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Ephemeris: 04/08/2026 – Taking our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets

April 8, 2026 Leave a comment

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, April 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 8:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:08. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 3:20 tomorrow morning.

Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. By 9 PM tonight or about 40 minutes or so after sunset, Venus may be seen very low in the West. Binoculars or a telescope will show a very tiny disc on Venus, because it is pretty much behind the Sun, 145 million miles (231 million kilometers) away from us. Over the next 6 months it will be moving closer to us and becoming much larger. Jupiter is the brilliant star-like object high in the southwestern sky at 9:30 PM. Venus will set at 10:15, while Jupiter will hold out to 3:30 AM. Meanwhile, Mercury, Mars and Saturn are lined up just west of the Sun, but unfortunately are overwhelmed by bright morning twilight. The Artemis II astronauts reported seeing them during their solar eclipse.

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; EST, UT – 5 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Jupiter and Venus with fading constellations of winter at 9:30 PM tonight.
Jupiter and Venus with fading constellations of winter at 9:30 PM tonight, April 8, 2026. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon, a day before last quarter as seen at 6 AM tomorrow morning, April 9, 2026. A view visible in small telescopes showing an image with and without selected features labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Telescopic Jupiter and Venus as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification.
Telescopic Jupiter and Venus as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification.Telescopic Jupiter and Venus (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. Venus will be visible for a short time near the western horizon, while Jupiter is visible most of the night. Venus’ apparent diameter will be 10.9″, and be 92.5% illuminated. It’s on the far side of the Sun. Jupiter will be 37.9″ in diameter, with its moons shown here for 10 PM, tonight April 8th, 2026. The moons can shift noticably over an hour. Io will emerge from Jupiter’s shadow at 10:21 PM. The (”) symbol means seconds of arc, or 1/3600th of a degree. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts), LibreOffice Draw and GIMP.
The naked-eye planets at sunset and sunrise on a single night.
The naked-eye planets at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on April 8, 2026. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 9th. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Naked-eye planets, Observing Tags: , , , , ,