09/21/2016 – Ephemeris – Mercury escaped to the morning sky and Jupiter will soon follow

Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 21st.  The Sun will rise at 7:29.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 7:41.  The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:15 this evening.

Tonight we have four of the five bright classical planets in the evening sky.  Mercury crossed into the morning sky last week, and Jupiter will follow next Monday.  Jupiter is too close to the Sun to be seen.  We are left with Venus, Saturn and Mars. Venus is briefly visible after sunset, low in the west.  It will set at 8:42 p.m., following the Sun’s earlier setting times.  Mars, Saturn and the star Antares start the evening in the southwestern sky in a lengthening triangle, with Saturn on top, Mars below and way out to the left, and Antares below Saturn.  Saturn, spectacular in telescopes with its rings, will set at 10:52 p.m.  And Mars, moving rapidly to the east against the stars will set at 11:31 p.m.

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

Addendum

Looking very low in the west at 8:01 p.m., 20 minutes after sunset, September 21, 2016. To see how Venus’ position changes from week to week, check out the last few Wednesday’s posts. I’m using the same landscape for each which is supplied by Stellarium. Created using Stellarium.

The lengthening Mars-Saturn-Antares triangle and the background constellations at 9 p.m., September 21, 2016. Created using Stellarium.

Saturn and some of its moons at 9 p.m. September 21, 2016. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Planets and Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on September 21, 2016. The night ends on the left with sunrise on September 22. Mercury has escaped to the Morning sky and will rise at 614 a.m. on the 22nd. If you are using Firefox right-click on the image and select View Image to enlarge the image. That goes for all the large images. Created using my LookingUp program.