This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, August 7th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 8:59, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:37. The Moon, 3 days past new, will set at 10:31 this evening.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. The Moon will be visible as a thin crescent in the west with Venus lower in the west northwest around 9:30 pm. It will set at 9:56 pm in the west-northwest. Venus is best seen over a very low or lake horizon. Saturn will rise at 10:17 pm, and by 11 pm will be low in the east southeast, pretty much by itself. Saturn may look disappointing in telescopes this year since rings are nearly edge on and appear almost as a line through the planet. The other two visible planets are in the morning sky.
By 5:30 tomorrow morning, or an hour before sunrise, Jupiter and Mars will be up in the east, with Mars approaching Jupiter just above and to the right of it. Mars will rise at 1:41 am, and Jupiter at 1:53 am.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). Times will be different for other locations.
Addendum
Venus and the Moon, seen twice normal size to show its phase, at 9:30 PM or half hour after sunset. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might be seen in binoculars tonight, August 7th 2024. The Moon may exhibit earthshine, so all of it may be visible. The darker visible sea at the right edge of the moon is Mare Crisium, the Sea of Crises. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn appears pretty much alone in the east southeast at 11:30 PM tonight, August 7th 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Mars and Jupiter along with the stars of winter seen at 5:30 tomorrow morning or about an hour before sunrise, August 8th 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Venus, Saturn and Jupiter (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification at the dates and times of the finder charts above. Apparent diameters: Venus 10.3″, 95.2% illuminated; Saturn 18.9″, its rings 44.0″, 2.7 degrees from edge on (opening up a bit); Mars, too small to be represented here, is 6.0″; Jupiter 36.1″. Note the ” means seconds of arc, or 1/3600th of a degree. 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 August 7, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on August 8th. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
This is a low precision ephemeris of the Sun Moon and naked eye planet positions for today and tomorrow, August 7th and 8th 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. 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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