Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Arbor Day, Friday, April 29th.  The sun rises at 6:36.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 8:44.   The moon, 4 days before new, will rise at 5:00 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look ahead at the month of May, the month when the promise of spring is finally fulfilled.  Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area will increase from 14 hours and 13 minutes Sunday to 15 hours 18 minutes on the 31st.  The altitude, or angle, of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will ascend from 60 degrees tomorrow to 67 degrees at month’s end.  The altitude of the sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower than that.  Local apparent noon this month, when the sun passes due south, will be about 1:38 p.m.  This is the month of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower which will reach its peak next week.  We’ll have dark skies for this very early morning meteor shower that’s related to Halley’s Comet.

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