Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, February 28th.  The sun will rise at 7:22.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 6:28.   The moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 1:34 tomorrow morning.

The fat crescent moon will appear below the Pleiades star cluster tonight.  The Pleiades is also known as the Seven Sisters.  With the moon as bright as it is the stars of the Pleiades may not be easily spotted, so a pair of binoculars might be needed.  The Pleiades will appear nearly 8 moon diameters above the moon, so they might escape the moon’s glare somewhat.  The moon will pass the Pleiades every 28 and a fraction days.  Sometimes it passes south of the cluster, and sometimes north of it, and occasionally it passes in front of the stars of the cluster.  The moon’s orbit of the earth wobbles or precesses once every 18.6 years.  It’s why eclipses occur at different times of the year, and generally earlier one year to the next.

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

Addendum

The moon south of the Pleiades at 10:19 p.m. February 28, 2012 from Michigan . Chart created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts)