Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Tuesday, February 8th.  The sun will rise at 7:52.  It’ll be up for 10 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 6:00.   The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 11:58 this evening.

The 5 day old crescent moon reveals to a small telescope, a trio of large craters on the edge of the moon’s terminator or sunrise line.  The best of these is on top Theophilus, a perfectly circular 61 mile diameter crater with a prominent central peak.  It’s a little late for it tonight but sometimes when the terminator is crossing the crater, the floor is dark and the central peak catches the morning sunlight.  Theophilus is a couple of hundred miles south of the Apollo 11 landing site in the Sea of Tranquility,  That sea will be completely in sunlight tomorrow night.  The moon is a great celestial object to view with that new telescope.  It’d big and bright, and relatively easy to find in the telescope.  When trying to find an object in the sky always use the lowest power.

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