Ephemeris: 02/01/2024 – Preview of February days and nights
This is Ephemeris for Thursday, February 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:50, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:01. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 1:02 tomorrow morning.
Let’s preview the month of February. It will be a day longer this year because it’s a leap year, the adjustment to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons. The daylight hours throughout February will be getting longer. Daylight hours will increase from 9 hours and 48 minutes today to 11 hours and 8 minutes on the 29th. The altitude of the Sun at noon will increase from 28 degrees today to nearly 38 degrees at month’s end. The Straits area will see the Sun a degree lower. Local noon, by the way for Interlochen and Traverse City at mid-month is about 12:56 p.m, which is mainly due to the fact that our standard time meridian happens to run through Philadelphia and the Sun is currently running 13 minutes slow.
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
February 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. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere (rotating star finder) you may have to set it to 45 minutes or one hour 45 minutes (Daylight Time) earlier than the current time.
Note the chart times of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. are for the 15th. For each week before the 15th, add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after the 15th, subtract ½ hour. Planet positions on dates other than the 15th can be found in the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.
February Morning Star Chart
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, and
- Extend like a spike to Spica,
- The Summer Triangle is in red.
Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical
| EST | |||||||
| Morning | Twilight | Evening | Twilight | Dark | Night | Moon | |
| Date | Astro. | Nautical | Nautical | Astro. | Start | End | Illum. |
| 2024-02-01 | 6h23m | 6h57m | 18h56m | 19h34m | 19h34m | – | 0.58 |
| 2024-02-02 | 6h22m | 6h56m | 19h01m | 19h35m | 19h35m | 1h03m | 0.48 |
| 2024-02-03 | 6h21m | 6h55m | 19h02m | 19h36m | 19h36m | 2h12m | 0.38 |
| 2024-02-04 | 6h20m | 6h54m | 19h03m | 19h37m | 19h37m | 3h23m | 0.28 |
| 2024-02-05 | 6h19m | 6h53m | 19h05m | 19h39m | 19h39m | 4h36m | 0.19 |
| 2024-02-06 | 6h18m | 6h51m | 19h06m | 19h40m | 19h40m | 5h44m | 0.11 |
| 2024-02-07 | 6h16m | 6h50m | 19h07m | 19h41m | 19h41m | 6h16m | 0.04 |
| 2024-02-08 | 6h15m | 6h49m | 19h08m | 19h42m | 19h42m | 6h15m | 0.01 |
| 2024-02-09 | 6h14m | 6h48m | 19h10m | 19h44m | 19h44m | 6h14m | 0.00 |
| 2024-02-10 | 6h13m | 6h47m | 19h11m | 19h45m | 19h45m | 6h13m | 0.02 |
| 2024-02-11 | 6h12m | 6h45m | 19h12m | 19h46m | 20h32m | 6h12m | 0.07 |
| 2024-02-12 | 6h10m | 6h44m | 19h13m | 19h47m | 21h53m | 6h10m | 0.15 |
| 2024-02-13 | 6h09m | 6h43m | 19h15m | 19h49m | 23h13m | 6h09m | 0.24 |
| 2024-02-14 | 6h08m | 6h41m | 19h16m | 19h50m | – | 6h08m | 0.35 |
| 2024-02-15 | 6h06m | 6h40m | 19h17m | 19h51m | 0h31m | 6h06m | 0.46 |
| 2024-02-16 | 6h05m | 6h39m | 19h19m | 19h52m | 1h49m | 6h05m | 0.56 |
| 2024-02-17 | 6h04m | 6h37m | 19h20m | 19h54m | 3h04m | 6h04m | 0.67 |
| 2024-02-18 | 6h02m | 6h36m | 19h21m | 19h55m | 4h12m | 6h02m | 0.76 |
| 2024-02-19 | 6h01m | 6h34m | 19h23m | 19h56m | 5h12m | 6h01m | 0.84 |
| 2024-02-20 | 5h59m | 6h33m | 19h24m | 19h58m | – | – | 0.90 |
| 2024-02-21 | 5h58m | 6h31m | 19h25m | 19h59m | – | – | 0.95 |
| 2024-02-22 | 5h56m | 6h30m | 19h26m | 20h00m | – | – | 0.98 |
| 2024-02-23 | 5h55m | 6h28m | 19h28m | 20h01m | – | – | 1.00 |
| 2024-02-24 | 5h53m | 6h27m | 19h29m | 20h03m | – | – | 1.00 |
