Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 40 minutes, setting at 7:22, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:42. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:30 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look at the skies for the month of October. The Sun will still be moving south rapidly. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 11 hours and 40 minutes today to 10 hours, 11 minutes at month’s end. The altitude of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 42 degrees today, and will descend to 31 degrees on Halloween, also in the Interlochen area. Sunrise times will increase from 7:41 today all the way to 8:20 a.m. in Interlochen and Traverse City on the 31st. Sunset times will decrease from 7:22 p.m. today to 6:32 on Halloween.

The big event of October will be the appearance of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in the evening sky which may become quite bright, but being a comet, all bets are off until you actually see it. It will become visible in the evening sky starting October 12th.

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

October path of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

October Evening Star Chart

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EDT 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, West 75° longitude. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

October Morning Star Chart

or 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.
• Leaky dipper drips on Leo.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus.
• The Summer Triangle is in red.
• DracR – Draconid Radiant – Peaks the 8th – Zenithal Hourly Rate < 10 with rare outbursts of a thousand an hour. It’s hindered this year by the full moon.
• OriR – Orionid Radiant – Peak 21st – Zenithal Hourly Rate = 20

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EDT
	Morning	Twilight	Evening	Twilight	Dark	Night	Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2024-10-01	6h06m	6h40m	20h28m	21h03m	21h03m	6h06m	0.00
2024-10-02	6h07m	6h41m	20h27m	21h01m	21h01m	6h07m	0.00
2024-10-03	6h08m	6h42m	20h25m	20h59m	20h59m	6h08m	0.02
2024-10-04	6h09m	6h43m	20h23m	20h57m	20h57m	6h09m	0.05
2024-10-05	6h11m	6h45m	20h21m	20h55m	20h55m	6h11m	0.10
2024-10-06	6h12m	6h46m	20h19m	20h53m	20h53m	6h12m	0.17
2024-10-07	6h13m	6h47m	20h17m	20h51m	21h15m	6h13m	0.25
2024-10-08	6h14m	6h48m	20h16m	20h50m	22h01m	6h14m	0.34
2024-10-09	6h16m	6h50m	20h14m	20h48m	22h58m	6h16m	0.44
2024-10-10	6h17m	6h51m	20h12m	20h46m	–	6h17m	0.55
2024-10-11	6h18m	6h52m	20h10m	20h44m	0h06m	6h18m	0.65
2024-10-12	6h19m	6h53m	20h09m	20h43m	1h22m	6h19m	0.76
2024-10-13	6h21m	6h54m	20h07m	20h41m	2h42m	6h21m	0.85
2024-10-14	6h22m	6h56m	20h05m	20h39m	4h03m	6h22m	0.92
2024-10-15	6h23m	6h57m	20h04m	20h37m	5h25m	6h23m	0.98
2024-10-16	6h24m	6h58m	20h02m	20h36m	–	–	1.00
2024-10-17	6h26m	6h59m	20h00m	20h34m	–	–	0.99
2024-10-18	6h27m	7h01m	19h55m	20h33m	–	–	0.96
2024-10-19	6h28m	7h02m	19h53m	20h31m	–	–	0.89
2024-10-20	6h29m	7h03m	19h52m	20h29m	20h29m	20h40m	0.81
2024-10-21	6h31m	7h04m	19h50m	20h28m	20h28m	21h36m	0.72
2024-10-22	6h32m	7h05m	19h49m	20h26m	20h26m	22h41m	0.62
2024-10-23	6h33m	7h07m	19h47m	20h25m	20h25m	23h51m	0.51
2024-10-24	6h34m	7h08m	19h46m	20h23m	20h23m	–	0.41
2024-10-25	6h35m	7h09m	19h44m	20h22m	20h22m	1h01m	0.32
2024-10-26	6h37m	7h10m	19h43m	20h21m	20h21m	2h10m	0.23
2024-10-27	6h38m	7h12m	19h42m	20h19m	20h19m	3h16m	0.16
2024-10-28	6h39m	7h13m	19h40m	20h18m	20h18m	4h19m	0.10
2024-10-29	6h40m	7h14m	19h39m	20h17m	20h17m	5h22m	0.05
2024-10-30	6h41m	7h15m	19h37m	20h15m	20h15m	6h25m	0.02
2024-10-31	6h43m	7h16m	19h36m	20h14m	20h14m	6h43m	0.00

