Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, March 19th.  The sun will rise at 7:47.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 6 minutes, setting at 7:53.   The moon, at first quarter today, will set at 3:38 tomorrow morning.

Comet PanSTARRS continues to be seen low in evening twilight.  It is moving now into the west northwest.  When it becomes dark enough it will display a fan shaped tail in binoculars.  It is moving away from both the sun and the earth.  Tomorrow will see our own milestone as the earth moves into a position where the sun appears over the earth’s equator, and the sun sets at the south pole of the earth and rises at the north pole.  It will be the vernal or spring equinox.  Australians and other folks south of the equator may prefer to call it the March equinox, because for them autumn starts.  The exact time the sun will appear to cross the equator heading northward will be 7:02 tomorrow morning.  The sun will keep heading northward until June 21st.

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

Addendum

Comet PanSTARRS for this week’s weekdays at 9:15 p.m. Created using Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel.

The earth as seen from the sun near the vernal equinox. See the earth from north pole to south pole. Created using Celestia.