| 2024-02-25 | 5h51m | 6h25m | 19h30m | 20h04m | – | – | 0.98 |
| 2024-02-26 | 5h50m | 6h23m | 19h32m | 20h05m | 20h05m | 20h45m | 0.94 |
| 2024-02-27 | 5h48m | 6h22m | 19h33m | 20h07m | 20h07m | 21h48m | 0.88 |
| 2024-02-28 | 5h46m | 6h20m | 19h34m | 20h08m | 20h08m | 22h53m | 0.82 |
| 2024-02-29 | 5h45m | 6h19m | 19h35m | 20h09m | 20h09m | 0h00m | 0.74 |
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/2019/09/27/
NASA Calendar of Planetary Events
Feb 1 Th Venus: 30.8° W
2 Fr 6:18 pm Last Quarter
4 Su 7:15 pm Moon-Antares: .6° S
6 Tu 12:06 pm Moon South Dec.: 28.3° S
7 We 1:52 pm Moon-Venus: 5.4° N
8 Th 1:30 am Moon-Mars: 4.2° N
9 Fr 5:59 pm New Moon
10 Sa 1:49 pm Moon Perigee: 358100 km
13 Tu 12:01 pm Moon Ascending Node
15 Th 3:15 am Moon-Jupiter: 3.2° S
16 Fr 10:01 am First Quarter
16 Fr 2:13 pm Moon-Pleiades: .6° N
19 Mo 3:47 am Moon North Dec.: 28.4° N
20 Tu 7:54 pm Moon-Pollux: 1.8° N
21 We 9:13 pm Moon-Beehive: 3.7° S
22 Th 4:01 am Venus-Mars: .6° N
24 Sa 7:30 am Full Moon
25 Su 10:00 am Moon Apogee: 406300 km
27 Tu 5:53 pm Moon Descending Node
28 We 3:19 am Mercury Superior Conj.
28 We 8:41 am Moon-Spica: 1.6° S
28 We 4:01 pm Saturn Conjunction
Mar 1 Fr Venus: 24.3° W
All event times are given for UTC-5 Eastern Standard or UTC-4, Daylight 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
February 2024 Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE | SUN SUN DAYLIGHT| TWILIGHT* |MOON RISE OR ILLUM |
| | RISE SET HOURS | END START |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Thu 1| 08:02a 05:50p 09:48 | 06:57p 06:56a | Rise 01:02a 59%|
|Fri 2| 08:01a 05:52p 09:51 | 06:58p 06:55a |L Qtr Rise 02:11a 50%|
|Sat 3| 08:00a 05:53p 09:53 | 06:59p 06:54a | Rise 03:23a 40%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 4| 07:58a 05:55p 09:56 | 07:00p 06:53a | Rise 04:35a 30%|
|Mon 5| 07:57a 05:56p 09:59 | 07:02p 06:52a | Rise 05:44a 20%|
|Tue 6| 07:56a 05:57p 10:01 | 07:03p 06:50a | Rise 06:44a 12%|
|Wed 7| 07:55a 05:59p 10:04 | 07:04p 06:49a | Rise 07:32a 6%|
|Thu 8| 07:53a 06:00p 10:07 | 07:05p 06:48a | Rise 08:09a 2%|
|Fri 9| 07:52a 06:02p 10:09 | 07:07p 06:47a |New Set 05:42p 0%|
|Sat 10| 07:50a 06:03p 10:12 | 07:08p 06:46a | Set 07:08p 2%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 11| 07:49a 06:05p 10:15 | 07:09p 06:44a | Set 08:32p 6%|
|Mon 12| 07:48a 06:06p 10:18 | 07:11p 06:43a | Set 09:53p 13%|
|Tue 13| 07:46a 06:07p 10:21 | 07:12p 06:42a | Set 11:12p 22%|
|Wed 14| 07:45a 06:09p 10:24 | 07:13p 06:40a | Set 12:31a 32%|
|Thu 15| 07:43a 06:10p 10:26 | 07:15p 06:39a | Set 01:48a 43%|
|Fri 16| 07:42a 06:12p 10:29 | 07:16p 06:38a |F Qtr Set 03:03a 54%|
|Sat 17| 07:40a 06:13p 10:32 | 07:17p 06:36a | Set 04:12a 64%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 18| 07:39a 06:14p 10:35 | 07:18p 06:35a | Set 05:12a 74%|
|Mon 19| 07:37a 06:16p 10:38 | 07:20p 06:33a | Set 06:00a 82%|
|Tue 20| 07:36a 06:17p 10:41 | 07:21p 06:32a | Set 06:39a 89%|
|Wed 21| 07:34a 06:19p 10:44 | 07:22p 06:30a | Set 07:09a 94%|
|Thu 22| 07:32a 06:20p 10:47 | 07:24p 06:29a | Set 07:32a 98%|
|Fri 23| 07:31a 06:21p 10:50 | 07:25p 06:27a | Set 07:52a 100%|
|Sat 24| 07:29a 06:23p 10:53 | 07:26p 06:26a |Full Rise 06:38p 100%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 25| 07:27a 06:24p 10:56 | 07:27p 06:24a | Rise 07:41p 98%|
|Mon 26| 07:26a 06:25p 10:59 | 07:29p 06:22a | Rise 08:44p 95%|
|Tue 27| 07:24a 06:27p 11:02 | 07:30p 06:21a | Rise 09:47p 90%|
|Wed 28| 07:22a 06:28p 11:05 | 07:31p 06:19a | Rise 10:52p 83%|
|Thu 29| 07:21a 06:30p 11:08 | 07:33p 06:18a | Rise 11:59p 75%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset
Created using my LookingUp for MS-DOS.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 
