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Ephemeris: 03/11/2024 – The Moon and the month

March 11, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Monday, March 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 7:44, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:59. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 9:44 this evening.

Tonight’s one-day old moon can be seen in the West shortly after sunset. Astrophysicist Dr. Rebecca Smethurst has a channel on YouTube under the name Dr. Becky. She calls it a toenail moon, because it looks like a toenail clipping. If you look real close, the rest of the Moon may be there. It’s not your eyes playing tricks on you, it’s the Earth shining on the Moon, illuminating the night side of it. For those using lunar calendars this would be day one or two of the lunar month. Since astronomically the Moon was new at 4 am yesterday morning our time. Folks in Europe and Asia may have seen the Moon in the sky last night. The Islamic lunar calendar requires the actual sighting of the new moon to start the month.

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 Moon as it might appear in the western sky about half an hour after sunset tonight
The Moon as it might appear in the western sky about half an hour after sunset tonight, March 11th 2024. At that time the Moon will be 40 hours past its conjunction with the Sun which we call new moon. However, in ancient times, or for those using a lunar calendar, the new moon is the first sighting of the Moon after conjunction with the Sun or after its disappearance from the morning sky. Created using Stellarium.

A note: being a leap year I will have more than my normal amount of posts about the calendar and problems with the calendar.

Categories: Calendar, Ephemeris Program, The Moon Tags: ,