Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Halloween, Tuesday, October 31st. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 6:33, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:20. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 8:09 this evening.

Let’s take a look at November skies. The time change back to standard time will set us back an hour on sunrise and sunset times, so it’ll be brighter in the morning and darker in the evening starting Sunday, the 5th. Out east in New York City, the Sun is already setting before 5 p.m. It will never set that early here. The Sun will be up for 10 hours 11 minutes on the 1st, and that will dwindle down to 9 hours and 5 minutes at month’s end. The Sun reaches 30 ½ degrees above the southern horizon at local apparent solar noon on the 1st, which is around 12:25 p.m. this month. It will drop to 23 ½ degrees on the 30th. As the Earth orbits the Sun now, the North Pole of the Earth is tilting farther and farther away from the Sun providing us with less of its heat. The Leonid meteor shower, peaking on the 18th, is expected to be lackluster this year. We are about 9 or 10 years away from the time that the Leonids become spectacular again as they do every 33 or so years. Jupiter will reach opposition from the Sun on the 2nd, and Mars will be in conjunction with the Sun on the 17th.

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

November Evening Star Chart

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EST 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 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

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.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus
• The Summer Triangle is in red.
• TauR on the evening star chart can be used as the radiant for the North and South Taurid meteor showers. For dates see NASA Calendar of Planetary Events below
• LeoR on the morning star chart is the radiant of the Leonid meteor shower, which peaks on the morning of the 18th.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EDT/EST
	Morning	Twilight	Evening	Twilight	Dark	Night	Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2023-11-01	6h47m	7h21m	19h40m	20h14m	20h14m	20h59m	0.79
2023-11-02	6h48m	7h22m	19h39m	20h12m	20h12m	21h57m	0.70
2023-11-03	6h49m	7h23m	19h37m	20h11m	20h11m	23h01m	0.61
2023-11-04	6h50m	7h24m	19h36m	20h10m	20h10m	–	0.52
2023-11-05	5h52m	6h26m	18h35m	19h09m	19h09m	–	0.42
2023-11-06	5h53m	6h27m	18h34m	19h08m	19h08m	0h13m	0.33
2023-11-07	5h54m	6h28m	18h33m	19h07m	19h07m	1h19m	0.24
2023-11-08	5h55m	6h29m	18h32m	19h06m	19h06m	2h23m	0.17
2023-11-09	5h56m	6h30m	18h31m	19h05m	19h05m	3h26m	0.10
2023-11-10	5h57m	6h32m	18h30m	19h04m	19h04m	4h31m	0.05
2023-11-11	5h59m	6h33m	18h29m	19h03m	19h03m	5h38m	0.01
2023-11-12	6h00m	6h34m	18h28m	19h02m	19h02m	6h00m	0.00
2023-11-13	6h01m	6h35m	18h27m	19h01m	19h01m	6h01m	0.01
2023-11-14	6h02m	6h36m	18h26m	19h00m	19h00m	6h02m	0.04
2023-11-15	6h03m	6h38m	18h25m	18h59m	18h59m	6h03m	0.09
2023-11-16	6h04m	6h39m	18h24m	18h59m	19h35m	6h04m	0.16
2023-11-17	6h05m	6h40m	18h23m	18h58m	20h46m	6h05m	0.26
2023-11-18	6h07m	6h41m	18h23m	18h57m	22h04m	6h07m	0.36
2023-11-19	6h08m	6h42m	18h22m	18h56m	23h24m	6h08m	0.47
2023-11-20	6h09m	6h43m	18h21m	18h56m	–	6h09m	0.59
2023-11-21	6h10m	6h45m	18h20m	18h55m	0h43m	6h10m	0.70
2023-11-22	6h11m	6h46m	18h20m	18h55m	2h01m	6h11m	0.80
2023-11-23	6h12m	6h47m	18h19m	18h54m	3h17m	6h12m	0.88
2023-11-24	6h13m	6h48m	18h19m	18h54m	4h34m	6h13m	0.94
2023-11-25	6h14m	6h49m	18h18m	18h53m	5h51m	6h14m	0.98
2023-11-26	6h15m	6h50m	18h18m	18h53m	–	–	1.00
2023-11-27	6h16m	6h51m	18h17m	18h52m	–	–	0.99
2023-11-28	6h17m	6h52m	18h17m	18h52m	–	–	0.96
2023-11-29	6h18m	6h53m	18h17m	18h52m	–	–	0.91
2023-11-30	6h19m	6h54m	18h16m	18h51m	18h51m	19h45m	0.85

