Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Thursday, December 26th.  The sun will rise at 8:18.  It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:08.   The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 2:40 tomorrow morning.

At 9 in the evening the great constellation of Orion the hunter can be seen in the southeast.  Its large rectangle of bright stars is tilting to the left, while in the center is a row of three stars, his belt.  These stars tilt downward and a bit to the left to a very bright star merrily twinkling above the horizon in the southeast.  This star is called Sirius, also known as the Dog Star because it’s in the heart of Orion larger hunting dog, Canis Major.  It is an arc light white star as seen in binoculars or telescope.   It’s a neighboring star, just twice the distance of the closest star to the sun at 8.6 light years.  It’s name, Sirius, has nothing to do with a dog, but is from the Greek meaning scorching for its brightness or sparkling, due to its intense twinkling.

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

Addendum

How to find Sirius from Orion. 9 p.m., December 26, 2013. Created using Stellarium.