This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 8:04, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:15. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 6:35 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. By 8:20 tonight,nearly a half-hour after sunset, Venus will be spotted very low in the west southwestern sky. Though at a 42º angle from the sun, it’ll only be 7º above the horizon then. A telescope will show a small crescent disk of the planet. It is now rapidly approaching earth in its orbit, at 45.9 million miles (73.9 mil km) away from us. Venus is becoming an ever decreasing crescent as its apparent diameter grows in telescopes. Saturn will rise at 9:08 PM in the east. At 6 AM, Mars and Jupiter will be in the east. Jupiter is brightest and lowest while Mars has the competition of brighter stars in Gemini.
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 appears low in the west southwestern sky at 8:20 PM tonight, September 9, 2026. If Venus was the same angle from the sun near the spring equinox, it would be much higher in the sky. On top of that, note that Venus is below the ecliptic, the plane of our orbit of the sun. Venus’ orbit is tilted by about 3.4 degrees to the earth’s orbit. And by moving toward the earth that difference is exaggerated, making Venus even lower in our western sky. Created using Stellarium with annotations.
Satern appers in the east by 10 PM directly under the Great Square of Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek myth. Created using Stellarium.
Mars and Jupiter appear with the stars of winter, now adorning the predawn sky at 6 AM. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic views of the naked-eye planets as seen in a small telescope: Venus’ apparent diameter at 8:20 PM tonight will be 34.3″, and be 32.5% illuminated. At 10 PM, Saturn will be 19.5″ in diameter, and its rings extend to 45.4″. At 6 AM, Jupiter will be 32.2″ in diameter. Mars, not shown, will appear 5.2″ 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 September 9, 2026. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 10th. 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, September 2, 2026. Created using my LookingUp app, text and arrows created using LibreOffice Draw and produced a unified image using GIMP.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 