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04/03/2015 – Ephemeris – Learn about meteorites tonight
Ephemeris for Good Friday, Friday, April 3rd. The Sun will rise at 7:20. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 8:12. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:24 tomorrow morning.
Meteorites will be the topic given by Joe Brooks local meteorite expert and collector at this evening’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. He even has a meteorite that’s pretty much been proven to be from the asteroid Vesta. Today we are all too aware that stones and even bigger asteroids can collide with the earth. Everyone is welcome. Also at 9 p.m. there will be a star party at the observatory. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads. Remember also the partial lunar eclipse tomorrow morning starting at 6:15 a.m. The society and the observatory will not hold an event for it.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
If you missed yesterday’s post about tomorrow morning’s lunar eclipse, click here.
04/02/2015 – Ephemeris – Information on Saturday morning’s lunar eclipse
Ephemeris for Thursday, April 2nd. The Sun will rise at 7:22. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 8:11. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:56 tomorrow morning.
Saturday morning we will be able to witness the start of a lunar eclipse. This is the third of four consecutive total lunar eclipses visible from parts of North America. The last and best of them will occur on the evening of September 27th. The totality of Saturday’s eclipse will only last under 5 minutes, but even that will not be visible from here. The partial phase will begin at 6:15 a.m. with the Moon low in the west-southwest. The Moon will progress about half way into the Earth’s shadow by the time it sets at 7:24 a.m. This will be shortly after the 7:17 a.m. sunrise. It is possible to see the eclipse in its entirety via the Internet. Search for Griffith Observatory. The will have a live feed of the eclipse if it’s clear in Los Angeles.
Update: The URL for the LiveStream from Griffith Observatory is http://new.livestream.com/GriffithObservatoryTV/LunarEclipseApril2015
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum:
This is an annotated clip of the NASA Eclipse diagram. Click on it to show the entire pdf file.
In the interval P1 to U1 and U4 to P4 the Moon will be only in the Earth’s penumbra, where the Sun’s light is only partially blocked. However for about a half hour before U1 and after U4 the Moon’s edge closest to the umbra will appear dusky.
04/01/2015 – Ephemeris – No fooling, it’s time to look at the bright planets for this week
Ephemeris for April Fools Day, Wednesday, April 1st. The Sun will rise at 7:24. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 45 minutes, setting at 8:10. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 6:29 tomorrow morning.
Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week. Brilliant Venus is in the west by 8:40 p.m. It will set at 11:23 p.m. Mars appears much lower and to the right of it. The Red Planet will set tonight at 9:48. Jupiter will appear In the southeastern sky in the evening. It will set at 5:20 a.m. It’s near the sickle-shaped head of Leo the lion, and it’s the second brightest star-like object in the sky after Venus. All four moons will be visible in telescopes tonight, but tomorrow morning the moon Io will duck behind Jupiter at 2:55, but will not pop into sunlight until after Jupiter sets. Early risers will be able to spot Saturn which will rise in the east-southeast at 12:30 a.m. It will be low in the south at 5 to 6 a.m.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Moon, evening planets and bright constellations at 9:30 p.m. April 1, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter as seen in a telescope at 9:30 p.m. April 1, 2014. Europa will partially occult Io starting at 9:41 p.m. for 4 minutes. They will appear to merge. Later at 11:21 p.m. Io will be partially eclipsed in Europa’s shadow for about 4 minutes. Europa will dim slightly. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
The Moon at 9:30 p.m. April 1, 2015. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
Saturn, the Moon with Scorpius and Leo at 5:30 a.m. April 2, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
What Saturn and its moons might appear like in a telescope at 5:30 a.m., April 2, 2015. Small telescopes will show only the moon Titan. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 