05/13/2020 – Ephemeris – Let’s look at the naked-eye planets for this week

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, May 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 9:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:15. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 3:08 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look at the naked-eye planets for this week. Venus is our evening star shining brightly in the west. It will be our evening star for only the next 3 weeks. A tiny crescent can now be seen in binoculars. It will cross between the Earth and the Sun on June 3rd. It will set at 11:43 p.m. It’s only 33 million miles (53 million km) away. In the morning sky there are three planets fairly close together in the south-southeast with the Moon among them tomorrow morning. Bright Jupiter will rise first at 1:35 a.m. Followed by Saturn at 1:50 a.m. Mars, is stretching its lead left of Saturn and will rise at 3:14 a.m. Mars is getting closer to us all the time now, until it closest to us in October of this year.

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

Addendum

Venus in evening twilight and bright evening stars tonight at 10 p.m. May 13, 2020. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Morning planets and the Moon in twilight at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, May 14, 2020. The Moon is shown at three times its actual size. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The Moon as it might be seen in binoculars at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow May 14, 2020. Created using Stellarium.

The planets as seen in a telescope with the same magnification. Venus, Jupiter and Saturn on the night of May 13/14, 2020. Apparent diameters: Venus, 47.88″. larger than Jupiter, at 42.46″; Saturn, 17.32″, rings, 40.35″. Mars at 8.28″ won’t be added until it reaches 10″. The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on May 13, 2020. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 14th. The closeness of Jupiter and Saturn in the morning sky unfortunately overlays planets and labels. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.