Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Thursday, September 6th.  The sun will rise at 7:11.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 8:08.   The moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:01 this evening.

The constellation Cassiopeia looks like the letter W in the northeastern sky at 10 p.m. My mother taught it to me as my grandfather taught her as the Flying W.  Cassiopeia represents a queen of Ethiopia in a grand story that has had at least a couple of movies made as the Clash of the Titans.  A dim star above the middle star makes the constellation in to a crooked backed chair.  Cassiopeia is circumpolar in Michigan since it is near the north pole of the sky.  It revolves around and around the pole star Polaris.  In late autumn it’s overhead, in the spring its low in the northwest and in early summer it’s scraping the northern horizon.

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

Addendum

Cassiopeia and the other circumpolar constellations. Created using Stellarium.