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12/04/2017 – Ephemeris – Orion rising in the moonlight
Ephemeris for Monday, December 4th. The Sun will rise at 8:02. It’ll be up for exactly 9 hours, setting at 5:02. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 6:32 this evening.
Now that the Moon is quite bright and making the fainter stars in the constellations harder to find, let’s look at one of the bright stars of Winter. Tonight at 8 p.m. the bright reddish star Betelgeuse is low in the east, but will be rising higher and moving slightly southward, as the rest of the bright stars in its constellation of Orion the hunter also clear the horizon. To its right are a nearly vertical line of three equally spaced stars, Orion’s belt. Betelgeuse is in Orion’s shoulder. The name Betelgeuse is a corruption of the Arabic phrase “Armpit of the Central One”, although there’s some debate about that translation. Betelgeuse is maybe only 7 million years old, but due to its great mass of up to 20 times that of the Sun, is already dying.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Orion rising in the light of a super moo at 8 p.m.,, about 3 hours after sunset, December 4, 2017. Created using Stellarium.
12/01/2017 – Ephemeris – A look at how the ancients saw their world at the Rogers Observatory tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, December 1st. The Sun will rise at 7:59. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 4 minutes, setting at 5:03. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:22 tomorrow morning.
This evening’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society starting at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory will be yours truly’s biennial December program on mostly Ancient Cosmologies, a look at the cosmologies or world view of many mostly pre-scientific cultures, including the Biblical world view. We’ll see how these ideas are alike and different for cultures spread across distance and time. I’ll finish with a modern unscientific and throwback cosmology of the believers in a flat Earth. At 9 p.m. there will be a star party at the observatory, and another program if it’s cloudy. All are welcome. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 