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02/26/2015 – Ephemeris – The strange month of February
Ephemeris for Thursday, February 26th. The sun will rise at 7:25. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 1 minute, setting at 6:26. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 3:21 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take a shot at why February is the shortest month. Blame the ancient Romans and their poor timekeeping skills. The Roman calendar was based on the Sun, or rather the seasons, what we would call the tropical year, rather than the Moon. With a lunar calendar it was easy to tell if it was off by a day or two. The Romans apparently started with a 12 month calendar starting in March with spring. Before the calendar reform of 45 BC months had alternating days of 29 and 31 except for February which had 28. That left them a bit short, so it appears that they added a month Intercalaris every few years or so to fix it. That eventually came down to adding a day to February every 4 years to fix the problem.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Look quick! A new comet escapes the Sun
A sun grazing comet was discovered in SOHO chronograph images. And unlike Comet ISON 15 months ago which checked in but didn’t check out. This one escaped to possibly become visible in our evening sky. It was the 2875th comet discovered on SOHO chronograph images. Usually it ends there, but the comet, now named C/2015 D1 (SOHO).
Hot off the press. Comet 2015 D1 was part of the download of comet elements this afternoon. Here’s the track with estimated magnitudes for tonight and the next week. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
A more comprehensive post from Universe Today is here.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 