Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, July 3rd. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 9:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:02. The Moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 12:47 tomorrow morning.

There’s going to be a lot of fireworks tomorrow night to celebrate Independence Day, and I may be watching some after the local Beach Bums baseball game. There’s at least one star that is a great sparkler any summer evening. That’s Antares in Scorpius the scorpion low in the south tonight. We in Michigan always see Antares low in the south. It’s a bright red giant star which twinkles mightily, and since it’s low in the sky spits and sputters all kinds of colors due to our atmosphere’s turbulence, and the fact that we’re looking through so much of it at Antares. The more magnification one uses with binoculars or a telescope the greater the sparkler effect. It is even called in sometimes as a UFO.

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

Addendum

Antares finder chart for 11 p.m., July 3, 2018. Created using Stellarium.