01/24/2018 – Ephemeris – Our weekly look at the bright planets

Ephemeris for Wednesday, January 24th. The Sun will rise at 8:10. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 5:40. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 1:38 tomorrow morning.

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 only 14 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 very low in the southeast. Jupiter will rise at 2:44 a.m. tomorrow with Mars following at 3:30. And Saturn will rise at 6:15. 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 early summer sky with the summer triangle in the east. Scorpius is rising with the red star Antares below and left of Mars.

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

Addendum

The first quarter Moon as it might be seen in binoculars at 8 p.m. tonight. January 24, 2017. Created using Stellarium.

Jupiter and Mars are easily visible, but Saturn is low in the southeast at 7 this the morning, January 24, 2018. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Jupiter and its moons at 7 a.m. this morning January 25, 2018. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Planets at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on January 24, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 25th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.