03/07/2018 – Ephemeris – All 5 naked eye planets are now visible

Ephemeris for Wednesday, March 7th. The Sun will rise at 7:09. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 6:38. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 12:58 tomorrow morning.

Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. All 5 of the naked eye planets are visible now. Two of them are in the evening sky, but very close to the Sun. Venus will be visible low in the Western twilight from about 7 p.m. until before it sets at 7:47. Mercury is much dimmer but above and a bit right of Venus, tonight about 5 Moon widths at 1 o’clock from Venus. It will set at 7:59. Mercury will appear higher than Venus in the sky until about March 20th. In the morning Jupiter will rise at 12:12 tomorrow morning. Mars will rise at 2:51. Saturn will end the procession, rising at 3:45 a.m. At 6 tomorrow morning bright Jupiter will be in the south to the left of it is dimmer Mars. Saturn is low in the southeast.

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

Addendum

Venus and Mercury, low in the west at 7 p.m., March 7, 2018. Created using Stellarium.

The morning planets of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn plus the Moon. Seen at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning March 8, 2018. Click on image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The waning gibbous Moon as it might be seen in binoculars at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning, March 8, 2018. Created using Stellarium.

Jupiter and Saturn with their brighter satellites tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. March 8, 2018. They are displayed at the same scale. Saturn in about twice as far as Jupiter. Its disk is a bit smaller than Jupiter’s so it appears about half as large. The extent of the rings appear to be about the same as Jupiter’s diameter. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

The Great Red Spot should be visible on Jupiter.

Europa is labeled but unseen at 6 a.m. EST

Here is what’s happening

Moon    Event              Date        UT       Local time
Europa: Eclipse start:     8 Mar 2018  7:12 UT  2:12 a.m. EST
Europa: Eclipse end:       8 Mar 2018  9:28 UT  4:28 a.m. EST
Europa: Occultation start: 8 Mar 2018  9:34 UT  4:34 a.m. EST
Europa: Occultation end:   8 Mar 2018 11:43 UT  6:43 a.m. EST

An eclipse is when the moon passes through Jupiter’s shadow.  An occultation is when the moon is hidden behind the planet.

Note the 6 minutes between the end of the eclipse and the start of the occultation.

Timings are from https://www.projectpluto.com.

Planets at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on March 7, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 8th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.