04/04/2018 – Ephemeris – Wednesday is bright planet day on Ephemeris

Wednesday, April 4th. The Sun will rise at 7:18. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 56 minutes, setting at 8:14. The Moon, half way from full to last quarter, will rise at 12:44 tomorrow morning.

Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. We’re down to 4 the naked eye planets are visible now. One is in the evening sky. Venus will be visible low in the Western twilight from about 8:40 p.m. until it sets at 10:01. Mercury is in the morning sky, but too close to the Sun to be seen by anybody. Jupiter will rise late this evening at 11:16 p.m. That doesn’t make it an evening planet. It has to rise before sunset to be an evening planet. Saturn will rise at 2:59 a.m., while Mars will rise 14 minutes later at 3:13 a.m. At 6 tomorrow morning these three planets will be strung across the southern sky. Bright Jupiter will be in the southwest, dimmer Mars and Saturn will be in the south-southeast, with Mars below Saturn.

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

Addendum

Venus in evening twilight at 9 p.m, tonight April 4, 2018. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The morning planets and the Moon at 6 a.m. April 5, 2018. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The waning gibbous Moon at 6 a.m. April 5, 2018 as it might be seen in binoculars.

The morning planets as seen by a telescope using the same magnification for all at 6 a.m. April 5, 2018. a.m. Jupiter’s moon Io is in the planet’s shadow. See the table below from Project Pluto. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Moon Event             Date     Universal Time   Local time   
Io : Eclipse start     5 Apr 2018  9:04 UT        5:04 EDT
Io : Occultation end   5 Apr 2018 11:57 UT        7:57 EDT (unseen)

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on April 4, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 5th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

 

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