Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for International Asteroid Day, Thursday, June 30th. On this day in 1908, 114 years ago, a small asteroid exploded over the Tunguska region of Siberia. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:01. The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 11:11 this evening.

Let’s preview July’s skies. The Sun, having reached its northern solstice, is beginning to slide southward again, at first imperceptibly, then with greater speed. The daylight hours will decrease from 15 hours and 30 minutes tomorrow to 14 hours 41 minutes at month’s end. The daylight hours will be slightly shorter south of Interlochen, and slightly longer to the north. The altitude of the Sun at local noon, when the Sun is due south, will decrease from 68 degrees today to 63 degrees at month’s end. The Sun will be a degree lower in the Straits area. Despite the warmth, the Earth will reach its greatest distance from the Sun this Sunday the 3rd.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Star Chart for July 2022 (11 p.m. EDT, July 15, 2022). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 11 p.m. EDT in the evening and 4:30 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.

Note the chart times 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. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th.

July Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for July mornings, 2022 (4:30 a.m. EDT July 15, 2022). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

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, and
• Extend like a spike to Spica.
• The Summer Triangle is in red.
• DAqR is the radiant of the South Delta Aquariid meteor shower (Peaks on the 27th)

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

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

Jul  1  Fr            Venus: 29.6° W
     1  Fr   9:21 am  Moon-Beehive: 3.9° S
     3  Su  10:59 pm  Earth at Aphelion: 1.0167 AU
     6  We  10:14 pm  First Quarter
     9  Sa   1:28 pm  Moon Descending Node
    10  Su   7:50 pm  Moon-Antares: 3° S
    12	Tu  10:30 am  NASA will release 1st full color images from the 
                      Webb Space Telescope
    12  Tu   5:16 pm  Moon South Dec.: 26.9° S
    13  We   5:08 am  Moon Perigee: 357,300 km
    13  We   2:37 pm  Full Buck Moon
    15  Fr   4:16 pm  Moon-Saturn: 4° N
    16  Sa   3:30 pm  Mercury Superior Conj.
    18  Mo   8:55 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 2.3° N
    20  We  10:18 am  Last Quarter
    21  Th  12:46 pm  Moon-Mars: 1.1° S
    22  Fr   5:21 am  Moon Ascending Node
    22  Fr  11:29 pm  Moon-Pleiades: 3.7° N
    26  Tu   5:19 am  Moon North Dec.: 26.9° N
    26  Tu   6:22 am  Moon Apogee: 406,300 km
    26  Tu  10:12 am  Moon-Venus: 4.6° S
    28  Th   5:26 am  Delta Aquariid Shower: ZHR = 20
    28  Th   1:55 pm  New Moon
Aug  1  Mo            Venus: 21.7° W

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

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.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

LU                  Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
July, 2022    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Fri  1| 06:01a  09:32p  15:30 | 10:57p  04:35a |      Set  11:44p    8%|
|Sat  2| 06:01a  09:31p  15:30 | 10:56p  04:36a |      Set  12:10a   13%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  3| 06:02a  09:31p  15:29 | 10:56p  04:37a |      Set  12:33a   21%|
|Mon  4| 06:02a  09:31p  15:28 | 10:56p  04:38a |      Set  12:53a   29%|
|Tue  5| 06:03a  09:30p  15:27 | 10:55p  04:38a |      Set  01:12a   39%|
|Wed  6| 06:04a  09:30p  15:26 | 10:54p  04:39a |F Qtr Set  01:32a   49%|
|Thu  7| 06:04a  09:30p  15:25 | 10:54p  04:40a |      Set  01:53a   60%|
|Fri  8| 06:05a  09:29p  15:24 | 10:53p  04:41a |      Set  02:17a   70%|
|Sat  9| 06:06a  09:29p  15:22 | 10:52p  04:42a |      Set  02:47a   80%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 10| 06:07a  09:28p  15:21 | 10:51p  04:43a |      Set  03:27a   89%|
|Mon 11| 06:08a  09:28p  15:20 | 10:51p  04:44a |      Set  04:19a   95%|
|Tue 12| 06:08a  09:27p  15:18 | 10:50p  04:46a |      Set  05:26a   99%|
|Wed 13| 06:09a  09:26p  15:17 | 10:49p  04:47a |Full  Rise 10:05p  100%|
|Thu 14| 06:10a  09:26p  15:15 | 10:48p  04:48a |      Rise 10:49p   98%|
|Fri 15| 06:11a  09:25p  15:14 | 10:47p  04:49a |      Rise 11:23p   92%|
|Sat 16| 06:12a  09:24p  15:12 | 10:46p  04:50a |      Rise 11:50p   85%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 17| 06:13a  09:24p  15:10 | 10:44p  04:52a |      Rise 12:12a   76%|
|Mon 18| 06:14a  09:23p  15:08 | 10:43p  04:53a |      Rise 12:33a   66%|
|Tue 19| 06:15a  09:22p  15:07 | 10:42p  04:54a |      Rise 12:52a   56%|
|Wed 20| 06:16a  09:21p  15:05 | 10:41p  04:56a |L Qtr Rise 01:13a   46%|
|Thu 21| 06:17a  09:20p  15:03 | 10:40p  04:57a |      Rise 01:35a   36%|
|Fri 22| 06:18a  09:19p  15:01 | 10:38p  04:58a |      Rise 02:01a   27%|
|Sat 23| 06:19a  09:18p  14:59 | 10:37p  05:00a |      Rise 02:32a   19%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 24| 06:20a  09:17p  14:57 | 10:35p  05:01a |      Rise 03:11a   12%|
|Mon 25| 06:21a  09:16p  14:55 | 10:34p  05:03a |      Rise 03:57a    7%|
|Tue 26| 06:22a  09:15p  14:53 | 10:33p  05:04a |      Rise 04:51a    3%|
|Wed 27| 06:23a  09:14p  14:50 | 10:31p  05:05a |      Rise 05:52a    1%|
|Thu 28| 06:24a  09:13p  14:48 | 10:30p  05:07a |New   Set  09:46p    0%|
|Fri 29| 06:25a  09:12p  14:46 | 10:28p  05:08a |      Set  10:14p    2%|
|Sat 30| 06:26a  09:10p  14:44 | 10:27p  05:10a |      Set  10:38p    5%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 31| 06:27a  09:09p  14:41 | 10:25p  05:11a |      Set  10:59p   10%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Created using my LookingUp for DOS output as text.