Home > Constellations, Ephemeris Program, Observing > Ephemeris: 03/05/2024 – Finding Gemini the twins

Ephemeris: 03/05/2024 – Finding Gemini the twins

March 5, 2024

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, March 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 6:36, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:10. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 5:22 tomorrow morning.

The constellation of Gemini the twins can be seen high in the south at 8 pm tonight. It’s located above and left of the constellation of Orion. The two brightest stars at the upper left of the constellation have the twin’s names. They are Castor, the one to the upper right and Pollux the brighter one to the lower left. I tend to see the constellation as the two lines of stars from Castor and Pollux running down toward Orion as a silhouette of these two boys standing together. Others see them as two stick figures. At the bottom of the line of stars emanating from Castor, what I consider Castor’s foot, is a lovely star cluster which is visible in binoculars as a little fuzzy spot, but a telescope will show a great number of stars here called Messier 35 or simply M35.

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

Finder chart for Gemini
Finder chart for Gemini for about 8 pm tonight, March 5. Showing the stars without annotations, then with lines, then with Gemini art provided by Stellarium. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Enlarged view of Castor's foot
Enlarged view of Castor’s foot, as might be seen in a pair of binoculars, showing the location of Messier 35, marked as M35. There are more stars here than it shows, especially in a telescope. I left the constellation lines and art in to relate to the finder image above. Created using Stellarium.
Categories: Constellations, Ephemeris Program, Observing Tags: , , ,