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04/04/11 – Ephemeris – Saturn at opposition
Apr 4. This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, April 4th. The sun will rise at 7:18. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 8:13. The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 9:43 this evening. | Last night Saturn passed opposition from the sun, that is Saturn was opposite the sun in the sky. That means the earth is nearly directly between them. Also Saturn is at its closest. That’s not as big a deal as with Mars. Saturn, nearly 10 times earth’s distance from the sun, will vary its distance from the earth by plus or minus 10 percent. Not a huge amount. With Jupiter its plus or minus 25 percent. With Mars it’s plus or minus 75 percent. That plus Mars’ eccentric orbit means we only have rare close approaches, every 15 or 17 years. So Saturn appears about the same size no matter were in its orbit or our orbit we see it. We’ll have nearly six months of Saturn viewing in the evening. And Saturn’s the one planet you have got to see in a telescope.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Saturn as seen in April 2011. Created by Celestia.
The above image isn’t a photograph, but was created using Celestia. This is roughly the view of Saturn we see now. Celestia is available free. See the link to the right.
04/01/11 – Ephemeris – Astronomical events in the Grand Traverse area this weekend
April Fools Day, Friday, April 1st. The sun will rise at 7:23. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 45 minutes, setting at 8:09. The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6:34 tomorrow morning.
This evening Northwestern Michigan College’s own professor Jerry Dobek will present a talk about the book to be released at the end of this month at this evening’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society starting at 8 p.m. at the college’s Rogers Observatory.. Jerry is republishing A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way by E. E. Barnard from the best plates of the 1927 edition with additions and corrections to the original tables. Tomorrow evening starting at 9 p.m. the Society along with the NMC Astronomy Association will host a public viewing night at the observatory. This will be our last chance, if it’s clear to view the setting winter celestial wonders and we’ll get a preview of the rising ones of spring.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 