Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 8:27, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:57. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 3:56 tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow morning the Moon will be in the midst of passing the three morning planets, from right to left: Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Specifically, the last quarter Moon will be below Saturn at 6 a.m. Mars is traveling east rapidly. Its rise times decrease by only two minutes a day compared to the 4 minutes a day for the stars, so it won’t enter the evening sky until October, while Jupiter and Saturn will enter the evening sky in July. A planet is considered to be in the morning sky if it rises after sunset, and in the evening sky if it rises before sunset. Rising in the morning is definitely after sunset. The dividing point is when a superior* planet is at opposition from the Sun when it enters the evening sky, or in conjunction with the Sun when it enters the morning sky.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

* Superior planets have orbits outside the Earth’s orbit: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Addendum

Morning planets and Moon in the south-southeast tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. April 15, 2020. Click on image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.