Archive
11/01/2022 – Ephemeris – Previewing November skies
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, November 1st. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 6:31. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 1:21 tomorrow morning.
Let’s look ahead at the skies for the month of November. The Sun is still moving south rapidly. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 10 hours and 10 minutes today to 9 hours 5 minutes on the 30th. The altitude, or angle, of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be at 30 degrees today and will descend to 23 and a half degrees on the 30th. The altitude of the Sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower. Local noon, this month, will be about 12:30 p.m. once we’re on standard time beginning on the 6th. There will be a total eclipse of the Moon on the morning of the 8th, Election Day. The eclipse will start shortly after 4 am and be visible until it sets during the last stages of the eclipse just after sunrise, around 7:40 am. I’ll have more information on it next Monday.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
November Evening Star Chart
The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EST in the evening and 6 a.m. for the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian, West 75° longitude. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 45 minutes earlier than the current time.
For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations, click here.
- Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris, the North Star.
- Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus
- The Summer Triangle is in red.
- TauR on the evening star chart can be used as the radiant for the North and South Taurid meteor showers.
- LeoR on the morning star chart is the radiant of the Leonid meteor shower, which peaks between the 17th.
Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical
| EDT/EST | |||||||
| Morning | Twilight | Evening | Twilight | Dark | Night | Moon | |
| Date | Astro. | Nautical | Nautical | Astro. | Start | End | Illum. |
| 2022-11-01 | 6h47m | 7h21m | 19h40m | 20h13m | 0h03m | 6h47m | 0.61 |
| 2022-11-02 | 6h48m | 7h22m | 19h38m | 20h12m | 1h21m | 6h48m | 0.71 |
| 2022-11-03 | 6h49m | 7h23m | 19h37m | 20h11m | 2h39m | 6h49m | 0.81 |
| 2022-11-04 | 6h51m | 7h25m | 19h36m | 20h10m | 3h54m | 6h51m | 0.89 |
| 2022-11-05 | 6h52m | 7h26m | 19h35m | 20h09m | 5h07m | 6h52m | 0.94 |
| 2022-11-06 | 5h53m | 6h27m | 18h34m | 19h08m | 5h18m | 5h53m | 0.98 |
| 2022-11-07 | 5h54m | 6h28m | 18h32m | 19h06m | – | – | 1 |
| 2022-11-08 | 5h55m | 6h29m | 18h31m | 19h05m | – | – | 0.99 |
| 2022-11-09 | 5h57m | 6h31m | 18h30m | 19h04m | – | – | 0.97 |
| 2022-11-10 | 5h58m | 6h32m | 18h29m | 19h03m | – | – | 0.93 |
