Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, March 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 8:06, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:27. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 5:03 tomorrow morning.

The most interesting star in the Big Dipper is Mizar and its dim companion Alcor. It is the second star from the end of the handle, where the bend in the handle takes place. Folks with good vision can see the dimmer star right next to Mizar. In ancient times it was used as an eye test for visual acuity for warriors. As such it was known as the “Horse and the Rider”. Mizar is second magnitude, in the second rank of star brightness invented by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the 2nd century BC. He ranked stars in 6 classes, from first magnitude for the brightest to 6th for the dimmest visible to the naked eye. Alcor comes in at 4th magnitude. It does suffer a bit by being very close to Mizar which is 6 times brighter.

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