10/03/2018 – Ephemeris – This week’s look at the bright planets

Ephemeris for Wednesday, October 3rd. The Sun will rise at 7:43. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 7:19. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 2:02 tomorrow morning

Let’s look at the bright planets today. Three of them are visible in the evening sky. The brilliant Venus will be just too low to spot, setting 29 minutes after the Sun. The problem isn’t its separation from the Sun, but it is also south of the Sun’s path. Jupiter will be in the southwest as it gets dark. The big planet will set at 9:03 p.m. Saturn will start the evening low in the south-southwest sky and will set at 11:31 p.m. I will be giving a talk about Saturn tonight at the Main branch of the library in Traverse City at 7 p.m. Mars will be low in the south-southeast as the skies darken tonight. and is now 56.7 million miles (91.3 million km) away. Mars will be due south at 9:34 p.m., and it will set at 2:03 a.m.

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. October 3, 2018. Click on image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Venus, already set; Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with the same magnification at 8:30 p.m.

The waning crescent 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 October 3, 2018. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 4th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.