| 2022-11-11 | 5h59m | 6h33m | 18h28m | 19h03m | 19h03m | 19h16m | 0.87 |
| 2022-11-12 | 6h00m | 6h34m | 18h27m | 19h02m | 19h02m | 20h07m | 0.8 |
| 2022-11-13 | 6h01m | 6h35m | 18h26m | 19h01m | 19h01m | 21h05m | 0.72 |
| 2022-11-14 | 6h02m | 6h37m | 18h26m | 19h00m | 19h00m | 22h08m | 0.63 |
| 2022-11-15 | 6h03m | 6h38m | 18h25m | 18h59m | 18h59m | 23h13m | 0.54 |
| 2022-11-16 | 6h05m | 6h39m | 18h24m | 18h58m | 18h58m | – | 0.44 |
| 2022-11-17 | 6h06m | 6h40m | 18h23m | 18h58m | 18h58m | 0h19m | 0.34 |
| 2022-11-18 | 6h07m | 6h41m | 18h22m | 18h57m | 18h57m | 1h26m | 0.25 |
| 2022-11-19 | 6h08m | 6h43m | 18h22m | 18h56m | 18h56m | 2h33m | 0.17 |
| 2022-11-20 | 6h09m | 6h44m | 18h21m | 18h56m | 18h56m | 3h42m | 0.1 |
| 2022-11-21 | 6h10m | 6h45m | 18h20m | 18h55m | 18h55m | 4h54m | 0.04 |
| 2022-11-22 | 6h11m | 6h46m | 18h20m | 18h54m | 18h54m | 6h10m | 0.01 |
| 2022-11-23 | 6h12m | 6h47m | 18h19m | 18h54m | 18h54m | 6h12m | 0 |
| 2022-11-24 | 6h13m | 6h48m | 18h19m | 18h53m | 18h53m | 6h13m | 0.02 |
| 2022-11-25 | 6h14m | 6h49m | 18h18m | 18h53m | 18h53m | 6h14m | 0.07 |
| 2022-11-26 | 6h15m | 6h50m | 18h18m | 18h53m | 19h32m | 6h15m | 0.14 |
| 2022-11-27 | 6h16m | 6h51m | 18h17m | 18h52m | 20h49m | 6h16m | 0.24 |
| 2022-11-28 | 6h17m | 6h52m | 18h17m | 18h52m | 22h09m | 6h17m | 0.34 |
| 2022-11-29 | 6h18m | 6h53m | 18h17m | 18h52m | 23h29m | 6h18m | 0.45 |
| 2022-11-30 | 6h19m | 6h55m | 18h16m | 18h51m | – | 6h19m | 0.57 |
Twilight calendar was generated using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
See my blog post: Twilight Zone for the definitions of the different periods of twilight here: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/.
NASA Calendar of Planetary Events
Nov 1 Tu Venus: 2.6° E
1 Tu 1:37 am First Quarter
1 Tu 4:08 pm Moon-Saturn: 4.3° N
4 Fr 3:19 pm Moon-Jupiter: 2.5° N
8 Tu 1:08 am Moon Ascending Node
8 Tu 5:59 am Total Lunar Eclipse
8 Tu 6:02 am Full Beaver Moon
8 Tu 11:28 am Mercury Superior Conj.
9 We 3:41 am Uranus Opposition
9 We 7:16 am Moon-Pleiades: 2.9° N
11 Fr 8:43 am Moon-Mars: 2.7° S
12 Sa 9:17 am Moon North Dec.: 27.5° N
12 Sa 12:25 pm North Taurid Shower: ZHR = 15
13 Su 6:43 pm Moon-Pollux: 1.9° N
14 Mo 1:41 am Moon Apogee: 404900 km
16 We 8:27 am Last Quarter
17 Th 6:42 pm Leonid Shower: ZHR = 15
22 Tu 11:23 am Moon Descending Node
23 We 5:57 pm New Moon
25 Fr 8:30 pm Moon Perigee: 362800 km
26 Sa 3:28 am Moon South Dec.: 27.5° S
28 Mo 11:40 pm Moon-Saturn: 4.2° N
30 We 9:36 am First Quarter
Dec 1 Th Venus: 9.9° E
All event times for November 1-5 are given for UTC-4 Eastern Daylight Saving Time. For dates after that, times are given for UTC-5 Eastern Standard Time.
Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html.
If you go to the above site, you can print out a list like the above for the entire year or calendar pages for your time zone.
Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Times
LU Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC November, 2022 Local time zone: EDT +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | DATE | SUN SUN DAYLIGHT| TWILIGHT* |MOON RISE OR ILLUM | | | RISE SET HOURS | END START |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN| +=======================================================================+ |Tue 1| 08:20a 06:31p 10:10 | 07:36p 07:15a |F Qtr Set 01:21a 58%| |Wed 2| 08:22a 06:29p 10:07 | 07:35p 07:17a | Set 02:38a 69%| |Thu 3| 08:23a 06:28p 10:05 | 07:33p 07:18a | Set 03:53a 79%| |Fri 4| 08:24a 06:27p 10:02 | 07:32p 07:19a | Set 05:06a 87%| |Sat 5| 08:26a 06:26p 09:59 | 07:31p 07:20a | Set 06:18a 93%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ | EST | Time Change | | | |Sun 6| 07:27a 05:24p 09:57 | 06:30p 06:21a | Set 06:29a 98%| |Mon 7| 07:29a 05:23p 09:54 | 06:29p 06:23a | Set 07:40a 100%| |Tue 8| 07:30a 05:22p 09:51 | 06:28p 06:24a |Full Rise 05:28p 100%| |Wed 9| 07:31a 05:21p 09:49 | 06:27p 06:25a | Rise 05:57p 98%| |Thu 10| 07:33a 05:19p 09:46 | 06:26p 06:26a | Rise 06:32p 94%| |Fri 11| 07:34a 05:18p 09:44 | 06:25p 06:28a | Rise 07:15p 88%| |Sat 12| 07:35a 05:17p 09:41 | 06:24p 06:29a | Rise 08:06p 81%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 13| 07:37a 05:16p 09:39 | 06:23p 06:30a | Rise 09:05p 73%| |Mon 14| 07:38a 05:15p 09:37 | 06:22p 06:31a | Rise 10:07p 65%| |Tue 15| 07:39a 05:14p 09:34 | 06:21p 06:32a | Rise 11:13p 55%| |Wed 16| 07:41a 05:13p 09:32 | 06:20p 06:33a |L Qtr Rise 12:19a 46%| |Thu 17| 07:42a 05:12p 09:30 | 06:20p 06:35a | Rise 01:25a 36%| |Fri 18| 07:43a 05:11p 09:27 | 06:19p 06:36a | Rise 02:32a 27%| |Sat 19| 07:45a 05:10p 09:25 | 06:18p 06:37a | Rise 03:42a 18%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 20| 07:46a 05:10p 09:23 | 06:17p 06:38a | Rise 04:54a 11%| |Mon 21| 07:47a 05:09p 09:21 | 06:17p 06:39a | Rise 06:10a 5%| |Tue 22| 07:49a 05:08p 09:19 | 06:16p 06:40a | Rise 07:30a 1%| |Wed 23| 07:50a 05:07p 09:17 | 06:16p 06:42a |New Set 04:50p 0%| |Thu 24| 07:51a 05:07p 09:15 | 06:15p 06:43a | Set 05:31p 2%| |Fri 25| 07:52a 05:06p 09:13 | 06:15p 06:44a | Set 06:24p 6%| |Sat 26| 07:54a 05:05p 09:11 | 06:14p 06:45a | Set 07:31p 13%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 27| 07:55a 05:05p 09:10 | 06:14p 06:46a | Set 08:48p 22%| |Mon 28| 07:56a 05:04p 09:08 | 06:13p 06:47a | Set 10:09p 32%| |Tue 29| 07:57a 05:04p 09:06 | 06:13p 06:48a | Set 11:28p 43%| |Wed 30| 07:58a 05:04p 09:05 | 06:13p 06:49a |F Qtr Set 12:44a 54%| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ * Nautical Twilight ** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset
Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.
10/31/2022 – Ephemeris – The perfect Halloween star
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Halloween, Monday, October 31st. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 6:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:20. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 12:02 tomorrow morning.
Not all the ghosts and goblins out tonight will be children. One is out just about every night because it’s a star. Its name is Algol, from the Arabic for Ghoul Star or Demon Star. It’s normally the second-brightest star in the constellation Perseus the hero, visible in the northeast this evening. The star is located where artists have drawn the severed head of Medusa, whom he had slain. Medusa was so ugly that she turned all who gazed upon her to stone. Algol is her still glittering eye. The star got the name before astronomers discovered what was really wrong with it. They found out that it does a slow wink about every two days, 21 hours because Algol is two stars that eclipse each other. Her next evening wink will be dimmest at 10:25 p.m. November 19th.*
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
*For the broadcast, the source for the Algol minimum brightness time was the Stellarium app. For whichever date the sky is displayed for and Algol is clicked on, among the data for the star that is displayed is next minimum light. However, in double-checking the times with those posted in Sky & Telescope magazine after I recorded the program, it turns out to be 3 hours 46 minutes early, so minimum light would be at 1:36 am on November 17th. At the time given then, the eclipse would just be starting. The actual first eclipse minimum in the evening in November would be at 10:25 pm on the 19th. I hope it’s clear on the night of the 16/17th to see which prediction is right. In the past, S&T was accurate, or accurate enough.
