08/19/2015 – Ephemeris – Saturn’s in the evening, but say “Good morning” to Mars

Ephemeris for Wednesday, August 19th.  The Sun rises at 6:49.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 8:42.   The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 10:59 this evening.

Lets take a look for the bright planets for this week.  Saturn is alone in the evening sky spotted low in the southwestern sky near the bright star Antares to its lower left.  It will set at 12:26 a.m.  Venus crossed over to the morning sky last Saturday, and Jupiter is too close to the Sun to spot and will follow Venus into the morning sky on the 26th.  Mars is now in the morning sky climbing away from the Sun.  It’s probably too far away from the Earth and faint to spot in the morning twilight.  It will rise tomorrow at 5:03.  Venus will move away from the Sun and will rapidly become visible before sunrise by the end of the month.  When Venus appears rather suddenly in the morning sky like this it prompts a few UFO reports.

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

Addendum

Saturn and the Moon with southern summer constellations at 10 p.m. on August 19, 2015. Created using Stellarium.

The moon as it would be seen in binoculars at 10 p.m. on August 19, 2015. Created using Stellarium.

Saturn as seen in a telescope. In small telescopes only Titan of all the moons will be visible. Created using Stellarium.

Good morning Mars! It’s barely visible in twilight with the stars and constellations of Winter at 6 a.m. August 20, 2015. The constellation named have been omitted because Mars plotted on top of the Cancer label. Created using Stellarium.

This is a chart showing the sunrise and sunset skies for August 19, 2015 showing the location of the planets at that time. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on the image to enlarge.