Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, November 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 5:09, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:48. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.

Yesterday I mentioned that Venus is getting very difficult to spot in the morning sky, rising at about 7:00 AM. It’s moving around behind the Sun, what’s called superior conjunction, so it moves slower than it would when it moves toward inferior conjunction meaning it moves between the Earth and the Sun. It’s closer to the Earth so it appears to move faster. Then it’s only gone for maybe 8 to 10 days, transitioning from the evening sky to the morning sky. However, at superior conjunction which will occur on January 6, it will disappear for 50 days or actually longer. The ancient Mayans calculated that around superior conjunction Venus would disappear for about 50 days. We at a higher latitude would see a longer disappearance, losing it until sometime in late February or early March.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum