Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, December 3rd.  The sun will rise at 8:01.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 1 minute, setting at 5:03.   The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 6:07 this evening.

At 9 p.m. the constellation of Orion the giant hunter will be rising in the east southeast, with its belt stars nearly vertically aligned.  The belt stars are contained within a tilted rectangle of four bright stars that’s leaning to the left.  The brightest of the top stars is Betelgeuse a bright red star about the hue of  the planet Mars.  It’s a huge red giant star.  Both top stars are Orion’s shoulders.  The other shoulder star is Bellatrix.  The bottom stars are Orion’s knees.  The brightest, diagonally opposite from Betelgeuse is Rigel, a bright blue-white giant star.  The other knee star is named Saiph.  Orion is home to a beautiful nebula or cloud of gas, which we’ll explore later this winter.  Jupiter is the bright stellar looking object to the left of Orion.

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

Addendum

Orion Rising and other winter constellations at 9 p.m. December 3, 2013. Created using Stellarium