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03/01/2022 – Ephemeris – Previewing March skies

March 1, 2022 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Fat Tuesday, March 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 6:30, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:18. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:44 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look at the skies for the month of March. The Sun will cross the celestial equator in March as the promising season of spring will begin. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will increase from 11 hours and 10 minutes today to 12 hours 43 minutes on the 31st. The altitude, or angle, of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be just under 38 degrees today and will ascend to nearly 50 degrees on the 31st. The altitude of the Sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower. Local apparent noon this month, when the Sun passes due south, will be about 12:51 p.m. and an hour later when Daylight Saving Time starts on the 13th. Spring will begin on the 20th at 11:33 am.

Addendum

March Evening Star Chart

March Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for March 2022 (10 pm EDT, March 15, 2022). Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp program.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 10 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 and 45 minutes behind our Daylight Saving Time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere (rotating star finder) you may have to set it to 45 minutes or 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than your current time.

Note the chart times of 10 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. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.

March Morning Star Chart

March Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for March mornings, 2022 (6 a.m. EDT March 15, 2022). Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

Only Venus of all the morning planets has yet to rise at chart time on the 15th.

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.
  • The leaky bowl of the Big Dipper drips on Leo.
  • Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, and
  • Extend it as a spike to Spica.
  • The Summer Triangle appears in red.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

EST/EDT
Morning Twilight Evening Twilight Dark Night Moon
Date Astro. Nautical Nautical Astro. Start End Illum.
2022-03-01 5h44m 6h18m 19h32m 20h06m 20h06m 5h44m 0
2022-03-02 5h42m 6h16m 19h33m 20h07m 20h07m 5h42m 0
2022-03-03 5h40m 6h14m 19h35m 20h09m 20h09m 5h40m 0.03
2022-03-04 5h39m 6h13m 19h36m 20h10m 20h57m 5h39m 0.07
2022-03-05 5h37m 6h11m 19h37m 20h11m 22h06m 5h37m 0.13
2022-03-06 5h35m 6h09m 19h39m 20h13m 23h13m 5h35m 0.21
2022-03-07 5h33m 6h07m 19h40m 20h14m – 5h33m 0.29
2022-03-08 5h31m 6h05m 19h41m 20h15m 0h20m 5h31m 0.38
2022-03-09 5h30m 6h04m 19h43m 20h17m 1h25m 5h30m 0.48
2022-03-10 5h28m 6h02m 19h44m 20h18m 2h28m 5h28m 0.57
2022-03-11 5h26m 6h00m 19h45m 20h19m 3h26m 5h26m 0.66
2022-03-12 5h24m 5h58m 19h46m 20h21m 4h18m 5h24m 0.75
2022-03-13 6h22m 6h56m 20h48m 21h22m 6h03m 6h22m 0.83
2022-03-14 6h20m 6h54m 20h49m 21h24m – – 0.9
2022-03-15 6h18m 6h53m 20h50m 21h25m – – 0.95
2022-03-16 6h16m 6h51m 20h52m 21h26m – – 0.99
2022-03-17 6h14m 6h49m 20h53m 21h28m – – 1
2022-03-18 6h12m 6h47m 20h54m 21h29m – – 0.99
2022-03-19 6h10m 6h45m 20h56m 21h31m 21h31m 21h42m 0.96
2022-03-20 6h12m 6h47m 21h01m 21h36m 21h36m 22h58m 0.9
2022-03-21 6h10m 6h45m 21h02m 21h37m 21h37m – 0.82
2022-03-22 6h08m 6h43m 21h04m 21h39m 21h39m 0h15m 0.73
2022-03-23 6h06m 6h41m 21h05m 21h40m 21h40m 1h34m 0.62
2022-03-24 6h04m 6h39m 21h06m 21h42m 21h42m 2h50m 0.5
2022-03-25 6h02m 6h37m 21h08m 21h43m 21h43m 3h59m 0.39
2022-03-26 6h00m 6h35m 21h09m 21h45m 21h45m 4h57m 0.28
2022-03-27 5h58m 6h33m 21h10m 21h46m 21h46m 5h43m 0.19
2022-03-28 5h55m 6h31m 21h12m 21h48m 21h48m 5h55m 0.11
2022-03-29 5h53m 6h29m 21h13m 21h49m 21h49m 5h53m 0.05
2022-03-30 5h51m 6h27m 21h15m 21h51m 21h51m 5h51m 0.01
2022-03-31 5h49m 6h25m 21h16m 21h52m 21h52m 5h49m 0

