Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Tuesday, November 22nd.  The sun will rise at 7:47.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 5:08.   The moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 5:51 tomorrow morning.

Rising in the east northeast is the bright star Capella and its pentagonal constellation Auriga the Charioteer.  Auriga appears to be hunched down in his chariot carrying 4 goats.  Capella is the mother goat, and a slim triangle of stars near her are her kids.  Perhaps the kids in the chariot were such a distraction that he crashed.  So maybe the gods placed them in the sky as a warning.   In fact that triangle is an asterism widely known as the Kids.  The Milky Way runs through Auriga and it is the home of several star clusters that appear as fuzzy spots in binoculars.  Capella for us in northern Michigan never sets.  It is a winter star that can be seen year round.  It’s disconcerting to spot it scraping the northern horizon in July.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.

Addendum

The Constellations Cassiopeia, Perseus and Auriga. Cartes du Ciel