Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Monday, January 24th.  The sun will rise at 8:09.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 5:39.   The moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 12:10 tomorrow morning.

Orion is the great constellation in the south tonight at 9 p.m.  The three stars in a straight line are his belt which is framed by a large upright rectangle of bright stars.  From his belt are three stars visible to the naked eye.  More stars are seen here in binoculars or a telescope plus the glow of the Great Orion Nebula. A great part of the constellation is backed up by a huge dark molecular cloud of dust and gas.  It is nearly invisible except in the areas of star formation like the Great Orion Nebula and in the infrared.  Molecular clouds contain molecular Hydrogen, along with carbon monoxide, oxygen and other molecules, some of which are complex organic compounds.  Long exposure photographs also show a large arc of gas called Barnard’s loop off the left side of the Orion rectangle.[, part of a supernova that exploded 2 million years ago.]

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