Home > Eclipses, Ephemeris Program, Space Flight, Year review > Ephemeris: 12/26/2023 Some astronomical/space events of 2023

Ephemeris: 12/26/2023 Some astronomical/space events of 2023

December 26, 2023

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, December 26th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:07, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:19. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 4:30 this evening.

Looking back at 2023 in astronomy: an important event that was visible locally was the partial eclipse of the Sun on October 14th. For most of us it was mostly cloudy. I happened to be in Thompsonville at the Betsie Valley District Library to talk about eclipses and to view that one. We got about 15 minutes of clear skies to see the Sun near the middle of the eclipse, so it wasn’t a total washout. Of course the big event is next year on April 8th, a total solar eclipse whose path is going to be passing quite close to us. The James Webb Space Telescope astronomers have reported their first year findings, some of which have contradicted previous assumptions, or seem to have. The second of SpaceX’s Starship launches came within 4,000 kilometers an hour of achieving orbit.

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

The partial solar eclipse of October 14, 2023 as it might have appeared from the Grand Traverse Region if it had been clear
The partial solar eclipse of October 14, 2023 as it might have appeared from the Grand Traverse Region at three points in the eclipse if it had been clear: 5 minutes after first contact, at mid-eclipse and 5 minutes before last contact. On a path from Oregon and Texas this was an annular solar eclipse. Created using Cartes du Ciel, GIMP and LibreOffice Draw.
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