09/26/2018 – Ephemeris – Wednesday os bright planet day on Ephemeris

Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 26th. The Sun will rise at 7:34. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 7:32. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 8:43 this evening.

Let’s look at the bright planets today. Four of them are visible in the evening sky. The brilliant Venus will be visible in the western twilight briefly from about 7:50 p.m. until it sets at 8:14 p.m. Jupiter will be in the southwest as it gets dark. It is only outshone by Venus, and the Moon. The big planet will set at 9:24 p.m. Saturn will start the evening low in the southern sky and will stay relatively low, above the Teapot of Sagittarius. It will be due south at sunset and will set at 11:54 p.m. Mars will be low in the south-southeast as the skies darken tonight. and is now 53.5 million miles (86.2 million km) away. Mars will be due south at 9:48 p.m., and it will set at 2:14 a.m. It’s diameter is 16.4 seconds of arc, quite small in telescopes.

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

Addendum

The evening planets at 8:00 p.m. September 26, 2018. Click on image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with the same magnification at 8 p.m. September 26, 2018. Mars is also shown enlarged. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Here are the apparent diameters of the above planets:
    Venus 43.7″ (seconds of arc)
    Jupiter 32.8″
    Saturn 16,6″, rings 38.6″
    Mars 16,4″

Jupiter’s moon Ganymede will begin to transit the planet at 8:50 p.m. EDT (00:50 UT September 27).

The waning gibbous Moon as it should appear by 6 tomorrow morning in binoculars. Created using Stellarium.

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on September 26, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 27th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.