This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, August 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 8:37, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:54. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 9:46 this evening.
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 9:31. It is best seen over a very low or lake horizon. Saturn will rise at 9:21 pm, and by 10:30 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 in the morning, and by 6 am tomorrow, Jupiter will be the brightest starlike object in the sky among the winter stars. Mars will be just below it to the left. Jupiter will rise at 1:06 am, with Mars rising 13 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
The planet Venus low in the West, above a lake horizon about 40 minutes after sunset or about 9:15 PM, August 21st 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn and the Moon low in the eastern sky at 10:30 PM. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might appear through a small telescope tonight, August 21st 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Mars and Jupiter along with the bright stars of winter seen at 6:00 tomorrow morning or nearly an hour before sunrise, August 22nd 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Venus, Saturn and Jupiter (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. Venus is from 9:15 PM, Saturn is for 11 pm on the 21st, Jupiter is 6 am on the 22nd. Apparent diameters: Venus 10.7″; Saturn 19.1″, its rings 44.5″, 3.1 degrees from edge on (opening up a bit); Jupiter 37.5″; Mars, too small to be represented here, is 6.3″. Notes: Jupiter’s moon Io will be visible in the morning until 3:49 AM when it passes behind the planet or in its shadow. 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 21, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on August 22nd. The tags for Jupiter and Mars overlap a bit 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 21 and 22 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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