Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, August 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 22 minutes, setting at 8:59, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:37. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 12:32 tomorrow morning.

Scorpius the scorpion is now seen low in the southern sky in the at 10 pm. To me, the stars here make a very good scorpion. Scorpius was invented by the people of the Middle East, where scorpions are plentiful. The Anishinaabek native peoples of our area, however, saw here one of their legendary hero figures, Nenabozho. In the sky, the arc of four stars at the front of the scorpion and to the right of the bright star Antares is his bow. He is shooting an arrow toward the receding Great Panther or Curly Tail a constellation of spring whose curl of a tail is the head of the constellation Leo, now lost in the evening twilight in the west. Nenabozho was a hero in their creation stories, and a trickster who was sometimes seen as a rabbit.

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.