretty low to the horizon.

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

Addendum

Jupiter and the setting winter constellations in the west at 10 p.m. on April 23, 2014. Created using Stellarium.

Jupiter and satellites through a telescope at 10 p.m. on April 23, 2014. Created using Stellarium.

Mars, Saturn and some spring constellation at 10:30 p.m. April 23, 2014. Created using Stellarium.

Telescopic Mars. Actually Mars is much smaller in appearance than Jupiter. Interesting albedo features can be seen. For 10:30 pm. April 23, 2014. Created using Stellarium.

Telescopic Saturn at 11 p.m. April 23, 2014. You may want to wait a bit for it to rise some more for clearer views. Created using Stellarium.

Venus and the Moon looking eastward at 6 a.m. on April 24, 2014. Created using Stellarium.

The moon as seen in binoculars at 6 a.m. on April 24, 2014. Created using Stellarium.

Venus through a telescope at 6 a.m. April 24, 2014. Note that none of these planetary images are to the same scale. Created using Stellarium.