Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, October 3rd. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 7:18, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:45. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:33 this evening.

There is a bright star low in the northeast these evenings. It doesn’t seem to be rising very much over the course of the evening. This star is Capella, whose name means “little goat” and is part of the constellation Auriga the charioteer, which won’t completely rise for until about 11 PM. Capella is a circumpolar star meaning it appears to go around the North Pole of the sky, in a circle, as the Earth rotates but never sets. This is true for the Interlochen/Traverse City area and for latitudes north of the city of Ludington. Capella is slowly rising from the bottom of its circumpolar circle in the north, so it’s moving more horizontally than it is rising up. This motion was suspicious to one person who called me, who wondered what it was.

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