Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, May 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 9:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:01. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 2:55 tomorrow morning. This is the last program of Ephemeris’ 45th orbit of the Sun. Monday we start the 46th orbit. In case you’re confused, one orbit of the Sun equals one year. I consider the Earth a space station orbiting the Sun in roughly 365 and a quarter days. The orbital time is also marked by the seasons due to the Earth’s axial tilt, seeing the Sun from different directions, and also looking out in space at night to the procession of stars and constellations that slowly change throughout the year giving us the parade of the seasonal constellations. Now in the evening the winter stars have moved behind the Sun. The spring constellations are in the south in the evening, and some of the summer stars are rising in the eastern sky at the same time. The planets that orbit the Sun with us are the wild card: their complex gyrations baffled the ancients who thought the Earth to be stationary.

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

Addendum

I got extremely busy Thursday evening getting our astronomy club newsletter out that I forgot to post this item, which is why this post is a day late. Not much astro news in it anyway.  However at this moment the SpaceX dragonship Endeavour is on its way to the International Space Station.