Ephemeris: 05/14/2026 – Looking at the bluest first magnitude star: Spica
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, May 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 47 minutes, setting at 9:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:14. The Moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 5:02 tomorrow morning.
In the south at 11 PM is the bright star Spica in Virgo the virgin. Arcturus, high in the southeast, is much brighter than Spica and has an orange tint to Spica’s bluish hue. In fact, Spica is the 15th brightest and the bluest of the 21 first magnitude stars. That means that it has a really hot surface temperature. I found that out once photographing a lunar eclipse near Spica, The star came out very blue, much bluer than seen visually. Spica is actually two stars in a tight 4-day orbit of each other. They are both reasonably matched in mass and brightness. The twin stars of Spica are 250 light years away. I’m glad the stars are young now. They will have a very interesting future as they age and interact in the next few million years.
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.
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