07/29/2015 – Ephemeris – Where are the bright planets tonight

Ephemeris for Wednesday, July 29th.  The Sun rises at 6:25.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 47 minutes, setting at 9:12.   The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 5:36 tomorrow morning.

Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week.  Our evening stars Venus and Jupiter are together in the west by 9:30 p.m. with Jupiter above and right of Venus.  Venus will set at 9:46 with Jupiter 23 minutes later.  Venus will slide down to the Sun faster and faster in the coming weeks leaving Jupiter behind for a while.  Venus will take 17 days to slide past the Sun.  Jupiter though will take 28 days, so Venus will pass it again around August 4th when both are too close to the horizon and Sun to spot.   There’s a third conjunction of these two in October in the morning sky with Mars nearby.  Saturn is in the south in the evening twilight.  It will set at 1:48 a.m.  Even small telescopes can see Saturn’s rings.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Venus and Jupiter low on the western horizon at 9:30 p.m. on July 29, 2015. This will be their last appearance on this blog in the west this year. We’ll wait until they appear in the east in the morning. For Venus it’ll be sooner than you think. Created using Stellarium.

Saturn with the bright Moon and some stars of summer in the constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius at 10:30 p.m. July 29, 2015. Created using Stellarium.

Comparative apparent sizes of the evening planets as seen through a telescope of the same magnification on July 29, 2015. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts). Note that I didn’t show the moons of Jupiter which are not visible in the bright twilight. Also the program didn’t extend the cusps of Venus’ crescent properly.

This is a chart showing the sunrise and sunset skies for July 29, 2015 showing the location of the planets at that time. Created using my LookingUp program.