Home > Ephemeris Program, Month preview, Observing > 06/30/2023 – Ephemeris – Previewing July’s skies

06/30/2023 – Ephemeris – Previewing July’s skies

June 30, 2023

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for International Asteroid Day, Friday, June 30th. 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, 3 days before full, will set at 3:45 tomorrow morning.

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 31 minutes tomorrow to 14 hours 42 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 it is due south, will decrease from 68 degrees now 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 next Thursday, the 6th. On that day, the Earth will reach 94.5 million miles (152.1 million kilometers) from the Sun.

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

July Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for July 2023 (11 p.m. EDT, July 15, 2023). Created using my LookingUp program. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 11 p.m. EDT in the evening and 4 a.m. for the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Interlochen/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 of 11 p.m. and 4 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, or 28 minutes. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog for weekly positions.

July Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for July mornings, 2023 (4 am EDT, July 15, 2023). Created using my LookingUp program. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it.

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 morning of the 28th)

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

      EDT        
  Morning Twilight Evening Twilight Dark Night Moon
Date Astro. Nautical Nautical Astro. Start End Illum.
2023-07-01 3h38m 4h41m 23h00m 0h03m – – 0.98
2023-07-02 3h39m 4h42m 23h00m 0h02m – – 1.00
2023-07-03 3h40m 4h43m 22h59m 0h01m – – 0.99
2023-07-04 3h42m 4h43m 22h59m 0h00m – – 0.96
2023-07-05 3h43m 4h44m 22h58m 0h00m – – 0.89
2023-07-06 3h44m 4h45m 22h58m 23h59m 23h59m – 0.81
2023-07-07 3h46m 4h46m 22h57m 23h57m 23h57m 0h16m 0.71
2023-07-08 3h47m 4h47m 22h56m 23h56m 23h56m 0h39m 0.60
2023-07-09 3h49m 4h48m 22h56m 23h55m 23h55m 0h59m 0.49
2023-07-10 3h50m 4h49m 22h55m 23h54m 23h54m 1h19m 0.38
2023-07-11 3h52m 4h50m 22h54m 23h53m 23h53m 1h40m 0.28
2023-07-12 3h53m 4h52m 22h53m 23h51m 23h51m 2h03m 0.19
2023-07-13 3h55m 4h53m 22h52m 23h50m 23h50m 2h30m 0.12
2023-07-14 3h57m 4h54m 22h51m 23h48m 23h48m 3h04m 0.06
2023-07-15 3h58m 4h55m 22h50m 23h47m 23h47m 3h46m 0.02
2023-07-16 4h00m 4h56m 22h49m 23h45m 23h45m 4h00m 0.00
2023-07-17 4h02m 4h58m 22h48m 23h44m 23h44m 4h02m 0.00
2023-07-18 4h04m 4h59m 22h47m 23h42m 23h42m 4h04m 0.02
2023-07-19 4h05m 5h00m 22h46m 23h40m 23h40m 4h05m 0.05
2023-07-20 4h07m 5h02m 22h44m 23h39m 23h39m 4h07m 0.10
2023-07-21 4h09m 5h03m 22h43m 23h37m 23h37m 4h09m 0.17
2023-07-22 4h11m 5h04m 22h42m 23h35m 23h51m 4h11m 0.25
2023-07-23 4h13m 5h06m 22h41m 23h33m – 4h13m 0.33
2023-07-24 4h15m 5h07m 22h39m 23h31m 0h07m 4h15m 0.43
2023-07-25 4h17m 5h08m 22h38m 23h30m 0h25m 4h17m 0.53
2023-07-26 4h19m 5h10m 22h36m 23h28m 0h44m 4h19m 0.63
2023-07-27 4h21m 5h11m 22h35m 23h26m 1h08m 4h21m 0.73
2023-07-28 4h23m 5h13m 22h33m 23h24m 1h39m 4h23m 0.83
2023-07-29 4h24m 5h14m 22h32m 23h22m 2h19m 4h24m 0.90
2023-07-30 4h26m 5h16m 22h30m 23h20m 3h14m 4h26m 0.96
2023-07-31 4h28m 5h17m 22h29m 23h18m 4h24m 4h28m 0.99

