12/28/10 – Ephemeris – Orion’s hunting dogs
Tuesday, December 28th. The sun will rise at 8:18. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:09. The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 2:20 tomorrow morning.
The great winter constellation or star group Orion the Hunter, is located in the southeastern sky at 9 p.m. His elongated rectangle of a torso is almost vertical. In the center of the rectangle are three stars in a line that make his belt. As a hunter, especially one of old, he has two hunting dogs. The larger, Canis Major can be found by following the three belt stars of Orion down and to the left. There lies the brilliant star called Sirius, also known as the Dog Star. It’s in the heart of a stick figure dog facing Orion that appears to be begging. The smaller dog can be found by extending a line through Orion’s shoulder stars to the left. We find a bright star called Procyon. It and one other star make up the hot-dog shaped constellation of Canis Minor, the little dog.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 