Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, February 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 6:18, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:33. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 3:06 tomorrow morning.

Among all the constellations in the sky of animals real and mythical, there is also a unicorn. It’s called Monoceros, and inhabits the southeastern sky at 8 p.m. mostly bounded by Orion on the right, Canis Major, the great dog below and Canis Minor, the little dog to the left and above. Unfortunately for observers without a telescope Monoceros, is devoid of any but the faintest stars. Maybe that’s why no one can find unicorns anymore. It has many faint stars because the Milky Way runs through it. For the astrophotographer it is a feast of star clusters and faint nebulae or clouds of gas and dust, the birthplace of stars, including the red rose of the Rosette Nebula. It also contains a beautiful telescopic triple star system, Beta (β) Monocerotis.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

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