This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, November 6th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 5:24, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:29. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 8:56 this evening.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. Venus can be spotted low in the southwestern sky by 6 PM, about half an hour after sunset. It will set at 7:22. Saturn will be in the southeast at 7 PM. Jupiter will rise at 7:17 PM in the east northeast, and be a good object for the small telescope about an hour later. By 6:00 AM tomorrow Jupiter will be high in the west southwest, among the winter stars, while reddish Mars, which rises tonight near 10:16, will be high in the south. Jupiter and Saturn are good planets to view with a small telescope, while Venus and Mars will appear very small and featureless. These last two will improve next year when they move closer to us.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). Times will be different for other locations.
Addendum
Venus and the Moon in evening twilight, approximately half an hour after sunset. For the Grand Traverse area of Michigan that would be about 6 PM, November 6, 2024. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon tonight as it might appear in a small telescope. Selected features ae labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Jupiter and Saturn in this panorama from northeast to south at 8 pm or about 2 1/2 hours aftet sunset. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and Mars among the stars of winter seen in the southwestern sky at 6 AM, or about an hour and a half before sunrise, tomorrow morning November 7, 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Venus, Saturn and Jupiter (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. All the planets shown are for tonight, the evening of November 6, 2024. Apparent diameters: Venus 14.7″, 77.4% illuminated; Saturn 18.5″, its rings 42.3″, 5.3 degrees from edge on (opening up a bit); Jupiter 46.7″; Mars, too small to be represented here, is 9.6″. Saturn’s rings are actually much brighter than depicted here. 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 November 6, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 7th. 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, November 6 and 7, 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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