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04/18/2018 – Ephemeris – It’s Wednesday, do you know where the bright planets are?
Ephemeris for Wednesday, April 18th. The Sun rises at 6:53. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 38 minutes, setting at 8:31. The Moon, 3 days past new, will set at 11:38 this evening.
It’s Wednesday again and time to look for the bright planets. One bright planet is in the evening sky, the brightest, Venus. It will be visible low in the Western twilight from about 8:40 p.m. until it sets at 10:34. Venus is blindingly bright in binoculars or a small telescope.
Jupiter will rise late this evening at 10:23 p.m. That doesn’t make it an evening planet. It has to rise before sunset to be an evening planet. Saturn will rise at 2:17 a.m., while Mars will rise at 2:52 a.m. At 6 tomorrow morning these three planets will be strung across the southern sky. Bright Jupiter will be in the southwest, dimmer Mars and Saturn will be in the south-southeast, with Mars to the left of Saturn in the morning twilight.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus and the Moon in evening twilight at 9 p.m, tonight April 18, 2018. The Moon is shown at 3 times its actual size for clarity. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might be seen in binoculars at 9 p.m. April 18, 2018. Earth shine should be visible. Created using Stellarium.
The morning planets at 6 a.m. April 19, 2018. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.
The morning planets as seen in a telescope using the same magnification. A magnified image of Mars is inset showing some of the features that may be visible under higher magnification. The large dark area below right of center on Mars is Syrtis Major “The Great Swamp”. It sounds so much better in the original Latin. Of course there probably hasn’t been a swamp on Mars in 3 billion years, give or take. Today the disc of Mars attained a diameter of 9.9 seconds of arc. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on April 18, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 19th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.
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