Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Friday, June 10th.  Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 9:26.   The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:40 tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:57.

Tonight the moon is in its gibbous phase.  Gibbous means hump backed.  One crater that came into light in the last 24 hours is the crater Copernicus, named for the Polish astronomer and cleric who removed the earth from the center of the universe.  The crater Copernicus is on the center left on the moon.  Its halo of rays will show up better when the moon is full, but now the crater itself can be appreciated.  In a telescope its is quite a sight.  It has a complex triple central peak, and terraced walls.  The small asteroid that hit it less than a billion years ago, struck the moon, gouging out the 56 mile diameter crater we see today.  Rebound created the central peaks.  An oblique image of it by a Lunar Orbiter in the late 60s was a famous picture of the time.

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