This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 7:59, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:18. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 12:07 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 8:20 PM. It will set at 8:56. It is best seen over a very low or lake horizon. By 9 PM the gibbous Moon will be low in the south. Saturn 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 appearing as a line through the planet. Jupiter and Mars will be up in the east in the morning, and by 6:15 AM tomorrow, Jupiter will be the brightest starlike object in the sky among the winter stars in the southeast. Mars will be left and below Jupiter. Mercury might be spotted near the horizon in the east.
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 in evening twilight, approximately 30 minutes after sunset. For the Grand Traverse area of Michigan that would be about 8:30 PM, where Venus Due to the low angle of the ecliptic, even though Venus is about 27 degrees east of the sun, it is only 10 degrees above the horizon at sunset. It would be higher from the south of us, below 45° N latitude, and lower for those north of us. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn as it would appear at 9 PM low in east southeast with the naked eye. It would seem to be pretty much alone in that sector of the sky of dim stars. Saturn is now officially an evening planet. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might appear through a small telescope tonight, September 11, 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using stellarium, LibreOffice draw, and GIMP.
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 rising Mercury at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, September 12, 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 and Saturn are from the evening of the 11th, Jupiter is for 6 am on the 12th. Apparent diameters: Venus 11.4″, 89.2% illuminated; Saturn 19.2″, its rings 44.7″, 3.5 degrees from edge on (opening up a bit); Jupiter 39.7″; Mars, too small to be represented here, is 6.9″. Mercury, also too small 5.8 and 78.6% illuminated. 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 September 11, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 12th. 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, September 11 and 12 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 as a table by my Ephemeris Helper app.
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