Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Tuesday, December 14th.  The sun will rise at 8:11.  It’ll be up for 8 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:02.   The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:20 tomorrow morning.

The central constellation of winter, Orion, is in the southeast at 9 p.m.  Above right of it, high in the south is Taurus the bull.  The bright orange star in Taurus is Aldebaran.  Aldebaran appears at the upper left tip of a letter V group of stars that is the face of the bull.  Aldebaran isn’t actually part of the group, called the Hyades star cluster.  The cluster is about 151 light years away, while Aldebaran is 65. Aldebaran is heading southward while the Hyades is heading to the northeast.   The star has an orange hue because its surface is cooler than the sun’s.  However Aldebaran is 44 times larger in diameter, and shines 150 times brighter than the sun.  The name Aldebaran means “Follower”  because it follows the Pleiades star cluster to its right  through the skies.

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