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Archive for October, 2020

10/02/2020 – Ephemeris – The rocket that will take NASA crews to the Moon

October 2, 2020 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Friday, October 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 37 minutes, setting at 7:20, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:43. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 8:05 this evening.

While we’re looking at the nearly full Moon tonight lets look at the rocket that will take crews to the Moon or as NASA says first woman and next man to the Moon in the Artemis program. It’s called the Space Launch System or SLS, which has been in development for a very long time. The core stage looks the color of the Space Shuttle main tank, because it uses the same insulation. At its bottom are four shuttle main engines. These will not be reused. Strapped to the sides will be two shuttle derived solid rocket boosters or SRBs, with 5 segments, rather than 4, and are upgraded for extra thrust. These will also be discarded, rather than reused. The second stage now is an interim stage to be replaced after a few flights with a more powerful stage. To top it off will be the service module and Orion capsule with an escape tower.

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

Addendum

Space Launch System Block 1b

The Block 1b version of the Space Launch System (SLS) which uses elongated Space Shuttle boosters and a core stage with 4 Space Shuttle main engines for the first stage. At lift-off the core stage and the boosters will ignite. The boosters will burn for two minutes and 6 seconds 7,2000,000 pounds  (32,000 kN) of thrust. The core stage contributes 1,670,000 pounds  (7,440 kN) of thrust and will burn for 8 minutes, nearly achieving orbit. The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage and later the Exploration Upper Stage will place the payload first into orbit, and then to send it to the Moon, or interplanetary destination. Credit NASA.

Note that the rocket configuration does not contain a lunar lander craft like the Saturn V of Apollo. The lander, a commercially developed craft will be sent up before the astronauts by a commercial company like SpaceX or Blue Origin and be waiting in lunar orbit or at the Lunar Gateway satellite.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, NASA Tags: , ,

10/01/2020 – Ephemeris – Previewing October Skies

October 1, 2020 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, October 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 40 minutes, setting at 7:22, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:42. The Moon, at full today, the Harvest Moon, will rise at 7:45 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 40 minutes today to 10 hours, 11 minutes at month’s end. The altitude of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 42 degrees today, and will descend to 31 degrees on Halloween, also in the Interlochen area. The Straits area will have the Sun a degree lower. Local noon, when the Sun is due south will be about 1:30 p.m. Sunrise times will increase from 7:41 today all the way to 8:20 a.m. in Interlochen and Traverse City on the 31st. Sunset times will decrease from 7:22 p.m. today to 6:32 on Halloween.

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

Addendum

October Evening Star Chart

October 2020 evening star chart

Star Chart for October 2020 (9 p.m. EDT October 15, 2020). Click on image to enlarge.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, West 75° longitude. (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.

October Morning Star Chart

October Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for October mornings 2020 (6 a.m. EDT October 15, 2020). Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

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.
  • Leaky dipper drips on Leo.
  • Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus.
  • The Summer Triangle is in red.
  • DracR – Draconid Radiant – Peak 7/8th – Zenithal Hourly Rate = 10+
  • OriR – Orionid Radiant – Peak 22nd – Zenithal Hourly Rate = 20

