Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, November 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 22 minutes, setting at 5:09, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:48. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:00 tomorrow morning.

Sixty years ago tomorrow, November 22nd 1963, President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. On that day I was in Basic Training for the Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base just South of San Antonio, about 250 miles south of Dallas. Being in Basic Training meant we were pretty well cut off from the outside world as far as finding out what was happening. That day I happened to be serving KP and in the afternoon after washing all the pots and pans from lunch we were sitting around at the back of the Mess Hall when we found out from one of the cooks that Kennedy was shot. There were also rumors going around that they took out Vice President Johnson too. So we’re wondering if this was a massive assault on our government. I thought this was a hell of a time to join the military, we could be off to war soon.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.