10/18/2017 – Ephemeris – Our weekly look at the naked eye planets

Ephemeris for Wednesday, October 18th. The Sun will rise at 8:01. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 6:52. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:39 tomorrow morning.

Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. Jupiter, for all intents and purposes is gone from the evening sky. It will cross into the morning sky next week Thursday. Saturn too is sinking lower in the southwestern sky in the evening. Saturn’s rings are still spectacular in telescopes, but since Saturn is so low in the sky the turbulence of the thick atmosphere makes Saturn fuzzy and seemingly to go in and out of focus. Saturn will set at 9:52 p.m.

Tomorrow in the morning sky, Mars, heading away from the Sun will rise in the east at 5:33 a.m., Venus, is heading closer to the Sun, will rise at 6:16 in the east. Mercury has moved into the evening sky 10 days ago, but will not be easily visible even at its greatest elongation a month from now.

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

Addendum

Saturn and the constellations of the evening tonight at 8:00 p.m., October 18, 2017. Click on the image to enlarge.  Created using Stellarium.

Saturn and its brightest moons on the evening of October 18, 2017. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Mars and Venus at 7 a.m. October 19, 2017. Create using Stellarium.

Planets at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on October 18, 2017. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 19th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.