Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 16th.  The sun will rise at 8:15.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 5:29.   The moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 2:31 tomorrow morning.  |  This morning the crescent moon will appear below Saturn and  the bright blue-white star Spica in the southeast before twilight brightens too much.  When seen together Saturn and Spica really show the difference in their colors.  Saturn reflects the light of our yellow sun, and that’s accentuated by it’s cream colored clouds.  Only Saturn’s rings reflect the sun’s light pretty much unaltered because they’re made mostly of ice.  Spica has the hottest surface temperature of any first magnitude star and shines with a blue tinge.  This came home to me a long time ago, when I photographed a lunar eclipse with color film when the moon was next to Spica.  Spica came out looking very blue indeed.

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

Addendum

Saturn, Spica and the Moon on the morning of January 16, 2012. Created using Stellarium.