Archive
06/22/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets visible this week
Wednesday, June 22nd. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 1:07 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:57.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets. The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the south southwest as it gets dark. It’s near the bright star Spica to its lower left. Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will set at 2:21 a.m. Saturn is a wonderful sight is a telescope with its rings. The shadows of the rings on the planet and planet on the rings are now near their maximum extent. Its bright moon Titan is also visible. Folks with good telescopes and good eyesight can also see up to four of Saturn’s fainter moons. Jupiter will rise at 2:55 a.m. in the east. Mars will rise at 4:06. Venus now rises too close to sunrise to be seen in the twilight as is Mercury.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/15/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets for this week and a Lunar Eclipse
Wednesday, June 15th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 9:29. The moon, at full today, will rise at 9:35 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:56.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets. The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the south southwest as it gets dark. It’s near the bright star Spica to its lower left. Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will set at 2:44 a.m. Saturn is a wonderful sight is a telescope with its rings. Jupiter will rise at 3:19 a.m. in the east. Mars will rise at 4:19. Venus now rises too close to sunrise to be seen in the twilight as is Mercury. There will be a total lunar eclipse this afternoon our time, making it completely invisible from here. However it will be perfectly visible from Asia where among others my grandson Chris is serving as a Marine. I’ve emailed him the times which are also available on the Ephemeris Blog.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Here’s the poop on the Total Lunar Eclipse on the night of the 15th-16th.
I’m giving the timings in both Universal Time (UT), also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or Zulu and Afghanistan Standard Time (AST) (UT+4.5 hours).
Event UT AST Partial Eclipse Starts 15th 18:22 15th 22:52 Total Phase Starts 15th 19:22 15th 23:52 Total Phase Ends 15th 21:03 16th 01:33 Partial Eclipse Ends 15th 02:02 16th 02:32
The moon will enter the earth’s shadow from right to left.
During the total phase of the eclipse (we call it totality), the moon will probably appear red in color with gray near the edge of the earth’s shadow.
If you were on the moon, looking back at the earth at maximum eclipse the earth will appear as a red ring, the total of all the sunrises and sunsets around the earth.
06/08/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets this week
Wednesday, June 8th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 9:25. The moon, at first quarter today, will set at 1:44 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:57.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets. The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the south southwest as it gets dark. It’s near the bright star Spica to its lower left. Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will set at 3:12 a.m. Saturn is a wonderful sight is a telescope with its rings. The shadows of the rings on the planet and planet on the rings are now near their maximum extent. Its bright moon Titan is also visible. Folks with good telescopes and good eyesight can also see uo to fours of Saturn’s fainter moons. Jupiter will rise at 3:40 a.m. in the east. Mars will rise at 4:30. Venus now rises too close to sunrise to be seen in the twilight as is Mercury.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/01/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets for this week
Wednesday, June 1st. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 19 minutes, setting at 9:20. The moon is new today, and won’t be visible. | Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:00.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets. The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the south as it gets dark. It’s near the bright star Spica to its lower left. Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will cross the meridian due south at 9:45 p.m. and will set at 3:40 a.m. Saturn is a wonderful sight is a telescope with its rings. Its bright moon Titan is also visible. Jupiter will rise at 4:07 a.m. in the east. Mars will rise at 4:46. Venus now rises too close to sunrise to be seen in the twilight as is Mercury. There will be a partial solar eclipse this afternoon for most of Alaska. Parts of Canada from the Yukon to Nova Scotia and Greenland. That means it won’t be visible from here.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
05/13/11 – Ephemeris – Astronomical meaning of the morning planet lineup
Friday, May 13th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 9:01. The moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 4:09 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:16
The planet grouping that’s now breaking up in the morning twilight might be taken as having meaning by astrologers. To astronomers it’s just a nice line up of planets, that is along our line of sight. Let’s look at their distances from the earth. Mercury is actually closest of the four now at 86 million miles, The rest are farther than the sun. Venus is next farthest at 139 million miles. Next comes Mars at 214 million miles away. Finally there’s Jupiter at 541 million miles out. So these planets are grouped by accident of their directions from the earth. They are not really close together. As far as influence goes, the moon, Jupiter and Venus gave the greatest gravitational effect of the earth, but that’s miniscule compared to the sun.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Line of sight of the planets in the Planet Jam for May 13th.
Here’s the animation of the morning planets this month.
Planet Jam May 2011 animation
05/04/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets this week
Wednesday, May 4th. The sun rises at 6:28. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 8:50. The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 10:39 this evening.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets. The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the southeast as it gets dark. It’s near the bright star Spica to its lower left. Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will cross the meridian due south at 11:40 p.m. and will set at 5:33 a.m. Our only other planet really visible is Venus which will rise at 5:34 a.m. in the east. Rising at 5:42 will be Mercury, followed a minute later by Jupiter. Dimmest is Mars, rising at 5:46. This is what I call a Planet Jam. If you can find Venus in the twilight and follow it until 7 a.m., you just might be able to spot Jupiter and Mercury. Mars will be problematic because it’s so dim.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
05/02/11 – Ephemeris – The “Planet Jam”
Monday, May 2nd. The sun rises at 6:31. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 8:48. The moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 6:21 tomorrow morning.
This month there will be a great gathering of planets in the morning sky, I call it a planet jam, kind of like a traffic jam. But these four planets are nowhere near each other, but just lined up to our sight. Unfortunately the group is too close to the sun and in the bright twilight to easily spot. The farther south you are the better the view. By south I mean south of the equator. Venus and Jupiter will be the easiest to spot, and by the end of the month Jupiter will break out of the group to become easily visible. Yesterday Jupiter passed Mars and within one day during the night of May 10th and 11th Venus will be in a tight group with Jupiter and Mercury. That morning might be the best time to spot Mercury. That’s half an hour before sunrise.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Planet Jam May 2011 animation
30 minutes before sunrise Eastern time is U.T. minus 4 hours. It’s perhaps a good thing I can’t ass the twilight glow. It’d drown out the planets.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 