Perseus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda with Algol finder animation for Autumn evenings. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
Perseus and the head of Medusa from the 1690 Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius. Note that the captions in the image are as seen in a mirror. Early star representations were painted on a globe, a celestial sphere, so the stars and constellations were shown as seen from the outside. A God’s eye view. Early printed star charts simply kept the convention. I reversed the image, so it is seen from inside the celestial sphere. An Earthly view to match the sky as we see it. The image was found with the article on Algol on Wikipedia.
Animation of an eclipsing binary star like Algol. Credit: Wikimedia Commons h/t Earth and Sky
10/28/2022 – Ephemeris – Mars is turning around this weekend
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, October 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 6:37, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:16. The Moon, 3 days past new, will set at 8:39 this evening.
This Sunday the 30th, the planet Mars will cease its normal eastward motion in relation to the stars, and backtrack to the west for a while. The instant Mars stops its eastward motion, it is said to be stationary. The backtracking is called retrograde motion, which was hard for ancient astronomers to explain because they thought the Earth was not moving and in the center of the universe. And the planets moved in uniform circular motion. So said the Greeks, because they thought that things in the heavens were perfect, not like the imperfect things of the Earth. Mars was a hard case. Its motion was definitely not uniform or circular. To Copernicus, the retrograde motion meant that the Earth was a planet passing another planet in their race around the Sun.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Mars retrograde path from October 29, 2022 to January 11, 2023 against the stars of Taurus the bull. It will be at opposition on December 7, and actually closest to the Earth on November 30 at 50.61 million miles or 81.45 million kilometers. In the upper right is the beautiful Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters. Below and right is the V shaped star cluster that represents the face of Taurus the bull, with the bright red star Aldebaran as the bull’s angry red eye. That V of stars is called the Hyades, who in mythology were the half sisters to the Pleiades. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts) and GIMP.
10/27/2022 – Ephemeris – Trying to spot the young Moon tonight
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, October 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 6:38, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:15. The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 7:55 this evening.
The Moon is again making its appearance in the evening sky as a thin crescent. The crescent appearance is because the moon is mostly between the Earth and the Sun. So we are seeing mostly its night side, with just a sliver of it being sunlit. But the Moon has the Earth in its sky, which is quite big and bright, much brighter than the Moon in our skies. And when the Moon’s phase is thin, the Earth, having the opposite phase, will be a nearly full gibbous orb. The Earth illuminates the Moon’s night side with earthlight. We call it earthshine, when the whole Moon appears faintly inside the crescent. It’s also known more poetically as the “Old moon in the new moon’s arms.” If you’re not sure, because the effect is faint, check it out in binoculars. The effect should last another night.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
An old picture of mine overexposing the crescent Moon to bring out earthshine. The moon was a wider crescent than it will appear to be tonight.
10/26/2022 – Ephemeris – Let’s see where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Wednesday, October 26th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 6:40, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:14. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:21 this evening.
