12/11/2019 – Ephemeris – Where are the naked-eye planets now

Ephemeris for Wednesday, December 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:10. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 8:28 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look at the naked-eye planets for this week. Venus will be briefly visible low in the southwest before it sets at 7:06 p.m. Jupiter is lost in twilight. It will pass behind the Sun on the 27th and will enter the morning sky. Saturn, the ringed planet, will be in the southwestern sky in the evening, and will set at 7:13 p.m. Tonight Saturn will be about 2 degrees or 4 moon widths to the upper right of the much brighter Venus. Mars is in the morning sky and will rise in the east-southeast at 5:13 a.m. It’s not very bright because it’s 215 million (346 million km) miles away, but it’s getting slowly closer to the Earth. Mercury is now too close to the Sun to be seen in morning twilight.

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

Addendum

Venus and Saturn low ion the southwest tonight at 6 p.m. December11, 2019. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Telescopic views of Venus and Saturn with the same magnification at 6 p.m. tonight December 11, 2019. In the morning, I will show Mars here when it reaches an apparent diameter of 10″ (seconds of arc). It’s currently 4.0″. By the way Venus is 11.8″. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

The nearly full Moon at 6 p.m. tonight December 11, 2019. Created using Stellarium.

Mars in the morning with the bright stars at 7 a.m. December 12, 2019. Mercury is on the horizon and most likely invisible. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on December 11, 2019. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 12th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.