This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, November 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 38 minutes, setting at 5:16, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:39. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:03 tomorrow morning.
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 45 minutes after sunset. It will set at 7:30. Saturn will be in the south-southeast at 7 PM. Jupiter will rise at 6:42 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, above and right of Orion, while reddish Mars, which rises tonight near 9:56, will be high in the south-southwest. 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 as it might appear tonight at 6 PM, about 45 minutes after sunset, low in the southwest. Venus is now as far South in the sky as it will get and will now begin to move northward. From now until the end of the year it will rise higher and higher in the sky in the evening. Its greatest eastern separation, or elongation, from the Sun will occur on January 2nd. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn, the Moon with Jupiter rising at 7 PM. Off to the right beyond the image, Venus setting in the southwest. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might appear through a small telescope tonight, November 13, 2024. Selected features are labeled. Created using stellarium, LibreOffice draw, and GIMP.
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 14, 2024. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. All the planets except Mars are shown for tonight, November 13, 2024, Mars for tomorrow morning the 14th. Apparent diameters: Venus 15.3″, 73.3% illuminated; Saturn 18.0″, its rings 41.9″, 5.3 degrees from edge on (starting to close again); Jupiter 47.4″; Mars, 10.2″, 90.1% illuminated. Saturn’s rings are actually much brighter than depicted here. Plan etary surface detail is more subtle than shown here. 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 November 13, 2024. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 14th. 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 13 and 14, 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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