Home > Ephemeris Program, Month preview, Observing > Ephemeris: 09/29/2023 – Previewing October skies

Ephemeris: 09/29/2023 – Previewing October skies

September 29, 2023

This is Ephemeris for Friday, September 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 7:27, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:39. The Moon today, the full harvest supermoon, will rise at 7:45 this evening.

Let’s look at the skies for the month of October The sun will still be moving south rapidly. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area will drop from 11 hours and 43 minutes Sunday to 10 hours 13 minutes on the 31st. The altitude of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 42 degrees Sunday, and will descend to 31 degrees on Halloween, also in the Interlochen area. The Straits area will have the Sun a degree lower. Local noon, when the Sun is due south will be about 1:30 p.m. in Interlochen. There will be, for us in Michigan, a partial solar eclipse around midday on Saturday the 14th.

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

October Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for October 2023. Click or tap 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, 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.

October Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for October 2023. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp program.

or 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.
  • The Summer Triangle is in red.
  • DracR – Draconid Radiant – Peaks the 8th – Zenithal Hourly Rate < 10 with rare outbursts of a thousand an hour. It’s hindered this year by the full moon.
  • OriR – Orionid Radiant – Peak 21st – Zenithal Hourly Rate = 20

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

      EDT        
  Morning Twilight Evening Twilight Dark Night Moon
Date Astro. Nautical Nautical Astro. Start End Illum.
2023-10-01 6h08m 6h43m 20h30m 21h04m – – 0.90
2023-10-02 6h10m 6h44m 20h28m 21h02m – – 0.82
2023-10-03 6h11m 6h45m 20h26m 21h00m 21h00m 21h35m 0.73
2023-10-04 6h12m 6h46m 20h24m 20h58m 20h58m 22h19m 0.63
2023-10-05 6h14m 6h48m 20h22m 20h57m 20h57m 23h11m 0.54
2023-10-06 6h15m 6h49m 20h21m 20h55m 20h55m – 0.44
2023-10-07 6h16m 6h50m 20h19m 20h53m 20h53m 0h11m 0.34
2023-10-08 6h17m 6h51m 20h17m 20h51m 20h51m 1h15m 0.26
2023-10-09 6h19m 6h53m 20h15m 20h49m 20h49m 2h21m 0.18
2023-10-10 6h20m 6h54m 20h14m 20h47m 20h47m 3h27m 0.11
2023-10-11 6h21m 6h55m 20h12m 20h46m 20h46m 4h32m 0.06
2023-10-12 6h22m 6h56m 20h10m 20h44m 20h44m 5h36m 0.02
2023-10-13 6h24m 6h57m 20h08m 20h42m 20h42m 6h24m 0.00
2023-10-14 6h25m 6h59m 20h07m 20h40m 20h40m 6h25m 0.00
2023-10-15 6h26m 7h00m 20h05m 20h39m 20h39m 6h26m 0.02
2023-10-16 6h27m 7h01m 20h03m 20h37m 20h37m 6h27m 0.06
2023-10-17 6h29m 7h02m 20h02m 20h35m 20h35m 6h29m 0.12
2023-10-18 6h30m 7h04m 20h00m 20h34m 20h50m 6h30m 0.20
2023-10-19 6h31m 7h05m 19h58m 20h32m 21h40m 6h31m 0.29
2023-10-20 6h32m 7h06m 19h57m 20h31m 22h42m 6h32m 0.40
2023-10-21 6h34m 7h07m 19h55m 20h29m 23h56m 6h34m 0.51
2023-10-22 6h35m 7h08m 19h54m 20h28m – 6h35m 0.62
2023-10-23 6h36m 7h10m 19h52m 20h26m 1h15m 6h36m 0.73
2023-10-24 6h37m 7h11m 19h51m 20h25m 2h37m 6h37m 0.83
2023-10-25 6h38m 7h12m 19h49m 20h23m 3h57m 6h38m 0.91
2023-10-26 6h40m 7h13m 19h48m 20h22m 5h17m 6h40m 0.96
2023-10-27 6h41m 7h15m 19h47m 20h20m 6h36m 6h41m 0.99
2023-10-28 6h42m 7h16m 19h45m 20h19m – – 1.00
2023-10-29 6h43m 7h17m 19h44m 20h18m – – 0.98
2023-10-30 6h44m 7h18m 19h42m 20h16m – – 0.93
2023-10-31 6h46m 7h19m 19h41m 20h15m – – 0.87

