Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Monday, April 8th.  The sun will rise at 7:10.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 8:18.   The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6:32 tomorrow morning.

Besides the advancing sunset times and warming temperatures, there’s another sign that spring is here.  That’s the appearance of the constellation Leo the lion high in the southeast in the evening.  The front of this beast is a backward question mark of stars with the bright star Regulus as the dot at the bottom.  That’s his head, mane and chest.  His haunches are a triangle of stars to the left, This year the planet Saturn is to the left of the Regulus.  A way to find Leo is to remember that cat’s aren’t supposed to like water.  Find the Big Dipper high in the northeast and imagine drilling a hole in the bottom of the bowl.  The water will fall on Leo’s back.  Also you’ll notice the stars of spring to the east are more sparse than those of winter to the west.

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

Addendum

Leo and Ursa Major (Big Dipper) for 10 pm on April 8, 2013. Created using Stellarium.