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

      EDT        
Traverse
City, MI
 Morning twilight Evening twilight Dark night Moon
Date Astro. Nautical Nautical Astro. Start End Illum.
2020-10-01 6h09m 6h43m 20h28m 21h02m – – 1
2020-10-02 6h10m 6h45m 20h26m 21h01m – – 1
2020-10-03 6h12m 6h46m 20h25m 20h59m – – 0.98
2020-10-04 6h13m 6h47m 20h23m 20h57m – – 0.95
2020-10-05 6h14m 6h48m 20h21m 20h55m 20h55m 21h15m 0.9
2020-10-06 6h15m 6h49m 20h19m 20h53m 20h53m 21h46m 0.83
2020-10-07 6h17m 6h51m 20h17m 20h51m 20h51m 22h23m 0.75
2020-10-08 6h18m 6h52m 20h15m 20h49m 20h49m 23h09m 0.66
2020-10-09 6h19m 6h53m 20h14m 20h48m 20h48m – 0.56
2020-10-10 6h21m 6h54m 20h12m 20h46m 20h46m 0h03m 0.45
2020-10-11 6h22m 6h56m 20h10m 20h44m 20h44m 1h06m 0.34
2020-10-12 6h23m 6h57m 20h09m 20h42m 20h42m 2h17m 0.24
2020-10-13 6h24m 6h58m 20h07m 20h41m 20h41m 3h32m 0.15
2020-10-14 6h25m 6h59m 20h05m 20h39m 20h39m 4h50m 0.07
2020-10-15 6h27m 7h00m 20h03m 20h37m 20h37m 6h10m 0.02
2020-10-16 6h28m 7h02m 20h02m 20h36m 20h36m 6h28m 0
2020-10-17 6h29m 7h03m 20h00m 20h34m 20h34m 6h29m 0.01
2020-10-18 6h30m 7h04m 19h59m 20h32m 20h32m 6h30m 0.06
2020-10-19 6h32m 7h05m 19h57m 20h31m 20h58m 6h32m 0.13
2020-10-20 6h33m 7h07m 19h55m 20h29m 21h45m 6h33m 0.22
2020-10-21 6h34m 7h08m 19h54m 20h28m 22h39m 6h34m 0.33
2020-10-22 6h35m 7h09m 19h52m 20h26m 23h41m 6h35m 0.44
2020-10-23 6h37m 7h10m 19h51m 20h25m – 6h37m 0.55
2020-10-24 6h38m 7h12m 19h49m 20h23m 0h46m 6h38m 0.65
2020-10-25 6h39m 7h13m 19h48m 20h22m 1h52m 6h39m 0.75
2020-10-26 6h40m 7h14m 19h47m 20h20m 2h58m 6h40m 0.83
2020-10-27 6h41m 7h15m 19h45m 20h19m 4h01m 6h41m 0.89
2020-10-28 6h43m 7h16m 19h44m 20h18m 5h04m 6h43m 0.95
2020-10-29 6h44m 7h18m 19h42m 20h16m 6h05m 6h44m 0.95
2020-10-30 6h45m 7h19m 19h41m 20h15m – – 0.98
2020-10-31 6h46m 7h20m 19h40m 20h14m – – 1

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 1  Th            Venus: 40.3° W
    1  Th  11:59 am  Mercury Greatest Elongation: 25.8° E
    1  Th  05:05 pm  Full Moon
    2  Fr  01:09 pm  Venus-Regulus: 0.1° S
    2  Fr  11:21 pm  Moon-Mars: 0.8° N
    3  Sa  01:22 pm  Moon Apogee: 406,300 km
    6  Tu  10:19 am  Mars nearest: 62,070,000 km
    6  Tu  09:25 pm  Draconid 1704 trail
    6  Tu  09:57 pm  Draconid 1711 trail
    7  We  08:29 pm  Moon Ascending Node
    8  Th  08:30 am  Draconid Meteor Shower: ZHR 10+
    9  Fr  09:07 am  Moon North Dec.: 24.6° N
    9  Fr  08:39 pm  Last Quarter
   11  Su  08:27 am  Moon-Beehive: 2.2° S
   13  Tu  07:10 pm  Mars Opposition
   13  Tu  07:57 pm  Moon-Venus: 4.4° S
   16  Fr  03:31 pm  New Moon
   16  Fr  07:46 pm  Moon Perigee: 356,900 km
   20  Tu  11:53 am  Moon Descending Node
   21  We  01:21 am  Orionid Meteor Shower: ZHR = 20
   21  We  10:00 pm  Moon South Dec.: 24.7° S
   22  Th  01:10 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 2.1° N
   22  Th  11:49 pm  Moon-Saturn: 2.7° N
   23  Fr  09:23 am  First Quarter
   25  Su  01:14 pm  Mercury Inferior Solar Conjunction
   29  Th  11:13 am  Moon-Mars: 3.3° N
   30  Fr  01:46 pm  Moon Apogee: 406,400 km
   31  Sa  09:49 am  Full Moon
   31  Sa  11:05 am  Uranus Opposition
Nov 1  Su            Venus: 34.2° W

All event times are given for UTC-4 hr: Eastern Daylight Saving Time.

