This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, July 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 9:29, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:06. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:26 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. By 10 PM tonight, a half-hour after sunset, Venus will be easily seen in the western sky. A telescope will show a very tiny gibbous disc of Venus, because it is just a little bit closer than the Sun, at 92.0 million miles (148 million kilometers) away from us. Over the next nearly 3½ months, it will be moving closer to us and becoming much larger. In the morning, Saturn and Mars will be visible, in the southeast and east respectively. The Earth is now chasing down Mars, and later this year the launch window will open to send spacecraft to the Red Planet. Mars will be next closest to the Earth and at opposition with the sun in February next year.
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
Venus in the western sky at 10 PM tonight, July8, 2026. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn, Mars and the Moon at 5 AM tomorrow morning July 9, 2026. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon, 1 day after last quarter, as seen at 5 AM, July 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 Venus at 10 PM tonight, July 8, 2026, and Saturn at 5 AM on the 9th (north up), as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. Venus’ apparent diameter will be 17.0″, and be 65.9% illuminated. Saturn will be 17.8″ in diameter, and its rings extend to 41.4″ and are tilted 9.2º to our view. Mars, not shown, will appear 4.5″ in diameter. 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 July 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.
The naked-eye planets, from Mercury to Saturn, in a low angle perspective view of the solar system from above and a bit beyond Saturn’s orbit for today, July 8, 2026. Created using my LookingUp app, text and arrows created using LibreOffice Draw and produced a unified image using GIMP.
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