Let’s see where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week. Jupiter and Saturn will be visible this evening, in the east-southeast and south-southeast respectively, as soon after sunset as it will be dark enough to see them, which would be by 7:45 pm. Jupiter is seen against the stars of Pisces the fish, while Saturn is spotted in the eastern end of Capricornus the sea goat. The red planet Mars, though a morning planet, will rise tonight at 9:15 pm in the northeast. It’s located between the tips of the long horns of Taurus the bull. By seven tomorrow morning, the red planet Mars will be high in the southwestern sky, above the winter constellation of Orion. Mars has traveled about as far east as it will get for a while. It will head back westward after Sunday.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Jupiter and Saturn with label animation for 8 pm tonight, October 26, 2022. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
Though Mars is a morning planet, since it is in the sky at sunrise, perhaps the best time to vies it is in the evening after it rises in the east-northeast at 9:15 pm. By 11 pm, as seen here, Mars should be high enough to present a decent image in a telescope. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic views of Saturn Jupiter and Mars (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope, with the same magnification. The image of Mars doesn’t show it, but the white north polar cap will appear at the top or north limb of Mars. Saturn and Jupiter are shown at 8 pm, Mars at 11 pm. Apparent diameters: Saturn 17.41″, its rings 40.55″; Jupiter 48.16″. Mars 14.58″. Mars’ distance is 59.7 million miles (96.2 million kilometers). The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on October 26, 2022. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 27th. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp program and GIMP.
10/25/2022 – Ephemeris – This eclipse season starts with a partial solar eclipse, but not for us
“But not for us” means not for Michigan in the United States. This is a script, as always, for a local radio program. Which also mentions the midterm election day, two weeks from now, which coincides with the total lunar eclipse that morning. I’ll have an Ephemeris Extra post before the lunar eclipse, which looks into the next few lunar and solar eclipses visible in Michigan and the United States.
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 6:41, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:12. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
The Moon will be visible in a negative way for some folks at this time. There is a partial solar eclipse in progress now for parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. So that thing blocking the northern part of the Sun for them will be the Moon. Being a partial eclipse means that an eclipse season has started, and we should have a lunar eclipse in about two weeks, when the Moon is full. There sure is, and it’s visible from here. In exactly two weeks, there will be. In the early morning hours of November 8th, Election Day, a total eclipse of the Moon. And if you’re standing outside the polling place waiting for the polls to open at 7 am, and it’s clear, and you have a view to the west, the partially eclipsed Moon will still be visible. That will be the ending partial phase of the eclipse.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Map for the area on the Earth where the partial solar eclipse of October 25, 2022, will be visible. Credit: NASA/GSFC, Fred Espenak.
10/24/2022 – Ephemeris – Finding Pisces the fish
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, October 24th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 6:43, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:11. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 8:18 tomorrow morning.
High in the southeast at 9 p.m. are the four bright stars of the Great Square of Pegasus, the upside down flying horse. Lying along the left and bottom sides of the great square is the constellation of Pisces the fish, one of the constellations of the Zodiac that lie along the path of the Sun, Moon and planets. Even though the constellation is called the fish, the fish themselves are not well represented in the stars. What can be traced in the stars is the rope, that’s tied to their tails, anchored at the extreme southeastern part of the constellation. The right or western end of Pisces is the asterism, or informal constellation, of the Circlet. A loop of 5 stars, the rope around the tail of one of the fish, or the fish itself. Jupiter is seen against the stars of Pisces in the evening, the rest of this and early next year.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Pisces finder animation looking south-southeast with Jupiter at 9 pm tonight, October 24, 2022. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
10/21/2022 – Ephemeris – Lots of transient astronomical activity this weekend
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, October 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 41 minutes, setting at 6:48, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:07. The Moon, halfway from last quarter to new, will rise at 4:44 tomorrow morning. | We have several astronomical events happening tonight and over the weekend. The Orionid meteor shower may still be at peak, appearing tonight between 11 pm and moonrise tomorrow morning. Up to 20, and maybe more, meteors per hour may be spotted just prior to moonrise. Tomorrow Venus will be in superior conjunction with the Sun, the passing behind, though not directly behind the Sun, and thus entering the evening sky. It will be a month or so for Venus to separate itself from the Sun’s glare to be spotted in the early evening. Finally, on Sunday Saturn will end its retrograde or westward movement against the stars of Capricornus and resume moving eastward, its normal motion around our sky.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Orionid meteor shower radiant. The radiant rises at 11 p.m., so the meteors will be visible from then into morning twilight. Despite the location of the radiant, the meteors will b e seen all over the sky. However, true Orionids can be traced back to the radiant point. This chart is from another year. This year, bright Mars would be at the top center of the image. Created using Stellarium.
