Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Tuesday, March 22nd.  The sun will rise at 7:42.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 7:57.   The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 12:17 tomorrow morning

We are a few days into spring.  And while the winter constellation of Orion and its cohorts hold forth in the southwestern sky the Big Dipper is sneaking up in the northeast.  At 9 p.m. the Big Dipper is standing on the tip of its handle in the northeastern sky.  The stars at the front of the bowl are at the top of Big Dipper now.  An imaginary line through them to the lower left will point to Polaris the North Star.  The Big Dipper never sets for us, in the north country.  It scrapes the northern horizon on autumn evenings, climbs the northeastern sky in the winter, is overhead, in spring, and descends in the northwest in summer.  The Big Dipper points to, well it leaks on Leo the Lion.  The bright star Arcturus, now rising in the east is found by following the curve of the handle.

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

Addendum

The Big Dipper points to other stars and constellations. Created using my own LookingUp program. Click on the image to enlarge.