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

Nov  1  We            Venus: 46.2° W
     2  Th  12:12 am  Moon North Dec.: 28.3° N
     2  Th  10:44 pm  Jupiter Opposition
     3  Fr   1:31 pm  Moon-Pollux: 1.6° N
     5  Su   3:37 am  Last Quarter
     5  Su   7:17 pm  South Taurid Shower: ZHR = 10
     6  Mo   4:49 pm  Moon Apogee: 404,600 km
     9  Th   4:28 am  Moon-Venus: 1.1° S
    11  Sa  12:09 am  Moon-Spica: 2.6° S
    11  Sa   3:49 am  Moon Descending Node
    12  Su   6:34 pm  North Taurid Shower: ZHR = 15
    13  Mo   4:27 am  New Moon
    13  Mo  12:32 pm  Uranus Opposition
    16  Th   9:45 am  Moon South Dec.: 28.2° S
    16  Th   4:17 pm  Mercury-Antares: 2.5° N
    17  Fr  11:48 pm  Mars Solar Conjunction
    18  Sa  12:51 am  Leonid Shower: ZHR = 15
    20  Mo   5:50 am  First Quarter
    20  Mo   9:02 am  Moon-Saturn: 2.8° N
    21  Tu   4:03 pm  Moon Perigee: 369,800 km
    24  Fr   6:02 am  Moon Ascending Node
    25  Sa   6:10 am  Moon-Jupiter: 2.8° S
    26  Su   7:02 pm  Moon-Pleiades: 1.2° N
    27  Mo   4:16 am  Full Beaver Moon
    29  We   5:29 am  Venus-Spica: 4.2° N
    29  We   9:08 am  Moon North Dec.: 28.2° N
    30  Th  10:23 pm  Moon-Pollux: 1.7° N
Dec  1  Fr            Venus: 42.9° W

All event times for November 1-4 are given for UTC-4 Eastern Daylight Saving Time. For dates after that, times are given for UTC-5 Eastern Standard 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 Times

     LU                  Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
November, 2023    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Wed  1| 08:20a  06:31p  10:11 | 07:36p  07:15a |      Rise 08:58p   81%|
|Thu  2| 08:21a  06:30p  10:08 | 07:35p  07:16a |      Rise 09:57p   72%|
|Fri  3| 08:23a  06:28p  10:05 | 07:34p  07:18a |      Rise 11:00p   63%|
|Sat  4| 08:24a  06:27p  10:03 | 07:32p  07:19a |      Rise 12:07a   53%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
| EST  |      Time Change      |                |                       |
|Sun  5| 07:25a  05:26p  10:00 | 06:31p  06:20a |L Qtr Rise 12:13a   44%|
|Mon  6| 07:27a  05:25p  09:57 | 06:30p  06:21a |      Rise 01:18a   35%|
|Tue  7| 07:28a  05:23p  09:55 | 06:29p  06:22a |      Rise 02:22a   26%|
|Wed  8| 07:30a  05:22p  09:52 | 06:28p  06:24a |      Rise 03:26a   18%|
|Thu  9| 07:31a  05:21p  09:49 | 06:27p  06:25a |      Rise 04:31a   11%|
|Fri 10| 07:32a  05:20p  09:47 | 06:26p  06:26a |      Rise 05:38a    6%|
|Sat 11| 07:34a  05:19p  09:44 | 06:25p  06:27a |      Rise 06:47a    2%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 12| 07:35a  05:17p  09:42 | 06:24p  06:28a |      Rise 08:00a    0%|
|Mon 13| 07:36a  05:16p  09:40 | 06:23p  06:30a |New   Set  05:13p    0%|
|Tue 14| 07:38a  05:15p  09:37 | 06:22p  06:31a |      Set  05:48p    3%|
|Wed 15| 07:39a  05:14p  09:35 | 06:21p  06:32a |      Set  06:35p    8%|
|Thu 16| 07:40a  05:13p  09:32 | 06:20p  06:33a |      Set  07:34p   15%|
|Fri 17| 07:42a  05:12p  09:30 | 06:20p  06:34a |      Set  08:45p   24%|
|Sat 18| 07:43a  05:12p  09:28 | 06:19p  06:36a |      Set  10:03p   34%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 19| 07:44a  05:11p  09:26 | 06:18p  06:37a |      Set  11:23p   45%|
|Mon 20| 07:46a  05:10p  09:24 | 06:18p  06:38a |F Qtr Set  12:42a   56%|
|Tue 21| 07:47a  05:09p  09:22 | 06:17p  06:39a |      Set  02:00a   67%|
|Wed 22| 07:48a  05:08p  09:20 | 06:16p  06:40a |      Set  03:17a   78%|
|Thu 23| 07:50a  05:08p  09:18 | 06:16p  06:41a |      Set  04:33a   86%|
|Fri 24| 07:51a  05:07p  09:16 | 06:15p  06:42a |      Set  05:51a   93%|
|Sat 25| 07:52a  05:06p  09:14 | 06:15p  06:43a |      Set  07:09a   98%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 26| 07:53a  05:06p  09:12 | 06:14p  06:45a |      Set  08:25a  100%|
|Mon 27| 07:54a  05:05p  09:10 | 06:14p  06:46a |Full  Rise 05:01p   99%|
|Tue 28| 07:56a  05:05p  09:08 | 06:13p  06:47a |      Rise 05:47p   97%|
|Wed 29| 07:57a  05:04p  09:07 | 06:13p  06:48a |      Rise 06:42p   92%|
|Thu 30| 07:58a  05:04p  09:05 | 06:13p  06:49a |      Rise 07:44p   86%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.