Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Wednesday, February 19th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 38 minutes, setting at 6:16, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:36. The Moon, half way from last quarter to new, will rise at 6:12 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look at the naked-eye planets for this week. Venus is our evening star shining brightly in the southwest in the early evening. It will set at 10:03 p.m. Mercury is fading and will set only 58 minutes after the Sun. Mars is visible in the morning sky and will rise in the southeast at 4:34 a.m. It’s not very bright because it’s 167 million (268 million km) miles away, but it’s getting slowly closer to the Earth at the rate of about 4 million miles (6 million km) a week. Jupiter will rise at 5:32 a.m. Lastly, Saturn will rise at 6:04 tomorrow morning with the thin crescent Moon underneath it*. Jupiter will continue to approach Saturn throughout this year until their paths cross on December 21st.

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

* Moon placement in this morning’s program was in error.  The Moon is near Jupiter this morning, not tomorrow morning.

Addendum

Venus and zodiacal light at 7:30 p.m. this evening February 19, 2020. The zodiacal light will appear more prominent in the next month or so. Here it’s mostly silhouetting the foreground trees. Check my prior posts for zodiacal light. I’ll cover it again in about a month. Created using Stellarium.

Morning planets and the Moon tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. February 20, 2020. Note that the Moon is 3 times its normal size. Created using Stellarium.

The planets as seen in a telescope with the same magnification. Venus in the evening and Jupiter and Saturn in the morning. Apparent diameters: Venus, 17.5″; Jupiter, 33.5″; Saturn, 15.4″, rings, 35.7″.

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on February 19, 2020. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 20th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.