This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Wednesday, August 26th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 8:30, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:59. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:15 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. By 9 PM tonight, a half-hour after sunset, Venus will be easily spotted in the west southwestern sky. A telescope will show a small, fat crescent disk of Venus. It is now rapidly approaching earth in its orbit, at 55.8 million miles (89.9 million kilometers) away from us. Venus’ phase is becoming an ever decreasing crescent as its apparent diameter grows in telescopes. At 6 AM, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter will be visible in the southwest, east and east northeast respectively. Saturn is the brightest “star” in its part of the sky, while Mars has the competition of brighter stars, and two brighter red stars of the coming winter evenings, while Jupiter outshines them all.
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 west southwestern sky at 9:00 PM tonight, August 26, 2026. Created using Stellarium.
Moon about 3 hours from being full at 9:30 PM tonight, August 26, 2026. A view visible in small telescopes showing an image with and without selected features labeled. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Saturn, Mars and Jupiter will be seen at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning August 27, 2026. Mars is entering the part of the sky with bright stars, the winter sky. So it won’t stand out until it gets much closer to the Earth. Jupiter is brighter than all the rest. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic Venus at 9:00 PM tonight, August 26, 2026, and Saturn and Jupiter at 6:00 AM on the 27th (north up), as they would be seen in a small telescope with the same magnification. Venus’ apparent diameter will be 28.2″, and be 41.9% illuminated. Saturn will be 19.2″ in diameter, and its rings extend to 44.8″, and are tilted 8.7º to our view. Jupiter will be 31.7″ in diameter. Mars, not shown, will appear 5.0″ 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 August 26th, 2026. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 27th. 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, August 26, 2026. Created using my LookingUp app, text and arrows created using LibreOffice Draw and produced a unified image using GIMP.
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