Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 7:53, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:22. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 9:34 this evening.

There are two small constellations in and near the Summer Triangle of bright stars. Both are near Altair the bottom star of the triangle in the south. The first is Delphinus the dolphin to the left of Altair. Delphinus is made-up of a small squished box of stars with another star below. It does look a dolphin leaping out of the water. The legendary Greek poet Arion, according to myth, was rescued by a dolphin. Also the little squished box is an asterism called Job’s Coffin, though no one knows the origin of that name. The second constellation is above Altair, and within the Summer Triangle. It is called Sagitta the arrow. The stars do line up to look like a short arrow. It’s supposed to represent Cupid’s dart.

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