Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Thursday, April 28th.  The sun rises at 6:37.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 8:43.   The moon, 4 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:38 tomorrow morning.

The constellation Leo the lion is now high in the south at 10 pm.  It’s directly below the Big Dipper at the zenith.  Leo is marked by two sets of easily recognizable stars.  The front of him is a backward question mark of stars, also known as the Sickle that mark his head and mane, along with the front part of his body.  Regulus is the star at the bottom of that backwards question mark.  It’s the Little King Star.  The hind end of him is a triangle of stars ending with another bright star, but not as bright as Regulus.  It’s Denebola which means Lion’s tail.  It is thought when the sun was in this constellation long ago that the lions were driven by the heat to quench their thirst in the Nile river.   Ancients physicians thought medicines were poison when the sun was here too.

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

Addendum

Leo, April 28 2011, 10 p.m. Created using Stellarium.