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/2019/09/27/

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

     Date    Time     Event
Mar  1  Tu            Venus: 45° W
     2  We  10:48 am  Mercury-Saturn: 0.7° N
     2  We  12:35 pm  New Moon
     5  Sa   7:51 am  Jupiter Solar Conjunction
     8  Tu   3:22 am  Moon Ascending Node
    10  Th   5:45 am  First Quarter
    10  Th   6:05 pm  Moon Apogee: 404,300 km
    11  Fr   7:14 pm  Moon Northernmost Declination: 26.7° N
    13  Su   1:58 am  Moon-Pollux: 2.6° N
    13  Su   6:08 am  Neptune Solar Conjunction
    14  Mo   3:55 am  Moon-Beehive: 3.7° S
    15  Tu  11:12 pm  Venus-Mars: 3.9° N
    18  Fr   3:17 am  Full Worm Moon
    20  Su   5:59 am  Venus Elongation: 46.6° West
    20  Su  11:33 am  Vernal Equinox
    22  Tu   4:12 am  Moon Descending Node
    23  We   7:28 pm  Moon Perigee: 369,800 km
    25  Fr   1:37 am  Last Quarter
    25  Fr   7:58 am  Moon Southernmost Declination: 26.8° S
    27  Su  10:54 pm  Moon-Mars: 4.2° N
    28  Mo   5:50 am  Moon-Venus: 6.9° N
    28  Mo   7:43 am  Moon-Saturn: 4.5° N
    28  Mo   8:53 pm  Venus-Saturn: 2.1° N
Apr  1  Fr            Venus: 46.1° W

All event times are given for UTC-5:00: Eastern Standard Time before the 14th or UTC-4:00 Daylight Saving Time thereafter.

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.

Note that the site is now kept up for archival purposes. Fred Espenak retired from NASA several years ago and has his own site, AstroPixels, which contain the same information: http://astropixels.com/almanac/almanac.html.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

LU             Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
March, 2022    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Tue  1| 07:20a  06:30p  11:10 | 07:33p  06:17a |      Rise 07:44a    1%|
|Wed  2| 07:18a  06:31p  11:13 | 07:35p  06:15a |New   Set  06:32p    0%|
|Thu  3| 07:16a  06:33p  11:16 | 07:36p  06:13a |      Set  07:46p    2%|
|Fri  4| 07:15a  06:34p  11:19 | 07:37p  06:12a |      Set  08:56p    6%|
|Sat  5| 07:13a  06:35p  11:22 | 07:39p  06:10a |      Set  10:05p   12%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  6| 07:11a  06:37p  11:25 | 07:40p  06:08a |      Set  11:13p   19%|
|Mon  7| 07:09a  06:38p  11:28 | 07:41p  06:06a |      Set  12:19a   27%|
|Tue  8| 07:07a  06:39p  11:32 | 07:42p  06:04a |      Set  01:25a   36%|
|Wed  9| 07:06a  06:41p  11:35 | 07:44p  06:03a |      Set  02:28a   46%|
|Thu 10| 07:04a  06:42p  11:38 | 07:45p  06:01a |F Qtr Set  03:26a   55%|
|Fri 11| 07:02a  06:43p  11:41 | 07:46p  05:59a |      Set  04:18a   64%|
|Sat 12| 07:00a  06:45p  11:44 | 07:48p  05:57a |      Set  05:02a   73%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
| EDT  |      Time Change      |                |                       |
|Sun 13| 07:58a  07:46p  11:47 | 08:49p  06:55a |      Set  06:39a   81%|
|Mon 14| 07:56a  07:47p  11:50 | 08:50p  06:53a |      Set  07:10a   88%|
|Tue 15| 07:55a  07:49p  11:53 | 08:52p  06:52a |      Set  07:36a   94%|
|Wed 16| 07:53a  07:50p  11:57 | 08:53p  06:50a |      Set  07:59a   98%|
|Thu 17| 07:51a  07:51p  12:00 | 08:54p  06:48a |      Set  08:20a  100%|
|Fri 18| 07:49a  07:52p  12:03 | 08:56p  06:46a |Full  Rise 08:28p   99%|
|Sat 19| 07:47a  07:54p  12:06 | 08:57p  06:44a |      Rise 09:42p   96%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 20| 07:45a  07:55p  12:09 | 08:58p  06:42a |      Rise 10:57p   91%|
|Mon 21| 07:43a  07:56p  12:12 | 09:00p  06:40a |      Rise 12:15a   84%|
|Tue 22| 07:42a  07:57p  12:15 | 09:01p  06:38a |      Rise 01:34a   75%|
|Wed 23| 07:40a  07:59p  12:18 | 09:02p  06:36a |      Rise 02:50a   64%|
|Thu 24| 07:38a  08:00p  12:22 | 09:04p  06:34a |      Rise 03:59a   53%|
|Fri 25| 07:36a  08:01p  12:25 | 09:05p  06:32a |L Qtr Rise 04:56a   41%|
|Sat 26| 07:34a  08:02p  12:28 | 09:06p  06:30a |      Rise 05:42a   30%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 27| 07:32a  08:04p  12:31 | 09:08p  06:28a |      Rise 06:18a   21%|
|Mon 28| 07:30a  08:05p  12:34 | 09:09p  06:26a |      Rise 06:47a   12%|
|Tue 29| 07:29a  08:06p  12:37 | 09:11p  06:24a |      Rise 07:10a    6%|
|Wed 30| 07:27a  08:07p  12:40 | 09:12p  06:22a |      Rise 07:31a    2%|
|Thu 31| 07:25a  08:09p  12:43 | 09:13p  06:20a |      Rise 07:51a    0%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Created using my LookingUp for DOS output as text.

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