05/18/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets visible this week

Wednesday, May 18th.  Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 9:06.   The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 10:54 this evening.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:10.

It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets.  The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the south southeast as it gets dark.   It’s near the bright star Spica to its lower left.  Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will cross the meridian due south at 10:42 p.m. and will set at 4:36 a.m.   The morning planet traffic jam is breaking up.  Rising first will be Jupiter at 4:52 on the east. Mars will rise at 5:13 followed by Venus 3 minutes later.  Mercury will rise at 5:24.  Unless we have very clear skies and you have a very flat eastern horizon, you’d have to wait until maybe 5:45 to try to spot them.  It will take binoculars to first locate Venus and Jupiter.  Good luck finding the others.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

04/15/11 – Ephemeris – Naming lunar features

Friday, April 15th.  The sun rises at 6:58.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 8:27.   The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 5:41 tomorrow morning.

If you’ve notices that the names we use for features on the moon sound familiar when used in other contexts, you’re right.  Lunar craters are named for astronomers, scientists, philosophers and explorers.  The mountains on the moon are named for earthly mountain ranges.  The great lava plains, misnames seas are given fanciful names like the Sea of Tranquility, which I usually leave in the original Latin.  In this case Mare Tranquilitatis.  The naming convention for craters pretty much holds for the other bodies of the solar system.  The next bodies to get crater names will be Mercury, which the MESSENGER spacecraft went into orbit of last month and the asteroid Vesta, which the Dawn spacecraft will reach in July.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

See this Wikipedia article on planetary nomenclature.

03/16/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets this week

Ephemeris for Wednesday, March 16th.  The sun will rise at 7:53.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 56 minutes, setting at 7:49.   The moon, 3 days before full, will set at 6:19 tomorrow morning.

It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets for this week.  If the weather cooperates tonight we might get a glimpse of Mercury just above  Jupiter low in the west shortly after sunset.  Jupiter is the brighter of the two and will set first at 9:07, with Mercury following at 9:18.  The best time to view them will be about 8:30 or so.   The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 9:17 p.m. in the east southeast and will move due south at 3:05 a.m.  In telescopes Saturn shows its rings which are a year and a half along their seven and a half year opening.  Venus is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 6:27 a.m. in the east southeast. It is really a beautiful sight in the morning twilight.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

 

Jupiter-Mercury Conjunction March 16, 2011. Created using Stellaruim.

 

 

03/09/11 – Ephemeris – Where are the bright planets this week?

Ash Wednesday March 9th.  The sun will rise at 7:06.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 6:40.   The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 11:53 this evening.

It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets for this week.  Mercury is marginally visible low in the west in twilight setting at 7:37.  The planet Jupiter is low in the western sky in the early evening twilight.  It will set at 8:25 p.m.  The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 8:47 p.m. in the east southeast and will move due south at 2:34 a.m.  In telescopes Saturn shows its rings which are a year and a half along their seven and a half  year opening.  Also visible in a telescope is Saturn’s moon Titan.  Wait a couple of hours after Saturn rises for the clearest images.  Venus is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 5:29 a.m. in the east southeast. It is really a beautiful sight in the morning twilight.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.