Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Monday, May 16th.  Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 9:04.   The moon, 1 day before full, will set at 6:01 tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:12

If all goes well the Space Shuttle Endeavor will lift off for the International Space Station at 8:56 this morning (EDT).  The Endeavour, named for the for British Captain James Cook’s first vessel, which was sailed to Tahiti in in 1769 to observe the transit of Venus across the sun as part of an effort to determine the earth’s distance from the sun.  Endeavour’s 25th and last flight will be the second to last flight of the Shuttle program.  Gregory Johnson, mission pilot has family and a cottage in the area.  The State Theater in downtown Traverse City will be open for a live feed of the launch starting at 8 a.m. if the launch is still a go.  It will be hosted by NASA Solar System Ambassador Carolyn McKellar.  This is a free event.

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

Update

There were over 200 people, young and old that came to the theater for the event.  It was very successful for such short notice of a relatively few days.  Great work Carolyn and the volunteers and staff of the State Theater!