Sky Events Calendar (with some tweaks) 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

LU                  Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
October, 2020    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Thu  1| 07:41a  07:22p  11:40 | 08:25p  06:38a |Full  Rise 07:45p  100%|
|Fri  2| 07:42a  07:20p  11:37 | 08:23p  06:39a |      Rise 08:05p   99%|
|Sat  3| 07:43a  07:18p  11:34 | 08:21p  06:40a |      Rise 08:26p   96%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  4| 07:45a  07:16p  11:31 | 08:19p  06:42a |      Rise 08:49p   91%|
|Mon  5| 07:46a  07:14p  11:28 | 08:17p  06:43a |      Rise 09:15p   85%|
|Tue  6| 07:47a  07:13p  11:25 | 08:16p  06:44a |      Rise 09:46p   78%|
|Wed  7| 07:48a  07:11p  11:22 | 08:14p  06:45a |      Rise 10:23p   70%|
|Thu  8| 07:50a  07:09p  11:19 | 08:12p  06:47a |      Rise 11:09p   60%|
|Fri  9| 07:51a  07:07p  11:16 | 08:10p  06:48a |L Qtr Rise 12:03a   50%|
|Sat 10| 07:52a  07:05p  11:13 | 08:08p  06:49a |      Rise 01:06a   40%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 11| 07:53a  07:04p  11:10 | 08:07p  06:50a |      Rise 02:17a   30%|
|Mon 12| 07:55a  07:02p  11:07 | 08:05p  06:51a |      Rise 03:32a   20%|
|Tue 13| 07:56a  07:00p  11:04 | 08:03p  06:53a |      Rise 04:50a   12%|
|Wed 14| 07:57a  06:58p  11:01 | 08:02p  06:54a |      Rise 06:10a    5%|
|Thu 15| 07:58a  06:57p  10:58 | 08:00p  06:55a |      Rise 07:30a    1%|
|Fri 16| 08:00a  06:55p  10:55 | 07:58p  06:56a |New   Set  07:16p    0%|
|Sat 17| 08:01a  06:53p  10:52 | 07:57p  06:58a |      Set  07:45p    2%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 18| 08:02a  06:52p  10:49 | 07:55p  06:59a |      Set  08:19p    7%|
|Mon 19| 08:04a  06:50p  10:46 | 07:54p  07:00a |      Set  08:58p   14%|
|Tue 20| 08:05a  06:48p  10:43 | 07:52p  07:01a |      Set  09:44p   24%|
|Wed 21| 08:06a  06:47p  10:40 | 07:50p  07:02a |      Set  10:39p   34%|
|Thu 22| 08:08a  06:45p  10:37 | 07:49p  07:04a |      Set  11:41p   44%|
|Fri 23| 08:09a  06:44p  10:34 | 07:47p  07:05a |F Qtr Set  12:46a   55%|
|Sat 24| 08:10a  06:42p  10:31 | 07:46p  07:06a |      Set  01:52a   65%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 25| 08:12a  06:40p  10:28 | 07:45p  07:07a |      Set  02:57a   74%|
|Mon 26| 08:13a  06:39p  10:26 | 07:43p  07:09a |      Set  04:01a   82%|
|Tue 27| 08:14a  06:37p  10:23 | 07:42p  07:10a |      Set  05:04a   88%|
|Wed 28| 08:16a  06:36p  10:20 | 07:40p  07:11a |      Set  06:05a   94%|
|Thu 29| 08:17a  06:34p  10:17 | 07:39p  07:12a |      Set  07:06a   98%|
|Fri 30| 08:18a  06:33p  10:14 | 07:38p  07:13a |      Set  08:08a  100%|
|Sat 31| 08:20a  06:32p  10:11 | 07:36p  07:15a |Full  Rise 06:53p  100%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Month preview Tags: