This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, June 3rd. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 9:23, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:58. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 12:29 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. By 10:15 PM tonight, nearly an hour after sunset, Venus and Jupiter may be seen in the western sky. A telescope will show a very tiny disc on Venus, because it is still pretty much beyond the Sun, 115 million miles (186 million kilometers) away from us. Over the next 4½ months it will be moving closer to us and becoming much larger. Jupiter is to the upper left of Venus, and the second-brightest star-like object in the sky. Venus will set at 12:05 AM, while Jupiter will hold out ten minutes longer. Venus will pass Jupiter on the afternoon of the 9th. Saturn rises into the eastern sky at 3:27 AM, followed by dimmer Mars an hour later.
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
Jupiter, Venus and Mercury at 10:15 PM tonight, June 3, 2026. Jupiter and Venus are appearing to approach each other. They will be in conjunction on the evening of June 8th & 9th. Mercury may not be visible now, but it is increasing its distance from the sun, and will be at greatest elongation or separation from the sun on the 15th. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon, 3 days after full, as seen at 5 AM tomorrow morning, June 4, 2026. A view visible in small telescopes showing an image with and without selected features labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP
Saturn and Mars at 5 AM June 4, 2026. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Venus and Jupiter at 10:15 PM on the 3rd, and Saturn at 5 AM on the 4th (north up), as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. Venus’ apparent diameter will be 13.5″, and be 78.6% illuminated. It’s on the far side of the Sun. Jupiter will be 32.9″ in diameter, with its moons shown for the time listed. Saturn will be 16.8″ in diameter, and its rings extend to 39.0″ and are tilted 8.5º to our view. Mars, not shown, will appear 4.3″ in diameter. Mercury, also not shown, will appear 6.2″ in diameter and be 62.2% illuminated. 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, starting with sunset on the right on June 3, 2026. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 4th. 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, June 3rd and 4th, 2026. Some of the columns are self-explanatory, others are 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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