Home > Ephemeris Program, Planets > 02/14/2018 – Ephemeris – Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets

02/14/2018 – Ephemeris – Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets

February 14, 2018

Ephemeris for St. Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday, February 14th. The Sun will rise at 7:44. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 6:09. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:42 tomorrow morning.

Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. All of the bright naked eye planets save one are in the morning sky now. Heading away from the Sun after sunset is Venus which sets 42 minutes after the Sun, and probably is not visible in the bright evening twilight. That will improve in a couple of weeks. At 7 in this morning’s twilight bright Jupiter is in the south to the left of it is dimmer Mars and below it the red star Antares. The two are about the same brightness now. The name Antares means “Rival of Mars”. Saturn is very low in the southeast. Jupiter will rise at 1:31 tomorrow morning, with Mars rising at 3:13. Saturn will end the procession, rising at 5:01 a.m.

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

Addendum

This morning

Morning planets

The morning planets of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. Seen at 7 a.m. as morning twilight brightens, February 14, 2017. Created using Stellarium.

Telescopic Jupiter and Saturn

Jupiter and Saturn with their brighter satellites this morning at 7 a.m. February 14, 2018. They are displayed at the same scale. Saturn in about twice as far as Jupiter. Its disk is a bit smaller than Jupiter’s so it appears about half as large. The extent of the rings appear to be about the same as Jupiter’s diameter. Created using Stellarium.

This evening

Venus, the planet of love

Venus, the planet of love, about to set over Lake Michigan at 6:30 p.m., February 14, 2018. While a lovely planet in our skies, it is rather a hell hole inside it’s atmosphere. Created using Stellarium.

All night planets

Planets at sunset and sunrise of a single night

Planets at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on February 14, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on February 15th. Mercury is not shown because it is mostly south of the Sun. It will be in superior conjunction on the 17th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

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