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Ephemeris: 01/15/2024 – The Moon is a great first target for that new telescope

January 15, 2024 Comments off

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, Monday, January 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 5:27, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:16. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:55 this evening.

The Moon is a great first target for that Christmas telescope. Over the weekend we began a new lunar month so that the Moon appears as a crescent in the southwestern sky after sunset. The first time I looked at the Moon with the telescope or looked at anything in the sky, actually, I found it very difficult to aim the telescope correctly. The field of view of the telescope is very small compared to what you can see with the naked eye. Always start with the lowest power eyepiece because it gives the widest field of view for finding what you’re looking for. It does take a little practice to learn how to aim a telescope, but the moon is a wonderful object to look at because it’s really big and very bright.

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

This may be what the waxing Crescent Moon looks like in a small telescope tonight, January 15th 2024. Select features of the Moon are annotated including several I haven’t mentioned before. There’s the keyhole looking constellation on the edge of Mare Fecunditatis named Gutenberg after the inventor of the printing press and also Franklin after Benjamin Franklin. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Observing, Telescopes Tags: