Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Monday, October 1st. The Sun will rise at 7:40. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 7:23. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 11:55 this evening.

Let’s look at the skies for the month of October. The Sun will still be moving south rapidly. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 11 hours and 42 minutes today to 10 hours, 13 minutes at months end. The altitude of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 42 degrees today in the Interlochen area and will descend to 31 degrees on Halloween. Venus will pass the Sun, moving from the evening sky to the morning sky on the 26th. Venus has not been too noticeable in the evening for the last month, but in early November it will seem to suddenly appear in the morning sky. It can be mistaken as a UFO, especially with its tiny Cheshire Cat crescent smile in binoculars or a small telescope.

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

Addendum

October Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for October 2018 (10 p.m. EDT October 15, 2018). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EDT in the evening and 6 a.m. for the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

Note the chart times of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. are for the 15th. For each week before the 15th add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after the 15th subtract ½ hour. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.

October Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for October 2018 mornings based on 6 a.m. October 15th. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.

• Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus
• The Summer Triangle is in red.
• DracR on the evening star chart is the radiant for the Draconid meteor shwer which peaks on the 10th.
• OriR on the morning star chart is the radiant of the Orionid meteor shower which peaks on the 21st.

Twilight

Twilight calendar was generated using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

See my blog post: Twilight Zone for the definitions of the different periods of twilight here: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Oct 01  Mo          Venus: 32.9° E
    02  Tu  5:45 am Last Quarter
    02  Tu  9:03 am Moon North Dec.: 21° N
    03  We 11:10 pm Moon Ascending Node
    04  Th  5:51 am Moon-Beehive: 1.3° N
    05  Fr  5:58 pm Moon-Regulus: 1.9° S
    05  Fr  6:29 pm Moon Perigee: 366400 km
    08  Mo 11:47 pm New Moon
    10  We  8:10 pm Draconid Shower: ZHR = 10
    11  Th  5:21 pm Moon-Jupiter: 4.3° S
    14  Su 11:01 pm Moon-Saturn: 2° S
    15  Mo  1:26 pm Moon South Dec.: 21.2° S
    15  Mo 10:32 pm Mercury-Venus: 6.2° N
    16  Tu  2:02 pm First Quarter
    17  We  8:03 am Moon Descending Node
    17  We  3:16 pm Moon Apogee: 404200 km
    18  Th  9:01 am Moon-Mars: 2.2° S
    21  Su  1:03 pm Orionid Shower: ZHR = 20
    23  Tu  8:43 pm Uranus Opposition
    24  We 12:45 pm Full Moon
    26  Fr 10:13 am Venus Inferior Conjunction with the Sun
    27  Sa  9:04 am Moon-Aldebaran: 1.6° S
    29  Mo  1:28 am Mercury-Jupiter: 3.1° N
    29  Mo  1:34 am Moon North Dec.: 21.3° N
    30  Tu 10:46 pm Moon Ascending Node
    31  We 10:24 am Moon-Beehive: 1° N
    31  We 11:40 am Last Quarter
    31  We  3:05 pm Moon Perigee: 370200 km
Nov 01  Th          Venus: 10.6° W

Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html

If you go to the above site you can print out a list like the above for the entire year
or calendar pages for your time zone.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events