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

NASA - SKYCAL - Sky Events Calendar  2023
Date          Time    Event
Oct  1  Su            Venus: 44.2° W
     1  Su  11:16 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 3.5° S
     3  Tu  12:25 am  Moon-Pleiades: 1.1° N
     5  Th   4:31 pm  Moon North Dec.: 28.3° N
     6  Fr   9:48 am  Last Quarter
     7  Sa   6:23 am  Moon-Pollux: 1.6° N
     9  Mo   2:10 am  Venus-Regulus: 2.3° S
     9  Mo  11:41 pm  Moon Apogee: 405,400 km
    14  Sa   1:55 pm  New Moon
    14  Sa   2:00 pm  Annular Solar Eclipse
                      11:42 am - 2:18 pm in the Grand Traverse area
    14  Sa   9:11 pm  Moon Descending Node
    18  We   9:17 am  Moon-Antares:  0.9° S
    20  Fr   1:08 am  Mercury Superior Conj.
    20  Fr   5:19 am  Moon South Dec.: 28.3° S
    21  Sa   7:48 pm  Orionid Meteor Shower: ZHR = 20
    21  Sa  11:29 pm  First Quarter
    23  Mo   5:59 pm  Venus Greatest Western Elongation: 46.4° W
    24  Tu   3:52 am  Moon-Saturn: 2.8° N
    25  We  10:53 pm  Moon Perigee: 364,900 km
    27  Fr  11:14 pm  Moon Ascending Node
    28  Sa   4:14 pm  Partial Lunar Eclipse
                      Visible: e Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia
    28  Sa   4:24 pm  Full Hunter's Moon
    29  Su   4:10 am  Moon-Jupiter: 3.2° S
    30  Mo   9:30 am  Moon-Pleiades: 1.1° N
Nov  1  We            Venus: 46.2° 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
October, 2023    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Sun  1| 07:40a  07:23p  11:43 | 08:26p  06:37a |      Rise 08:31p   91%|
|Mon  2| 07:41a  07:21p  11:40 | 08:24p  06:38a |      Rise 09:00p   84%|
|Tue  3| 07:42a  07:19p  11:36 | 08:22p  06:39a |      Rise 09:35p   75%|
|Wed  4| 07:44a  07:18p  11:33 | 08:20p  06:41a |      Rise 10:18p   65%|
|Thu  5| 07:45a  07:16p  11:30 | 08:19p  06:42a |      Rise 11:11p   56%|
|Fri  6| 07:46a  07:14p  11:27 | 08:17p  06:43a |L Qtr Rise 12:10a   46%|
|Sat  7| 07:47a  07:12p  11:24 | 08:15p  06:44a |      Rise 01:15a   36%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  8| 07:49a  07:10p  11:21 | 08:13p  06:46a |      Rise 02:21a   28%|
|Mon  9| 07:50a  07:09p  11:18 | 08:11p  06:47a |      Rise 03:26a   20%|
|Tue 10| 07:51a  07:07p  11:15 | 08:10p  06:48a |      Rise 04:31a   13%|
|Wed 11| 07:52a  07:05p  11:12 | 08:08p  06:49a |      Rise 05:35a    7%|
|Thu 12| 07:54a  07:03p  11:09 | 08:06p  06:51a |      Rise 06:39a    3%|
|Fri 13| 07:55a  07:01p  11:06 | 08:05p  06:52a |      Rise 07:45a    1%|
|Sat 14| 07:56a  07:00p  11:03 | 08:03p  06:53a |New   Set  07:00p    0%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 15| 07:58a  06:58p  11:00 | 08:01p  06:54a |      Set  07:20p    2%|
|Mon 16| 07:59a  06:56p  10:57 | 08:00p  06:55a |      Set  07:43p    5%|
|Tue 17| 08:00a  06:55p  10:54 | 07:58p  06:57a |      Set  08:12p   11%|
|Wed 18| 08:01a  06:53p  10:51 | 07:56p  06:58a |      Set  08:50p   18%|
|Thu 19| 08:03a  06:51p  10:48 | 07:55p  06:59a |      Set  09:39p   27%|
|Fri 20| 08:04a  06:50p  10:45 | 07:53p  07:00a |      Set  10:42p   37%|
|Sat 21| 08:05a  06:48p  10:42 | 07:52p  07:02a |F Qtr Set  11:55p   48%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 22| 08:07a  06:46p  10:39 | 07:50p  07:03a |      Set  01:15a   60%|
|Mon 23| 08:08a  06:45p  10:36 | 07:49p  07:04a |      Set  02:36a   71%|
|Tue 24| 08:09a  06:43p  10:33 | 07:47p  07:05a |      Set  03:57a   81%|
|Wed 25| 08:11a  06:42p  10:30 | 07:46p  07:06a |      Set  05:16a   89%|
|Thu 26| 08:12a  06:40p  10:28 | 07:44p  07:08a |      Set  06:36a   95%|
|Fri 27| 08:13a  06:38p  10:25 | 07:43p  07:09a |      Set  07:55a   99%|
|Sat 28| 08:15a  06:37p  10:22 | 07:41p  07:10a |Full  Rise 06:30p  100%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 29| 08:16a  06:36p  10:19 | 07:40p  07:11a |      Rise 06:56p   98%|
|Mon 30| 08:17a  06:34p  10:16 | 07:39p  07:13a |      Rise 07:29p   94%|
|Tue 31| 08:19a  06:33p  10:13 | 07:37p  07:14a |      Rise 08:09p   88%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.

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