Archive
Ephemeris: 09/25/2026 – Our Harvest Moon marks the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival
This is Ephemeris for Friday, September 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 0 minutes, setting at 7:34, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:34. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:29 tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow the Moon will be full. And since it’s only four days past the autumnal equinox, this makes it the Harvest Moon. This full moon also marks the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival to honor the Moon and the story of Chang’e a mortal woman to took an elixir and flew off to the Moon and became a goddess. Another story revolves around the Jade Rabbit pounding Medicine. Beside the face one can see in the dark maria on the moon, we call the Man in the Moon, the Chinese saw the figure of a rabbit seen on the face of the Moon. He is a companion to Chang’e, and has a mortar and pestal with him. He pounds out the medicine that makes the inhabitants of the sky immortal. The Chinese lunar probes are named Chang’e, their rovers: Yutu, the Jade Rabbit.
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
Ephemeris: 05/27/2025 – The many faces of the Big Dipper
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 9:17, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:02. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 10:44 this evening.
The Big Dipper is overhead, actually north of overhead this evening when it gets dark for us in Michigan, it’s seven stars shining brightly. The Big Dipper is not an actual constellation, recognized internationally. It’s part, the hind part, of Ursa Major, the great bear. The Big Dipper is an asterism or informal constellation. It is a distinctly North American constellation. For fugitive slaves, fleeing the southern states in the days before the Civil War, the Drinking Gourd, as they called it, showed the direction north to freedom. In England the dipper stars become the Plough (plow), or Charles’ Wain (Charlemagne’s Wagon). In France, known for culinary delights it is the saucepan, or the cleaver. Many cultures saw what was familiar to them in these seven bright stars.
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
