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09/04/2017 – Ephemeris – Cassini has only 11 days to go.
Ephemeris for Labor Day, Monday, September 4th. The Sun will rise at 7:08. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 4 minutes, setting at 8:13. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:16 tomorrow morning.
In 11 days, the school bus sized Cassini spacecraft, which has orbited Saturn for the last 13 years will make it’s final plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere to burn up. Cassini’s controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory decided after finding the small moon Enceladus had an internal ocean that it was venting into space with interesting compounds, that it could possibly harbor life, so leaving Cassini derelict orbiting Saturn among the moons, was thought not to be a good idea, in case the unsterilized spacecraft were to crash into Enceladus. So since this spring Cassini was directed to make a series of orbits that took it inside the rings, and on the final orbit to plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere to burn up.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
An artist’s visualization of Cassini Flying between the planet and the rings. Credit NASA/JPL. Click on the image to enlarge.
09/01/2017 – Ephemeris – Far flung astronomers return to share their reports of the eclipse
Ephemeris for Friday, September 1st. The Sun will rise at 7:05. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 8:18. The Moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 3:16 tomorrow morning.
Tonight’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be a real treat. The far-flung members of the society on eclipse day nearly two weeks ago will bring back their treasures of experiences, pictures and videos from the path of totality from Oregon, Missouri and Tennessee. We’ll also have some wonderful images from the Society’s former president who had to leave the area to become an airline pilot. The meeting will be at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan’s Joseph H. Rogers Observatory, located south of Traverse City, on Birmley Road, accessible from either Garfield or Keystone Roads. After the meeting there will be a star party to view Saturn and the wonders of the summer Milky Way.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
A composite image of something like 70 exposures of the Sun’s corona taken by Scott Anttila, former president of the GTAS. This and others of his images will be displayed, along with the stories and photographs from other members.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 