Home > Ephemeris Program, Planets > 08/15/2018 – Ephemeris – Spotting the bright planets this week

08/15/2018 – Ephemeris – Spotting the bright planets this week

August 15, 2018

Ephemeris for Wednesday, August 15th. The Sun rises at 6:45. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 3 minutes, setting at 8:48. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 11:29 this evening.

It’s Wednesday and time to look for and at the bright planets. Four of them are visible in the evening sky. The brilliant Venus will be visible in the western twilight from about 9:10 p.m. until it sets at 10:20 p.m. Jupiter will be in the southwest as it gets dark. It is only outshone by Venus, the Moon, and currently Mars. Jupiter will set at 11:52 p.m. Saturn will start the evening low in the southern sky and will stay relatively low, above the Teapot of Sagittarius. It will be due south at 10:18 p.m. and will set at 2:43 a.m.. Mars will be low in the southeast as the skies darken tonight. and is now 37.3 million miles (60.1 million km) away. It will set at 4:21 a.m. It is being slowly left behind by the faster moving Earth.

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

Addendum

Evening planets

The evening planets and the Moon visible at 10 p.m., one hour after sunset. August 15th, 2018. Also shown are the constellations. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Binocular Moon

What the Moon might look like at 10 p.m., August 15th, 2018. Created using Stellarium.

Telescopic planets

Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with the same magnification at 10 p.m. August 15, 2018. Jupiter’s satellite label Io is shown. However at 10 p.m. it’s occulted by Jupiter. The occultation began at 9:35 p.m. EDT (01:35 UT the 16th) and will emerge from Jupiter’s shadow at 1:02 a.m. EDT (05:02 UT) after Jupiter sets locally. Mars is also shown enlarged. It seems that the global dust storm is abating, so the albedo features are beginning to be seen. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts)

Planets and the Moon on a single night

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on August 15, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 16th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

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