02/18/2015 – Ephemeris – Wednesday is bright planet day (or night) on Ephemeris
Ephemeris for Ash Wednesday, Wednesday, February 18th. The sun will rise at 7:38. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 6:15. The moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
Lets take a look at the bright planets and a fading binocular comet for this week. Brilliant Venus is in the west-southwest by 7 p.m. It will set at 8:37 p.m. It’s nearing Mars which appears above and left of it. They will be at their closest on the 22nd. The Red Planet will set tonight at 8:45 p.m. Jupiter will appear In the southeastern sky in the evening. It will be up all night, and will set at 7:14 a.m. It’s near the sickle-shaped head of Leo the lion, and it’s the brightest star-like object in the sky. Early risers will be able to spot Saturn which will rise in the east-southeast at 2:15 a.m. Comet Lovejoy, visible in binoculars, is about half way from the star at the end of Andromeda, called Almaak and the “W” of Cassiopeia.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum

Venus and Mars low in the west after sunset. This is 7 p.m., February 18, 2015. Created using Stellarium.

Jupiter and it’s moons at 9 p.m. February 18, 2015. Note that at this time the Great Red Spot is on the face if Jupiter. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

The track of Comet 2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) from 2/18/15 to 02/24/15 which will appear high in the west at 9 p.m. On the 20th the comet will pass near M76, a 10th magnitude planetary nebula. It will be much dimmer than the comet. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).




hi, your comments were turned off for the post I’m referring to, but I was wondering if I could use one of your stellarium pictures of Orion’s belt for a post on my own wordpress blog. I will make sure to credit you and I can send you a link to it once it’s up. Let me know, thank you.
PS-love space and the universe, your blog is great!
Hi,
Comments are enabled for 5 days after a post. It cuts down on the amount of junk and spam comments.
Thanks for the complement.
Hi again,
I was so busy finding the comment time limit that I didn’t answer your main question. Yes, you may use images from my blog. Give whatever credit is in the caption plus where you got it. ie: bobmoler.wordpress.com.