Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, March 22nd.  The sun will rise at 7:41.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 7:57.   The moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 5:24 tomorrow morning.

Comet PanSTARRS is moving northward and away from the sun.  It is slowly  being seen higher in the west northwest when first spotted.  The head of PanSTARRS’ brightness should be down to 3rd magnitude, as bright as the star in the Big Dipper that connects the handle to the bowl.  Comets, in ancient times, were thought to be omens of the death of kings, famines and the such.  Ancient astronomers and astrologers. were used to the motions of the planets, though they never really understood them, they could model the motions with varying degrees of accuracy.  Comets were the wild cards, disrupting the plan of the gods, and so were considered bad news.  Western astronomers from Aristotle up to Kepler thought they were atmospheric phenomena.

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

Addendum

Comet PanSTARRS about an hour and a quarter after sunset for March 22 through the 25th. Created using Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel.  Click on the image to enlarge.

Comets were thought to be bad news:

The comet of 1857

Comets as daggers or swords. Bad news? You bet.

Comet leaves destruction in its wake. A woodcut.