Venus near Superior conjunction through the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) LASCO C2 Coronagraph. The white circle inside the occulting disk is the diameter of the Sun’s photosphere, the disk we see of the Sun in white light. Launched in 1995, SOHO has been in halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point ever since.
Saturn stationary animation showing it with and without annotations. The fine, folded line with tick marks is Saturn’s path. The tick marks are at 10-day intervals. Saturn starts out in retrograde motion, heading westward or to the right. On October 23rd, it slows and stops that motion. It begins to head back eastward in its normal prograde motion to the left. Outer planets like Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the rest exhibit retrograde motion when the Earth in effect passes them on the same side of the Sun. Click on the image to enlarge it slightly. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts), LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
10/20/2022 – Ephemeris – Halley’s Comet returns… in little bitty pieces
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, October 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 6:49, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:06. The Moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:36 tomorrow morning.
Halley’s Comet is back! (Pronounced Hawley’s) Well sorta. In the form of the Orionid meteor shower. Bits of Halley’s Comet from previous passes by the Earth’s orbit make their twice-yearly show in our skies as these bits collide with the Earth’s atmosphere. Halley’s orbit passes close to the Earth’s orbit at points where the Earth is around May 6th and again near October 21st. Light dust and ionized gas get blown back into the tail of the comet. Heavier particles will roughly follow in the comet’s orbit. The radiant, a spot above the constellation Orion and below Gemini from which they will seem to come, will rise around 11 pm. So view them any time after that as their numbers will increase until the Moon rises both tonight and tomorrow nights.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Orionid Radiant is high in the south at 5 a.m. this weekend. Created using Stellarium.
Halley’s Comet orbit with the orbits of the inner planets showing the points at which the debris from the comet intersect with the Earth’s orbit, causing meteor showers. Click on the image to enlarge it. Diagram credit JPL Small-Body Database Browser with my annotations.
10/19/2022 – Ephemeris – Let’s search for the naked-eye planets for this week
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Wednesday, October 19th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 47 minutes, setting at 6:51, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:04. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 2:29 tomorrow morning.
Let’s search for the naked-eye planets for this week. Jupiter and Saturn will be visible this evening, in the east-southeast and south-southeast respectively, as soon after sunset as it will be dark enough to see them, which would be by 7:45 pm. Jupiter is seen against the stars of Pisces the fish, while Saturn is spotted in the eastern end of Capricornus the sea goat. The red planet Mars, though a morning planet, will rise tonight at 9:41 pm in the northeast. It’s located between the tips of the long horns of Taurus the bull. By seven tomorrow morning, the red planet Mars will be high in the southwestern sky, above the winter constellation of Orion. Tiny Mercury might be spotted very low in the east around 7:30 am for the next few days.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Jupiter and Saturn in the evening finder animation for 9 pm tonight, October 19, 2022. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
Mars among the winter stars at 7 tomorrow morning, October 20, 2022. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
Waning crescent Moon labeled/unlabeled animation for 7 tomorrow morning, October 20, 2022. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Telescopic views of Saturn Jupiter and Mars (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope, with the same magnification. The image of Mars doesn’t show it, but the white north polar cap will appear at the top or north limb of Mars. Saturn and Jupiter are shown at 9 pm, Mars at 7 am. I do not show planets less than 10 seconds of arc in diameter, so Mercury is not shown. Apparent diameters: Saturn 17.61″, its rings 41.02″; Jupiter 48.82″. Mars 13.86″. Mars’ distance is 63.0 million miles (101.4 million kilometers). The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on October 19, 2022. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 20th. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp program and GIMP.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 