Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for April Fools’ Day, Monday, April 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 8:11, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:20. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 4:15 tomorrow morning.

Wow! We’re already in the second quarter of 2024. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will increase from 12 hours and 48 minutes today to 14 hours 13 minutes on the 30th. The altitude, or angle, of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 50 degrees today and will ascend to 60 degrees on the 30th. The altitude of the Sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower. The actual time of local apparent noon this month for the Interlochen/Traverse City area, when the Sun passes due south, will be about 1:43 p.m. The big event of this month and this year will be the total solar eclipse one week from today. I will be talking about it, and how to observe the eclipse safely most of this week.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

April Evening Star Chart

April 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.
• The leaky bowl of the Big Dipper drips on Leo.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, then
• Follow the spike to Spica.
• The Summer Triangle appears in red.
• LyrR is the radiant of the Lyrid meteor shower, which will reach peak on the morning of the 22nd.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

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/2018/09/27/.

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Apr  1  Mo            Venus: 16.8° W
     1  Mo   4:58 am  Moon South Dec.: 28.6° S
     1  Mo  11:15 pm  Last Quarter
     5  Fr  11:51 pm  Moon-Mars: 2° N
     6  Sa   5:20 am  Moon-Saturn: 1.2° N
     7  Su  12:39 pm  Moon-Venus:  .4° S
     7  Su   1:53 pm  Moon Perigee: 358800 km
     8  Mo   8:20 am  Moon Ascending Node
     8  Mo   2:18 pm  Total Solar Eclipse
     8  Mo   2:21 pm  New Moon
    10  We   2:46 pm  Mars-Saturn:  .4° N
    10  We   5:08 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 4° S
    11  Th   8:38 am  Moon-Pleiades:  .4° N
    11  Th   6:53 pm  Mercury Inferior Conj.
    13  Sa   6:36 pm  Moon North Dec.: 28.6° N
    15  Mo   9:47 am  Moon-Pollux: 1.6° N
    15  Mo   3:13 pm  First Quarter
    16  Tu  10:45 am  Moon-Beehive: 3.8° S
    19  Fr  10:09 pm  Moon Apogee: 405600 km
    22  Mo   2:44 am  Lyrid Shower: ZHR = 20
    22  Mo   6:45 am  Moon Descending Node
    22  Mo  10:02 pm  Moon-Spica: 1.6° S
    23  Tu   7:49 pm  Full Pink Moon
    26  Fr   4:00 pm  Moon-Antares:  .3° S
    28  Su  10:28 am  Moon South Dec.: 28.5° S
May  1  We            Venus: 9.2° W

Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

LU              Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
April, 2024    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Mon  1| 07:22a  08:11p  12:48 | 09:16p  06:17a |L Qtr Rise 04:15a   51%|
|Tue  2| 07:20a  08:12p  12:51 | 09:17p  06:15a |      Rise 04:59a   41%|
|Wed  3| 07:18a  08:13p  12:54 | 09:18p  06:13a |      Rise 05:33a   30%|
|Thu  4| 07:17a  08:14p  12:57 | 09:20p  06:11a |      Rise 06:01a   20%|
|Fri  5| 07:15a  08:16p  13:00 | 09:21p  06:09a |      Rise 06:24a   11%|
|Sat  6| 07:13a  08:17p  13:03 | 09:23p  06:07a |      Rise 06:45a    5%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  7| 07:11a  08:18p  13:06 | 09:24p  06:05a |      Rise 07:06a    1%|
|Mon  8| 07:09a  08:19p  13:10 | 09:26p  06:03a |New   Set  08:34p    0%|
|Tue  9| 07:08a  08:21p  13:13 | 09:27p  06:02a |      Set  09:58p    2%|
|Wed 10| 07:06a  08:22p  13:16 | 09:28p  06:00a |      Set  11:21p    7%|
|Thu 11| 07:04a  08:23p  13:19 | 09:30p  05:58a |      Set  12:40a   14%|
|Fri 12| 07:02a  08:24p  13:22 | 09:31p  05:56a |      Set  01:52a   23%|
|Sat 13| 07:01a  08:26p  13:25 | 09:33p  05:54a |      Set  02:52a   32%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 14| 06:59a  08:27p  13:28 | 09:34p  05:52a |      Set  03:39a   42%|
|Mon 15| 06:57a  08:28p  13:31 | 09:36p  05:50a |F Qtr Set  04:15a   52%|
|Tue 16| 06:55a  08:29p  13:34 | 09:37p  05:48a |      Set  04:42a   62%|
|Wed 17| 06:54a  08:31p  13:36 | 09:39p  05:46a |      Set  05:04a   71%|
|Thu 18| 06:52a  08:32p  13:39 | 09:40p  05:44a |      Set  05:23a   79%|
|Fri 19| 06:50a  08:33p  13:42 | 09:42p  05:42a |      Set  05:39a   86%|
|Sat 20| 06:49a  08:34p  13:45 | 09:43p  05:40a |      Set  05:55a   92%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 21| 06:47a  08:36p  13:48 | 09:45p  05:38a |      Set  06:11a   96%|
|Mon 22| 06:45a  08:37p  13:51 | 09:46p  05:36a |      Set  06:28a   99%|
|Tue 23| 06:44a  08:38p  13:54 | 09:48p  05:34a |Full  Rise 08:40p  100%|
|Wed 24| 06:42a  08:39p  13:57 | 09:50p  05:32a |      Rise 09:49p   99%|
|Thu 25| 06:41a  08:41p  14:00 | 09:51p  05:30a |      Rise 11:00p   96%|
|Fri 26| 06:39a  08:42p  14:02 | 09:53p  05:28a |      Rise 12:10a   91%|
|Sat 27| 06:37a  08:43p  14:05 | 09:54p  05:27a |      Rise 01:15a   84%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 28| 06:36a  08:44p  14:08 | 09:56p  05:25a |      Rise 02:12a   76%|
|Mon 29| 06:34a  08:46p  14:11 | 09:57p  05:23a |      Rise 02:58a   66%|
|Tue 30| 06:33a  08:47p  14:13 | 09:59p  05:21a |      Rise 03:34a   55%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise

Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.