01/17/2018 – Ephemeris – Our weekly look at the bright planets

Ephemeris for Wednesday, January 17th. The Sun will rise at 8:15. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 15 minutes, setting at 5:31. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 6:17 this evening.

Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. All of the bright naked eye planets save one are in the morning sky now, but Venus sets 2 minutes after the Sun. At 7 this morning Jupiter is in the south-southeast and is a lot brighter than Mars, below and left of it. Saturn is just rising in the southeast. Jupiter will rise at 3:07 tomorrow with Mars following at 3:35. And Saturn will rise at 6:39. Saturn’s rise times will increase by 3 to 4 minutes each morning. It will be in a lot better position to spot in the coming weeks. The morning sky you’ll see at 7 a.m. will be the same stars as in the late spring sky with the summer triangle just rising. Scorpius is rising with the red star Antares below left of Mars, and Orion as I mentioned yesterday has fled over the western horizon.

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

Addendum

Jupiter and Mars are easily visible, but Saturn is low and problematic at 7 in the morning. Created using Stellarium.

Jupiter and its moons at 7 a.m. this morning January 17, 2018. Io and Europa will be eclipsed and occulted by Jupiter after this time.

Planets at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on January 17, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 18th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.