Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, August 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours to the minute, setting at 8:46, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:47. The Moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:15 this evening.

The Moon has left the evening sky, so let’s take another look at the constellation of Sagittarius. Its bright stars make a follow the dots image of a stout little teapot. In, around and above the teapot is a wealth of nebulae, which are clouds of gas and dust and clusters of stars. Stars are born in bunches from a cloud of gas. When enough stars are born, their stellar winds blow away the nebulosity leaving a star cluster. Use a pair of binoculars or a very low power telescope and just wander around and above the teapot, including and especially the spout on the right side. In binoculars, star clusters appear fuzzy like nebulae, however a small telescope with magnification of 20 times should resolve most of them.

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

Sagittarius in a short time exposure with added annotations. The “M” designations are objects in Charles Messier’s catalog created in the latter half of the 18th century. LSSC is the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud, SSSC is the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud. Labels are to the right of the objects they name. Credit Bob Moler.

This is the short radio program version of the August 8, 2022, Ephemeris Extra post Wandering through Sagittarius