Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, June 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 9:30, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:56. The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 11:25 this evening.

Today saw the earliest sunrise of the year at 5:56 a.m. We’re 6 days from the summer solstice.

The two day old Moon tonight will appear below and to the right of Venus. Tomorrow night it will have moved to be left and above Venus. This weekend it will be fun to look at Venus and the Moon in binoculars or a small telescope. In a small telescope Venus, though small is definitely not round. It has a gibbous phase and appears 75% illuminated by the Sun. It’s still a bit farther than the Sun, at 109 million miles (175 million km). By the end of October it will come to less than a quarter that distance from us and be invisible in the Sun’s glare. Its phase will get skinnier as its size grows in our telescopes until then.

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

Addendum

Venus and the Moon tonight June 15, 2018 at 10:30 p.m. Created using Stellarium.

Comparison of apparent sizes of the planet Venus, tonight June 15 and near Inferior conjunction. I was 2 days late using my memory. The date will be October 26th. Created using Stellarium.