This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, August 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 8:25, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:02. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 1:55 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. Venus might be glimpsed low in the west around 8:45 PM. It will set at 9:19. It is best seen over a very low or lake horizon. Saturn will rise at 8:52 pm, and by 10 pm will be low in the east-southeast, pretty much by itself. Saturn may look disappointing in telescopes this year since its 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. And the waning crescent Moon below left of Mars. Jupiter will rise at 12:42 AM, with Mars rising at 1:09 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
This is what Venus might look like 20 minutes after sunset or around 8:45 PM tonight, August 28, 2024 in northwestern lower Michigan, looking over a Lake Michigan horizon. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn as it might be seen low in the east southeast at 9:30 PM tonight, August 28, 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Mars and Jupiter among the bright winter stars, and above the constellation of Orion with its bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel. Also visible is the waning crescent Moon and the rising Mercury at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, August 29th 2024. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might appear through a small telescope tomorrow morning, August 29th 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Telescopic Venus, Saturn and Jupiter (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. Venus and Saturn are from the evening of the 28th, Jupiter is for 6 am on the 29th. Apparent diameters: Venus 10.9″, 91.7% illuminated; Saturn 19.2″, its rings 44.6″, 3.4 degrees from edge on (opening up a bit); Jupiter 38.2″; Mars, too small to be represented here, is 6.2″. Mercury, also too small 8.9 and 18.5% illuminated. Notes: Jupiter’s moon Io will be visible until 5:42 AM. It will not be visible as shown at 6 AM. The ” means seconds of arc, or 1/3600th of a degree. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. 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 28, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on August 29th. 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 28 and 29 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 in hours and minutes. Dec is declination which is the north-south position of the object on the celestial sphere in degrees and minutes. 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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