Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Thursday, March 29th.  The sun will rise at 7:28.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 38 minutes, setting at 8:06.   The moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 2:55 tomorrow morning.

Tonight’s moon will be nearly half full.  The gray patches on the moon are from the upper right the sea of Crises,  Below it is the sea of fertility, centered on the moon’s equator is the sea of Tranquility.  Above that is the scallop shaped sea of Serenity.  One of the interesting craters in viwe for a telescope now is the ruined crater Julius Caesar.  It’s on the edge of Tranquility near Serenity.  This is an ancient crater whose crater walls were breached by the impact that created the sea of Tranquility, so it kind of looks like the letter C.  So how did this crater become named for a Roman Emperor?  My only guess is that it was for his calendar reform giving us the 365 day year with a leap year every 4th.  This is also a good time to check out the rest of the moon.

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

Addendum

The moon at 10 p.m. 3/29/2012. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.