04/10/2017 – Ephemeris – Jupiter takes over as king of the evening sky

Ephemeris for Monday, April 10th.  The Sun will rise at 7:06.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 8:21.  The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:36 tomorrow morning.

By the time we see the Moon tonight it will be about 5 hours from officially being full.  However bright planet Jupiter should be easily visible about 5 moon diameters to the right and a bit above the Moon.  In a small telescope it is easy to see the disk of Jupiter, and possible see the cloud bands in the atmosphere,  due to the planet’s rapid rotation, of less than 10 hours.  Jupiter’s mass is over 300 times the Earth’s, while one could squeeze over a thousand Earth’s into its volume.  Jupiter has something like 67 satellites,  but only for are visible in small to medium telescopes.  Tonight they will be strung out all on one side of Jupiter, tomorrow night two will be on the other side of the planet, and another will be playing peek-a-boo in front of Jupiter.

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

Addendum

 

Jupiter and its moons in a telescope at 10 p.m. both April 10th & 11th, 2017. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Event	Date & Time EDT	Date & Time UT
Io Occultation Start	10 April 2017 10:31 p.m.	11 April 2017 2:31
Io Eclipse ends	11 April 2017 12:28 a.m.	11 April 2017 4:46
Ganymede Occultation start	11 April 2017 4:28 a.m.	11 April 2017 8:28
Ganymede Eclipse end	Not visible	11 April 2017 11:02
Europa Occultation start	Not visible	11 April 2017 18:44
Europa Eclipse ends	Not visible	11 April 2017 21:19
Io Transit starts	Not visible	11 April 2017 23:48
Io Shadow ingress	Not visible	11 April 2017 23:54
Io Transit ends	11 April 2017 8:58 p.m.	12 April 2017 1:58
Io Shadow egress	11 April 2017 10:05 p.m.	12 April 2017 2:05

Where times EDT show as not visible, Jupiter is below the horizon.  Date and time UT are for observers in other locations.  UT is Universal Time, or Greenwich Mean Time.

Occultation = moon passes behind Jupiter
Eclipse = moon in Jupiter’s shadow
Transit = moon passes in front of Jupiter
Shadow = moon’s shadow is cast on the face of Jupiter