Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, June 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 9:28, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:56. The Moon, halfway from last quarter to new, will rise at 3:28 tomorrow morning.

High in the northern sky at 11 p.m. lies the twisted constellation, of Draco the dragon. This dragon is more like the snakelike Chinese dragon than the dinosaur-like dragon of European legend. I find it better sneak up on its tail, to trace him out in the stars. Draco’s tail starts, or ends, between the bowl of the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper high in the north. The Dragon is seen in a line of stars that extends parallel to the handle of the Big Dipper before curving around the bowl of the Little Dipper then bends back down to the level of Polaris in the north-northeast before turning toward the east. The head of Draco is an odd box of stars near the bright star Vega, high in the east. Though not made up of very bright stars, Draco has an easy shape to trace.

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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