Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, February 28th.  The sun will rise at 7:21.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 7 minutes, setting at 6:29.   The moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:11 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look at the skies for the month of March. The sun will pass the celestial equator in March as the promising season of spring will begin.  Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will increase from  11 hours and 10 minutes tomorrow to 12 hours 43 minutes on the 31st.  The altitude, or angle, of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be just under 38 degrees tomorrow and will ascend to nearly 50 degrees on the 31st.  The altitude of the sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower.  Local apparent noon this month, when the sun passes due south, will be about 12:49 p.m.  Spring will begin on the 20th at 11:57 a.m.  Eastern Daylight Time (15:57 UT), which now rules most of the year and will start a week from Sunday.

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

Addendum

Star Chart for mid-month for March 2014 at 10 p.m.  Credit: Bob Moler.

Add a half hour to every week before the 15th and subtract and hour for every week after the 15th.

For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.