Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 24th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 7:35, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:34. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 11:47 this evening.

While we’ve been watching the stars and constellations of summer and the Milky Way, the constellations of autumn have been sneaking up on us from the east. About halfway up the sky in the east at 9 PM is one of the greatest constellations of autumn, Pegasus the flying horse. Her body or at least the front part of it is a large square of stars called the Great Square of Pegasus. It is an almost perfect rectangle. However, as she’s rising, it’s standing on one corner. From the upper star are her front legs, from the rightmost star her neck and head extend in the stars. And from the left star of the square are what might look like her hind legs but aren’t. Only half of her body is in the stars. It’s another constellation, Andromeda, which we’ll talk about later.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum