Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Thursday, February 7th.  The sun will rise at 7:53.  It’ll be up for 10 hours and 6 minutes, setting at 6:00.   The moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 6:22 tomorrow morning.

At 9 p.m. the constellation of Gemini the twins will be seen high in the southeast.  The namesake stars of the two lads are the two bright stars at the top of the constellation.  Pollux the pugilist, or boxer, is the lower of the two, while Castor, the horseman, is the other star, or rather a six star system.  In telescopes two close stars may be seen each is a spectroscopic binary, meaning the lines of two stars can be seen in the spectrum.  A faint nearby spectroscopic binary also belong.    Pollux, though a single star, does have at least one planet, one over twice the mass of Jupiter orbiting the star at a distance somewhat greater than Mars is from the sun.  Pollux is 34 light years away while Castor is 50 light years away.  Not too far away as stars go.

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

Gemini with Castor and Pollux. Created with Stellarium.

Addendum