This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, August 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 4 minutes, setting at 8:49, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:45. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 1:25 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. Venus might be glimpsed low in the west with Venus lower in the west around 9:15 pm. It will set at 9:40. It is best seen over a very low or lake horizon. Saturn will rise at 9:49 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. Jupiter and Mars will be up in the east by 5:30 am tomorrow, with Mars one moon-width left of the much brighter Jupiter. They were a bit closer this morning with Mars two thirds of a moon-width to the upper left of Jupiter. That giant planet outshines all the bright stars around it. Jupiter will rise at 1:30 am, with Mars a couple of minutes later.
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 as it might appear over flat or lake horizon at 9:20 this evening or about 30 minutes after sunset, August 15, 2024. Venus shone brighter than it might appear. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might appear through a small telescope tonight, August 14th 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using stellarium, LibreOffice draw, and GIMP.
Saturn seen in low in the east southeast at 11:00 PM this evening, August 14th 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and Mars in near conjunction on the morning of August 15th 2024. The actual conjunction occurring the day before. Jupiter is the brightest starlike object in the eastern sky. These two planets will be visible from about 2:00 AM to 6:00 AM. Created using Stellarium and LibreOffice Draw for some of the captions.
Telescopic Saturn and Jupiter (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. Saturn is for 11 pm on the 14th, Jupiter is 6 am on the 15th.. Apparent diameters: Venus (not shown) 10.6″; Saturn 19.0″, its rings 44.3″, 2.9 degrees from edge on (opening up a bit); Jupiter 36.1″; Mars, too small to be represented here, is 6.1″. Notes: Jupiter’s moon Io will be invisible behind the planet or in its shadow until 5:22 am. 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 14, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on August 15th. The symbols and tags for Jupiter and Mars overlap in Taurus due to their near conjunction. 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 14th and 15th 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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