Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Monday, March 24th.  The sun will rise at 7:38.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 7:59.   The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 4:09 tomorrow morning.

Tonight about 10:00 the constellation of Leo the lion can be seen half way up the sky in the east-southeast.  The head and mane of a male lion is seen as a backward question mark.  This pattern of stars is also called the sickle.  The bright star that is the dot at the bottom is Regulus, the “Little King Star”.  To the lower left is a triangle of stars that is the lion’s hind end with the star Denebola at the far end.  It is said that the reason the figure of a lion came to be seen in the stars here is because lions came from the desert, driven by the heat, to drink from the river Nile the time of the year that the sun was in this part of the sky.  Leo is one of the constellations of the Zodiac.  Leo can also be found by first locating the Big Dipper high in the northeast.  Imagine a hole drilled in the bowl of the dipper and the water will fall on Leo’s back.

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

Addendum

Leo and the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) using the angle measuring tool as an arrow. Date: March 24, 10 p.m. Created using Stellarium.