Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Ada Lovelace Day, Tuesday, October 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 1 minute, setting at 6:59, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:58. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:34 tomorrow morning.

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), or more properly Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was the daughter of Lord Byron and worked for Charles Babbage, a brilliant mechanical engineer and mathematician in the early 19th century. She is considered the first computer programmer. She devised a way to use the same punch cards that were used on the Jacquard loom to store and run her programs, even though Babbage was unable to complete his mechanical computer the Analytical Engine in the mid 1800s. This day is set aside to celebrate the accomplishments of all the women of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, (STEM). The computer language, Ada, was named after her, and was created for the US Department of Defense or whatever they call it this week.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

The reason I’m interested in Ada Lovelace and her story is that I spent 45 years as a systems analyst, creating and coding computer applications for small businesses and banks. I ended up heading the IT department for a local bank, from which I retired 12 years ago. Astronomy is my hobby, though I’ve made a few bucks at it in my earlier years as a planetarium technician and lecturer.