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

Date          Time    Event
Oct  1  Tu            Venus: 31.4° E
     2  We   7:52 am  Moon Descending Node
     2  We   2:46 pm  Annular Solar Eclipse
     2  We   2:49 pm  New Moon
     2  We   3:40 pm  Moon Apogee: 406500 km
     5  Sa   4:26 pm  Moon-Venus: 3.3° N
     7  Mo   2:48 pm  Moon-Antares:  .2° N
     9  We   7:53 am  Moon South Dec.: 28.7° S
    10  Th   2:55 pm  First Quarter
    14  Mo   2:05 pm  Moon-Saturn:  .1° S
    16  We   3:05 am  Moon Ascending Node
    16  We   8:46 pm  Moon Perigee: 357200 km
    17  Th   7:26 am  Full Moon
    18  Fr   7:50 pm  Mars-Pollux: 5.7° S
    19  Sa   3:59 pm  Moon-Pleiades:  .1° S
    21  Mo   1:58 am  Orionid Shower: ZHR = 20
    21  Mo   8:50 pm  Moon North Dec.: 28.7° N
    23  We   1:16 pm  Moon-Pollux: 1.8° N
    23  We   3:55 pm  Moon-Mars: 4.2° S
    24  Th   4:03 am  Last Quarter
    24  Th   1:35 pm  Moon-Beehive: 3.3° S
    25  Fr   7:43 pm  Venus-Antares: 3.1° N
    29  Tu  12:44 pm  Moon Descending Node
    29  Tu   5:50 pm  Moon Apogee: 406200 km
Nov  1  Fr            Venus: 38.2° E

All event times are given for UTC-4 hr: Eastern Daylight Saving 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 Times

     LU                  Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
October, 2024    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Tue  1| 07:41a  07:22p  11:40 | 08:25p  06:38a |      Rise 07:30a    1%|
|Wed  2| 07:42a  07:20p  11:37 | 08:23p  06:39a |New   Set  07:16p    0%|
|Thu  3| 07:43a  07:18p  11:34 | 08:21p  06:40a |      Set  07:33p    1%|
|Fri  4| 07:45a  07:16p  11:31 | 08:19p  06:42a |      Set  07:51p    4%|
|Sat  5| 07:46a  07:14p  11:28 | 08:17p  06:43a |      Set  08:13p    9%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  6| 07:47a  07:13p  11:25 | 08:15p  06:44a |      Set  08:40p   15%|
|Mon  7| 07:48a  07:11p  11:22 | 08:14p  06:45a |      Set  09:15p   23%|
|Tue  8| 07:50a  07:09p  11:19 | 08:12p  06:47a |      Set  10:00p   32%|
|Wed  9| 07:51a  07:07p  11:16 | 08:10p  06:48a |      Set  10:57p   42%|
|Thu 10| 07:52a  07:05p  11:13 | 08:08p  06:49a |F Qtr Set  12:05a   52%|
|Fri 11| 07:53a  07:04p  11:10 | 08:07p  06:50a |      Set  01:22a   63%|
|Sat 12| 07:55a  07:02p  11:07 | 08:05p  06:51a |      Set  02:41a   73%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 13| 07:56a  07:00p  11:04 | 08:03p  06:53a |      Set  04:03a   83%|
|Mon 14| 07:57a  06:58p  11:01 | 08:02p  06:54a |      Set  05:24a   91%|
|Tue 15| 07:58a  06:57p  10:58 | 08:00p  06:55a |      Set  06:47a   97%|
|Wed 16| 08:00a  06:55p  10:55 | 07:58p  06:56a |      Set  08:11a  100%|
|Thu 17| 08:01a  06:53p  10:52 | 07:57p  06:58a |Full  Rise 06:53p  100%|
|Fri 18| 08:02a  06:52p  10:49 | 07:55p  06:59a |      Rise 07:21p   96%|
|Sat 19| 08:04a  06:50p  10:46 | 07:54p  07:00a |      Rise 07:55p   91%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 20| 08:05a  06:48p  10:43 | 07:52p  07:01a |      Rise 08:40p   83%|
|Mon 21| 08:06a  06:47p  10:40 | 07:50p  07:02a |      Rise 09:35p   74%|
|Tue 22| 08:08a  06:45p  10:37 | 07:49p  07:04a |      Rise 10:40p   64%|
|Wed 23| 08:09a  06:44p  10:34 | 07:47p  07:05a |      Rise 11:50p   53%|
|Thu 24| 08:10a  06:42p  10:31 | 07:46p  07:06a |L Qtr Rise 01:01a   43%|
|Fri 25| 08:12a  06:40p  10:28 | 07:45p  07:07a |      Rise 02:09a   34%|
|Sat 26| 08:13a  06:39p  10:25 | 07:43p  07:09a |      Rise 03:15a   25%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 27| 08:14a  06:37p  10:23 | 07:42p  07:10a |      Rise 04:19a   17%|
|Mon 28| 08:16a  06:36p  10:20 | 07:40p  07:11a |      Rise 05:22a   11%|
|Tue 29| 08:17a  06:34p  10:17 | 07:39p  07:12a |      Rise 06:24a    6%|
|Wed 30| 08:18a  06:33p  10:14 | 07:38p  07:14a |      Rise 07:28a    2%|
|Thu 31| 08:20a  06:32p  10:11 | 07:36p  07:15a |      Rise 08:34a    0%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise

Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.