Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, March 6th.  The Sun will rise at 7:12.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 6:36.   The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 7:47 this evening.

This evening yours truly will be giving a program at the monthly meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory.  It’s entitled Asteroids and Dwarf Planets and Comets, oh my!  It’s about the three solar system bodies being visited this year by spacecraft from NASA and the European Space Agency.  The asteroid is Ceres, which the Dawn spacecraft entered orbit of today.  The dwarf planet is Pluto which is the target of a summer flyby by the New Horizon spacecraft.  The comet is 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko orbited by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft.  There will be a star party at 9 p.m. following the meeting.

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

Addendum

Apologies to MGM.

Looking back at Vesta as Dawn headed off to Ceres. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDA

The bright spot is two. Picture taken February 19, 2015 from 29,000 miles (46,700 km). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

Artist conception of the New Horizons spacecraft at Pluto. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

An animation of Comet 67p/Churyumov–Gerasimenko rotation on July 14, 2014. The 30 pixel wide image has been smoothed. The Rotation rate is 1 rotation every 12.4 hours. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA