03/14/2018 – Ephemeris – A Pi Day look at the bright planets

Ephemeris for Pi Day, Wednesday, March 14th. The Sun will rise at 7:57. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 7:47. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 7:15 tomorrow morning.

Pi day: the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi is 3-14. Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. All 5 of the naked eye planets are visible now. Three of them are visible this morning. Before it gets light Jupiter will be in the west-southwest, with Mars in the south and Saturn a bit left of the red planet. Jupiter will rise at 12:44 tomorrow morning. Mars will rise at 3:42. And Saturn will rise at 4:19 a.m. In the evening sky Venus will be visible low in the western twilight from about 8:15 p.m. until before it sets at 9:06. Mercury is much dimmer but above and a bit right of Venus, tonight about 8 Moon widths at 1 o’clock from Venus. It will set at 9:26. Mercury will appear higher than Venus in the sky for 6 more nights.

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

Addendum

The morning planets of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn plus the Moon. Seen at 7 a.m. EDT this morning March 14, 2018. Click on image to enlarge. 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).

Venus and Mercury, low in the west at 8:15 p.m., March 14, 2018. Created using Stellarium.

Planets at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on March 14, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 15th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.