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  Sa            Venus: 41.7° E
     1  Sa  12:46 am  Mercury Superior Conj.
     1  Sa   2:48 am  Venus-Mars: 3.6° N Quasi-conjunction
     1  Sa   3:20 am  Moon-Antares: 1.5° S
     2  Su   9:23 pm  Moon South Dec.: 27.8° S
     3  Mo   7:39 am  Full Buck Moon
     4  Tu   6:28 pm  Moon Perigee: 360,200 km
     6  Th   4:59 am  Aphelion: 1.0167 AU
     6  Th  11:05 pm  Moon-Saturn: 2.7° N
     7  Fr            Venus greatest brilliancy, magnitude -4.7
     9  Su   9:48 pm  Last Quarter
    10  Mo   1:18 am  Mars-Regulus:  0.6° N
    10  Mo   9:23 pm  Moon Ascending Node
    11  Tu   5:18 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 2.3° S
    13  Th   2:31 am  Moon-Pleiades: 1.8° N
    14  Fr   6:33 pm  Mercury-Beehive:  0.2° N
    15  Sa  10:40 pm  Moon North Dec.: 27.8° N
    16  Su   3:49 am  Venus-Regulus: 3.3° S
    17  Mo   2:32 pm  New Moon
    20  Th   2:56 am  Moon Apogee: 406,300 km
    20  Th  12:00 am  Moon-Mars: 3.6° S
    25  Tu  11:05 am  Moon Descending Node
    25  Tu   6:07 pm  First Quarter
    27  Th   7:00 am  Mercury-Venus: 5.1° N
    28  Fr  11:35 am  Delta Aquariid Shower: ZHR = 20
    28  Fr   1:11 pm  Moon-Antares: 1.3° S
    28  Fr   2:21 pm  Mercury-Regulus:  0.1° S
    30  Su   7:13 am  Moon South Dec.: 27.9° S
Aug  1  Tu            Venus: 18.7° E

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. However it uses standard time all year.

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

     LU                  Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
June, 2023    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Thu  1| 06:00a  09:21p  15:20 | 10:44p  04:37a |      Set  04:43a   94%|
|Fri  2| 05:59a  09:22p  15:22 | 10:45p  04:36a |      Set  05:14a   98%|
|Sat  3| 05:59a  09:22p  15:23 | 10:46p  04:35a |Full  Rise 09:27p  100%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  4| 05:59a  09:23p  15:24 | 10:47p  04:35a |      Rise 10:42p   99%|
|Mon  5| 05:58a  09:24p  15:25 | 10:48p  04:34a |      Rise 11:47p   95%|
|Tue  6| 05:58a  09:25p  15:26 | 10:49p  04:33a |      Rise 12:39a   89%|
|Wed  7| 05:57a  09:25p  15:27 | 10:50p  04:33a |      Rise 01:18a   80%|
|Thu  8| 05:57a  09:26p  15:28 | 10:51p  04:32a |      Rise 01:48a   70%|
|Fri  9| 05:57a  09:27p  15:29 | 10:52p  04:32a |      Rise 02:13a   59%|
|Sat 10| 05:57a  09:27p  15:30 | 10:53p  04:31a |L Qtr Rise 02:34a   48%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 11| 05:56a  09:28p  15:31 | 10:53p  04:31a |      Rise 02:53a   37%|
|Mon 12| 05:56a  09:28p  15:31 | 10:54p  04:31a |      Rise 03:13a   27%|
|Tue 13| 05:56a  09:29p  15:32 | 10:55p  04:30a |      Rise 03:34a   18%|
|Wed 14| 05:56a  09:29p  15:33 | 10:55p  04:30a |      Rise 03:59a   10%|
|Thu 15| 05:56a  09:30p  15:33 | 10:56p  04:30a |      Rise 04:28a    5%|
|Fri 16| 05:56a  09:30p  15:33 | 10:56p  04:30a |      Rise 05:04a    2%|
|Sat 17| 05:56a  09:30p  15:34 | 10:57p  04:30a |      Rise 05:49a    0%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 18| 05:56a  09:31p  15:34 | 10:57p  04:30a |New   Set  10:36p    1%|
|Mon 19| 05:56a  09:31p  15:34 | 10:57p  04:30a |      Set  11:22p    3%|
|Tue 20| 05:56a  09:31p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:30a |      Set  11:58p    8%|
|Wed 21| 05:57a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:30a |      Set  12:27a   13%|
|Thu 22| 05:57a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:31a |      Set  12:51a   20%|
|Fri 23| 05:57a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:31a |      Set  01:11a   28%|
|Sat 24| 05:57a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:31a |      Set  01:29a   37%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 25| 05:58a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:32a |      Set  01:45a   47%|
|Mon 26| 05:58a  09:32p  15:33 | 10:58p  04:32a |F Qtr Set  02:02a   57%|
|Tue 27| 05:59a  09:32p  15:33 | 10:58p  04:33a |      Set  02:21a   66%|
|Wed 28| 05:59a  09:32p  15:32 | 10:58p  04:33a |      Set  02:43a   76%|
|Thu 29| 05:59a  09:32p  15:32 | 10:58p  04:34a |      Set  03:10a   84%|
|Fri 30| 06:00a  09:32p  15:31 | 10:57p  04:34a |      Set  03:45a   92%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset 

Created using my LookingUp for DOS output as text.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Month preview, Observing Tags: