Home > Ephemeris Program, Month preview, Uncategorized > Ephemeris: 11/30/2023 – Previewing December skies

Ephemeris: 11/30/2023 – Previewing December skies

November 30, 2023

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, November 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 5:04, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:59. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 7:44 this evening. | December is the month with the shortest daylight hours. Winter will officially arrive at the winter solstice on the 21st at 10:28 p.m. There will be little movement in the sunset times: In the Traverse City/Interlochen area this will be from 5:03 Tomorrow, down to 5:02 and then advancing to 5:11 at the end of the month. There is more movement in the sunrise times which will advance from 7:59 am tomorrow to 8:20 am on the 31st. There is also little movement of daylight hours. The noontime Sun will hang around 22 to 23 degrees above the southern horizon all month. The Geminid meteors on the night of the14th and morning of the 15th will have dark skies all night. It is the most active shower of the year, difficult to view from here due to the cold and December’s cloudiness.

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.

Addendum

December Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for December 2023 (9 p.m. EST December 15, 2023). Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge. Credit my LookingUp program.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 pm 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).

December Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for December mornings, 2023 (6 a.m. EST December 15, 2023). Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

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.
  • The leaky bowl of the Big Dipper drips on Leo.
  • Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, then
  • Follow the spike to Spica.
  • The Summer Triangle is in red.
  • GemR on the star charts is the radiant of the Geminid meteor shower, which peaks on the evening of the 14th.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

      EST        
  Morning Twilight Evening Twilight Dark Night Moon
Date Astro. Nautical Nautical Astro. Start End Illum.
2023-12-01 6h20m 6h55m 18h16m 18h51m 18h51m 20h51m 0.77
2023-12-02 6h21m 6h56m 18h16m 18h51m 18h51m 21h58m 0.69
2023-12-03 6h22m 6h57m 18h16m 18h51m 18h51m 23h04m 0.60
2023-12-04 6h23m 6h58m 18h15m 18h51m 18h51m – 0.51
2023-12-05 6h24m 6h59m 18h15m 18h51m 18h51m 0h09m 0.41
2023-12-06 6h25m 7h00m 18h15m 18h50m 18h50m 1h12m 0.32
2023-12-07 6h26m 7h01m 18h15m 18h50m 18h50m 2h15m 0.23
2023-12-08 6h27m 7h02m 18h15m 18h50m 18h50m 3h21m 0.15
2023-12-09 6h27m 7h03m 18h15m 18h51m 18h51m 4h28m 0.09
2023-12-10 6h28m 7h04m 18h15m 18h51m 18h51m 5h40m 0.04
2023-12-11 6h29m 7h04m 18h15m 18h51m 18h51m 6h29m 0.01
2023-12-12 6h30m 7h05m 18h16m 18h51m 18h51m 6h30m 0.00
2023-12-13 6h30m 7h06m 18h16m 18h51m 18h51m 6h30m 0.02
2023-12-14 6h31m 7h07m 18h16m 18h51m 18h51m 6h31m 0.06
2023-12-15 6h32m 7h07m 18h16m 18h52m 19h50m 6h32m 0.13
2023-12-16 6h33m 7h08m 18h16m 18h52m 21h12m 6h33m 0.22
2023-12-17 6h33m 7h09m 18h17m 18h52m 22h33m 6h33m 0.32
2023-12-18 6h30m 7h05m 18h13m 18h49m 23h51m 6h30m 0.43
2023-12-19 6h30m 7h06m 18h14m 18h49m – 6h30m 0.55
2023-12-20 6h31m 7h06m 18h14m 18h50m 1h07m 6h31m 0.66
2023-12-21 6h31m 7h07m 18h14m 18h50m 2h22m 6h31m 0.76
2023-12-22 6h32m 7h07m 18h15m 18h50m 3h37m 6h32m 0.85
2023-12-23 6h32m 7h08m 18h16m 18h51m 4h53m 6h32m 0.92
2023-12-24 6h33m 7h08m 18h16m 18h52m 6h09m 6h33m 0.97
2023-12-25 6h33m 7h09m 18h17m 18h52m – – 0.99
2023-12-26 6h34m 7h09m 18h17m 18h53m – – 1.00
2023-12-27 6h34m 7h09m 18h18m 18h53m – – 0.99
2023-12-28 6h34m 7h10m 18h19m 18h54m – – 0.95
2023-12-29 6h35m 7h10m 18h19m 18h55m 18h55m 19h43m 0.90
2023-12-30 6h35m 7h10m 18h20m 18h56m 18h56m 20h50m 0.84
2023-12-31 6h35m 7h10m 18h21m 18h56m 18h56m 21h55m 0.77

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

Dec  1  Fr            Venus: 42.9° W
     1  Fr  11:21 pm  Moon-Beehive: 3.9° S
     4  Mo   8:59 am  Mercury Elongation: 21.3° E
     4  Mo   1:42 pm  Moon Apogee: 404,300 km
     5  Tu  12:49 am  Last Quarter
     8  Fr   9:05 am  Moon-Spica: 2.5° S
     8  Fr  10:24 am  Moon Descending Node
     9  Sa  11:53 am  Moon-Venus: 3.9° N
    12  Tu   6:32 pm  New Moon
    13  We   4:51 pm  Moon South Dec.: 28.2° S
    14  Th   2:02 pm  Geminid Shower: ZHR = 120!
    16  Sa   1:53 pm  Moon Perigee: 367,900 km
    17  Su   4:58 pm  Moon-Saturn: 2.5° N
    19  Tu   1:39 pm  First Quarter
    21  Th   8:54 am  Moon Ascending Node
    21  Th  10:28 pm  Winter Solstice
    22  Fr   9:20 am  Moon-Jupiter: 2.7° S
    22  Fr   1:45 pm  Mercury Inferior Conj.
    22  Fr  10:00 pm  Ursid Shower: ZHR = 10
    24  Su   2:37 am  Moon-Pleiades: 1.1° N
    26  Tu   4:50 pm  Moon North Dec.: 28.1° N
    26  Tu   7:33 pm  Full Cold Moon
    28  Th   6:51 am  Moon-Pollux: 1.9° N
    29  Fr   7:45 am  Moon-Beehive: 3.7° S
Jan  1  Mo            Venus: 37.4° W

All event 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 Events

LU            Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
December, 2023    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Fri  1| 07:59a  05:03p  09:04 | 06:13p  06:50a |      Rise 08:51p   79%|
|Sat  2| 08:00a  05:03p  09:02 | 06:12p  06:51a |      Rise 09:58p   71%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  3| 08:01a  05:03p  09:01 | 06:12p  06:52a |      Rise 11:04p   62%|
|Mon  4| 08:02a  05:02p  08:59 | 06:12p  06:53a |      Rise 12:08a   52%|
|Tue  5| 08:04a  05:02p  08:58 | 06:12p  06:54a |L Qtr Rise 01:11a   43%|
|Wed  6| 08:05a  05:02p  08:57 | 06:12p  06:55a |      Rise 02:15a   34%|
|Thu  7| 08:06a  05:02p  08:56 | 06:12p  06:56a |      Rise 03:20a   25%|
|Fri  8| 08:07a  05:02p  08:55 | 06:12p  06:56a |      Rise 04:28a   17%|
|Sat  9| 08:08a  05:02p  08:54 | 06:12p  06:57a |      Rise 05:40a   10%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 10| 08:08a  05:02p  08:53 | 06:12p  06:58a |      Rise 06:54a    5%|
|Mon 11| 08:09a  05:02p  08:52 | 06:12p  06:59a |      Rise 08:09a    1%|
|Tue 12| 08:10a  05:02p  08:51 | 06:12p  07:00a |New   Set  04:26p    0%|
|Wed 13| 08:11a  05:02p  08:50 | 06:12p  07:01a |      Set  05:22p    2%|
|Thu 14| 08:12a  05:02p  08:50 | 06:13p  07:01a |      Set  06:31p    5%|
|Fri 15| 08:13a  05:02p  08:49 | 06:13p  07:02a |      Set  07:50p   12%|
|Sat 16| 08:13a  05:03p  08:49 | 06:13p  07:03a |      Set  09:11p   20%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 17| 08:14a  05:03p  08:48 | 06:13p  07:03a |      Set  10:32p   30%|
|Mon 18| 08:15a  05:03p  08:48 | 06:14p  07:04a |      Set  11:50p   41%|
|Tue 19| 08:15a  05:04p  08:48 | 06:14p  07:05a |F Qtr Set  01:06a   53%|
|Wed 20| 08:16a  05:04p  08:48 | 06:15p  07:05a |      Set  02:21a   64%|
|Thu 21| 08:16a  05:04p  08:48 | 06:15p  07:06a |      Set  03:37a   74%|
|Fri 22| 08:17a  05:05p  08:48 | 06:16p  07:06a |      Set  04:53a   83%|
|Sat 23| 08:17a  05:05p  08:48 | 06:16p  07:07a |      Set  06:08a   90%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 24| 08:18a  05:06p  08:48 | 06:17p  07:07a |      Set  07:21a   96%|
|Mon 25| 08:18a  05:07p  08:48 | 06:17p  07:07a |      Set  08:25a   99%|
|Tue 26| 08:18a  05:07p  08:48 | 06:18p  07:08a |Full  Rise 04:30p  100%|
|Wed 27| 08:19a  05:08p  08:49 | 06:19p  07:08a |      Rise 05:30p   99%|
|Thu 28| 08:19a  05:09p  08:49 | 06:19p  07:08a |      Rise 06:35p   96%|
|Fri 29| 08:19a  05:10p  08:50 | 06:20p  07:09a |      Rise 07:43p   91%|
|Sat 30| 08:19a  05:10p  08:51 | 06:21p  07:09a |      Rise 08:50p   85%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 31| 08:20a  05:11p  08:51 | 06:22p  07:09a |      Rise 09:55p   78%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Month preview, Uncategorized