This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, November 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:22, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:31. The Moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:26 tomorrow morning.
Let’s find out where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week. Three of those five planets are now visible but both Mars and Mercury set too close to sunset to be seen. So, Saturn and Jupiter are the only evening planets visible. Saturn, seen against the stars of Aquarius, can be seen in the south in the evening. Saturn will be visible till almost 1 am. Jupiter is seen rising in the eastern sky in the evening, the brightest object in the sky. In Aries this year, Jupiter will be up all night. Venus, the brilliant morning star, will rise in the east-northeast at 3:29 am. It will be seen above the waning crescent Moon. In the southeast at 7 am in the bright morning twilight.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The only planets visible in the evening are Jupiter and Saturn and facing southeast one can see Jupiter to the left and Saturn way off to the right just west of south. Also showing are the constellations of the Zodiac that they are in or near. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
Here are Venus and the Moon at 6:45 am, when most people are up early enough to see them. It got me to thinking that maybe there may be an occultation (hiding) of Venus behind the Moon earlier in the morning, so I cranked it back three hours to just after Venus and the Moon rose. No occultation here (see below). Doing further checking I found out there is an area on the world that the occultation will be visible. Created using Stellarium.
Here are the moon and Venus at 3:45 AM about 15 minutes after they will rise tomorrow morning showing that we in Michigan are still too far south to see the occultation. Created using Stellarium.
This is a map of where the occultation will be visible on the Earth. It will be seen on the northern part of this map. The left loop is where the occultation will occur around moonrise and the right loop is where the occultation will occur near moonset. The southern boundary of the occultation is the line between the loops. On the left it is a solid white line. North of that the occultation will be seen at night. There’s a little portion of blue in which the occultation will be seen during twilight and the red dots, which above that is where the occultation will be visible during the daytime. Europe will be able to see the occultation during the daytime, Greenland mostly at night and the occultation will be visible also from the very northern islands of Canada. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. The map was created using Occult version 4.
Telescopic Saturn, Jupiter and Venus (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope, with the same magnification. At 8 pm November 8, 2023, for Saturn and Jupiter, and 6:45 am on the 9th, for Venus. Apparent diameters: Saturn 17.56″, its rings 40.92″; Jupiter 49.33″; and Venus 20.42″ and is 58.7% illuminated. The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts) and GIMP.
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on November 8, 2023. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 9th. Note that the labels for Venus and the Moon overlap each other. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
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