This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, January 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 12 minutes, setting at 5:28, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:15. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 7:27 this evening.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. At 8 PM this evening four of the five naked eye planets will be out. Starting from the West we have Venus the brightest of all low in the west southwest. Left and a bit above it is Saturn. They will appear at their closest Friday and Saturday nights. Jupiter, the second-brightest planet will be high in the southeast. The 4th planet out is Mars, which is at opposition from the Sun tonight. Mars will not get this close to the Earth again until 2031. It shines with its reddish hue a third as bright as Jupiter in the eastern sky. On unusually close approaches, Mars can actually outshine Jupiter. The fifth naked eye planet, Mercury, is too close to the Sun on the morning side to be visible.
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
A 8 PM January 15, 2025 planet panorama. Venus and Saturn are in the west-southwest, and Jupiter is in the southeast. Mars is in the east-northeast. The waning gibbous Moon is rising in the east-northeast. The first magnitude stars are also named. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon tonight at 9 PM, January 15, 2025, as it might appear in a small telescope. Selected features are labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Translations of some lunar feature names according to Virtual Moon Atlas
Mare Cognitum – Sea of Knowledge Mare Crisium – Sea of Crises Mare Fecunditatis – Sea of Fruitfulness Mare Frigoris – Sea of Cold Mare Humorum – Sea of Moisture Mare Imbrium – Sea of Showers Mare Nectaris – Sea of Nectar Mare Nubium – Sea of Clouds Mare Serenitatis – Sea of Serenity Mare Tranquillitatis – Sea of Tranquility Mare Vaporum – Sea of Vapors Montes Alpes – Alps Mountains Montes Apenninus – Apennines Mountains Oceanus Procellarum – Ocean of Storms Sinus Iridium – Bay of Rainbows Sinus Medii – Central Bay
Mare is pronounced Mar-e. Craters are named for persons, real or otherwise.
Telescopic Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. All the planets are shown for tonight, 8 PM, January 15, 2025. Apparent diameters: Venus 26.1″, 47.8% illuminated; Saturn 16.2″, its rings 37.8″, 3.7 degrees from edge on (closing); Jupiter 45.5″; Mars, 14.6″. Planetary surface detail is more subtle than shown here. Jupiter’s moon Europa is behind the planet and will reappear on Callisto’s side of the planet at 9:22 PM (2:22 UT). 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 January 15, 2025. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 16th. 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, January 15 and 16, 2025. 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.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 
