This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, July 17th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 9 minutes, setting at 9:23, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:14. The Moon, halfway from first quarter to full, will set at 2:49 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. Venus is still too close to the direction of the Sun to be easily seen, it will set at 10:04 pm in the west-northwest. It is below and right of Mercury. That elusive planet just might be seen very low in the west-northwest by 10 pm or so. By 5:30 tomorrow morning, or about 45 minutes before sunrise, Saturn will be in the south, Mars will be lower in the east, and Jupiter will below it in the east-northeast. Mars is closing in on Jupiter and will pass it on August 14th. Saturn may look disappointing in telescopes this year since the rings are nearly edge on and appear almost as a line through the planet. It will rise before midnight tonight, at 11:45 pm.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus and Mercury as they might appear about 9:53 PM or about 30 minutes after sunset over a Lake Michigan horizon. Spotting Venus may be impossible. Mercury might be glimpsed in binoculars even though this is not a favorable elongation. Evening appearances of Mercury in summer are difficult to observe. Created using Stellarium.
The bright star by the Moon tonight is Antares, the red giant star in the heart of Scorpius the scorpion.
The Moon as it might appear through a small telescope tonight, July 17th 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using stellarium, LibreOffice draw, and GIMP.
A panorama of the morning planets at 5:30 AM seen from the Grand Traverse Area or about 45 minutes before sunrise. Along with the planets the bright stars of autumn and winter are rising: Fomalhaut below Saturn and Aldebaran below and right of Jupiter Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Saturn and Jupiter (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope at 5:30 AM July 18th 2024 with the same magnification. Apparent diameters: Saturn 18.4″, its rings 42.9″ tilted only 2 degrees from being edge on to us; Mars, too small to be represented here, is 5.6″; Jupiter 34.5″. Note the ” means seconds of arc, or 1/3600th of a degree. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it to show some of Saturn’s faint moons in line with the rings. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on July 17, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 18th. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
This is an ephemeris of the Sun Moon and naked eye planet positions for today and tomorrow, July 17th and 18th 2024. Some of the columns are self-explanatory, others not. The transit column is the time that the body crosses the meridian and is due south. Elong, for elongation, is the angle between the Sun and that body. RA is right ascension, which is the object’s east-west position on the celestial sphere. Dec is declination which is the north-south position of the object on the celestial sphere. The time of the positions is 8 pm EDT, (0 hr UT the next date). R is the distance of that object from the Sun in astronomical units. An astronomical unit is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. And Delta is the distance of that object from the Earth, also in astronomical units. I omit the ‘m’ in am and pm for compactness. The data was generated using my LookingUp for DOS app and displayed by my Ephemeris Helper app.
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