Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

September 13:  This is Ephemeris for Monday, September 13th*. The sun will rise at 7:18. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 37 minutes, setting at 7:56. The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:46 this evening. | We’re going to look at the moon this week leading up to International Observe the Moon Night Saturday night. We’ll have some telescopes at the Clinch Park Marina Saturday if it’s clear. Looking at the moon tonight in binoculars or a small telescope you can see gray areas of the Sea of Crises nearest the bright edge, the Sea of Fertility and toward the center the Sea of Tranquility, where the Apollo 11 astronauts landed. Looking south near the terminator, the line between light and dark on the moon are three prominent craters in a seeming chain. The most prominent is Theophilus with a nice central peak, If you’re interested in a computer based moon map google “Virtual Moon Atlas” for a free download. It allows you to move around the moon, has a wealth of facts and images too.

*Times are for the Grand Traverse Area of Northern Michigan, USA.

Update:

The moon 2 days before first quarter. Image produced using Virtual Moon Atlas