Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, December 28th. The Sun will rise at 8:19. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:09. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 12:30 tomorrow morning.

Lets look at some astronomical and space events for 2019. Right off the bat on January 1st the New Horizons space craft will encounter the Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 nick named Ultima Thule. I’ll have more on that Monday. January 20th overnight will see a total lunar eclipse lasting from 10:34 p.m. to 1:51 a.m. November 11th will see the planet Mercury cross the face of the Sun, a transit of Mercury from a couple of minutes after sunrise until 1:04 p.m. Among the space launches next year are several SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches, and the first launch of a uncrewed Dragon 2 capsule to fly up to the International Space Station. Boeing’s first Starliner uncrewed capsule test will occur in 2020.

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

Addenda

New Horizons encounter of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule)

Due to the fact that NASA is affected by the partial shutdown we will probably not get much immediate information from them.  However the New Horizons spacecraft is being run by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHAPL) and not NASA and it is a critical mission, it will not be affected.  All news will flow from JHAPL, rather than NASA.  NASA-TV appears to be operating, but on autopilot.

From JHAPL, Where to watch, timeline and links:  http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Where-to-Watch.php.

The Planetary Society has lots of information and links to follow the encounter:  http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/new-horizons-approaching-mu69-ultima-thule.html.

There is also a Planetary Society page of the time line of events for the spacecraft and the reception of data on the Earth :  http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/what-to-expect-new-horizons-mu69-ultima-thule.html.

I’ll have much more Monday, less than 24 hours before the fly by.

Lunar Eclipse January 20-21, 2019

The Moon’s passage through the Earth’s shadow January 20-21, 2019. P1 and P4 events are invisible. Credit Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC.

UT times are for January 21st. EST times are te nearest minute.

Transit of Mercury November 11, 2019

Mercury will travel from lower left to upper right across the face of the Sun. Credit Occult4.

The transit will run from about 7:34 a.m. EST
(2:34 UT) to 1:04 p.m. (8:04 UT).