Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, December 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 53 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:09. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 10:34 this evening.

Tonight will be the night of the earliest sunset of the year. For the last few nights the Sun has been setting within the same minute. Soon the Sun will set noticeably later.

The bright star Aldebaran appears at the lower left tip of a letter V group of stars laying on it’s side, the Hyades star cluster and the face of Taurus the Bull. It’s in the east in the evening, above Orion. Aldebaran isn’t actually part of the group. The cluster is about 153 light years away, while Aldebaran is 65. The star has an orange hue because its surface is cooler than the Sun’s. However, Aldebaran is 44 times larger in diameter, and shines 425 times brighter than the Sun. The name Aldebaran means “Follower” because it follows the Pleiades star cluster across the sky.

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