Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 9 minutes, setting at 8:16, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:08. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 8:58 this evening.

Let’s look at a the naked-eye planets for this week. Jupiter and Saturn are both low in the south-southeastern sky at 10 pm. Jupiter is the very bright one. To the left of it will be Saturn. They now seem to be separating a bit due to the Earth’s motion now, but they will cross paths in December. Both planets will be up until the morning hours with Jupiter setting first at 2:33 tomorrow morning and Saturn following at 3:16 am. The next planet visible will be Mars which will rise at 10:11 pm. Its now down to 45.6 million miles (73.5 million kilometers) away, as the Earth slowly overtakes it at the rate of about 2.7 million miles (4.3 million kilometers) a week as the Earth begins to pull abreast of it. Brilliant Venus will rise at 3:14 am.

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

Addendum

Planets and the Moon in the evening at 10:30 tonight, September 2, 2020. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The full Moon tonight September 2, 2020 as it might appear at 10 pm in a low power telescope. Created using Stellarium.

Planets and the Moon in the morning tomorrow, September 3, 2020. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The planets as seen in a telescope (north up) with the same magnification Apparent diameters: Jupiter, 44.07″; Saturn, 17.93″, rings, 41.77″. Mars, 19.26″, and Venus 19.12″. At 6 am. Mars also displays an enlargement showing surface detail. The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) 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 September 2, 2020. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 3rd. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.