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05/11/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets for this week
Wednesday, May 11th. The sun rises at 6:19. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 39 minutes, setting at 8:58. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 3:14 tomorrow morning.
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 11:11 p.m. and will set at 5:04 a.m. The morning planet traffic jam continues. Rising first will be Jupiter at 5:19 on the east. Venus rises at 5:25. Followed by Mars at 5:30 and Mercury at 5:31. Unless we have very clear skies and you have a very flat eastern horizon, you’d have to wait until maybe 5:45 to try to spot them. It will take binoculars to first locate Venus, Jupiter the second brightest will be nearby, followed by nearly impossible to spot Mars and Mercury.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The morning planets this month at 2 day intervals.
Planet Jam May 2011 animation
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 