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Ephemeris: 07/12/2024 – Star Party tomorrow night at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, July 12th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 9:27, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:10. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 12:42 tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow night, Saturday, July 13th, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will team up with the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society to host a star party at the Dune Climb from 9 to 11 PM or later. It won’t be a star party only, because the featured attraction will be the first quarter Moon. To my mind, this is the best time to view the Moon, showing its craters with deep shadows near the terminator or sunrise line which crosses the Moon slowly over the month. There are no planets out in the evening, but we do have some interesting stars to look at besides the Moon. And the bright International Space Station will be seen moving from west to northeast, passing through the bowl of the Big Dipper around 10:28 pm.
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
Translations of some lunar feature names according to Virtual Moon Atlas
Mare Crisium – Sea of Crises
Mare Fecunditatis – Sea of Fruitfulness
Mare Frigoris – Sea of Cold
Mare Imbrium – Sea of Showers
Mare Nectaris – Sea of Nectar
Mare Serenitatis – Sea of Serenity
Mare Tranquillitatis – Sea of Tranquility
Mare Vaporum – Sea of Vapors
Montes Alpes – Alps Mountains
Montes Apenninus – Apennines Mountains
Craters are named for persons, real or otherwise.
Ephemeris: 07/05/2024 – GTAS meeting: processing astrophotographs
This is Ephemeris for Friday, July 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 9:30, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:04. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
Tonight’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers observatory, which starts at 9 PM tonight, will feature a talk by Dan Dall’Olmo, one of our successful astrophotographers in the society. He will discuss image processing. Taking the picture is only the beginning. He will show how to bring out and sharpen images taken with digital cameras. Back in my day processing photographs involved chemicals in the darkroom. “I love the smell of Hypo in the morning”. Now it involves computers and software. Afterward if it’s, clear we’ll be viewing the sky. Note the later start time for the meeting. We follow the later sunsets this time of year, so viewing starts after sunset. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Rd. Between Garfield and Keystone roads.
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
Here are a couple of Dan’s photographs of celestial objects visible this time of year. The eaw images do not look this good, hence the image processing to bring out the image brightness and detail.
Ephemeris: 06/28/2024 – Solar viewing at Sleeping Bear Dunes tomorrow
This is Ephemeris for Friday, June 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:00. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 1:37 tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow, Saturday, June 29th there will be solar viewing at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, at the Dune Climb from 3 to 6 PM. Park Rangers will be joined by members of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society with their specially filtered telescopes to view the Sun safely. This is a period of great solar activity. Remember the Aurora Borealis of a few weeks ago. Solar filtered telescopes will safely view the surface of the sun, called the photosphere and sunspots, while the society also has two special solar telescopes with which to view the layer of gas above the surface called the chromosphere and prominences which look like flames coming off the chromosphere. This is one of two solar observing opportunities this summer.
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
Ephemeris: 06/14/2024 – Star Party at the Sleeping Bear Dunes tomorrow night*
* if it’s clear or mostly clear.
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Flag Day, Friday, June 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 9:30, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:56. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 2:22 tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow night, Saturday, June 15th, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will team up with the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society to host a star party at the Dune Climb from 9 to 11 PM. It won’t be a star party exactly, because the featured attraction will be the Moon, nearly two days after first quarter. To my mind, this is about the best time to view the Moon showing its craters with deep shadows near the terminator or sunrise line which crosses the moon slowly over the month. There are no planets out in the evening, but we do have some interesting stars to look at besides the Moon. The fairly bright Chinese Tiangong Space Station will pass below the position of the Moon at 10:22 that evening.**
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 information of the Tiangong space station pass came from heavens-above.com. The space station was also displayed in Stellarium when set to the proper time. Tiangong was predicted to be first magnitude by both sources, but Heavens-Above predicted a magnitude twice as bright as Stellarium.
Ephemeris: 06/07/2024 – GTAS hears from NASA engineer tonight
This is Ephemeris for Friday, June 7th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 9:26, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:57. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 11:19 this evening.
Tonight’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will start at 9 pm, at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. The later start time in June and July will allow the following star party, which will start at the end of the meeting, around 10 pm, to start after sunset. The sky will still be in bright twilight. We are pleased to have Joe Gibson, Principal Flight Software Engineer, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to speak to us. After the program, at about 10 pm, if it’s clear will be viewing of the skies as it gets dark. The public is always welcome. This meeting also marks the Society’s 42nd anniversary. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads.
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
Ephemeris: 05/03/2024 – GTAS meeting tonight: Eclipse Tales
This is Ephemeris for Friday, May 3rd. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 8:50, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:27. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:48 tomorrow morning.
The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will meet this evening at 8:00 PM at the NMC’s Joseph Rogers observatory which is on Birmley Road, south of Traverse City. The program will consist of returning members from the total solar eclipse last month showing their photographs, and recounting their adventures of going down to the path of totality. And in my case a video of the changes in the sky at totality, as the Moon’s shadow passed over us. Afterward, if it’s clear, will be viewing the skies, though there will be no planets or the Moon out. In the morning hours before dawn tomorrow and Sunday morning there will be a meteor shower, the Eta Aquariid meteor shower of particles from Halley’s Comet striking the Earth’s atmosphere.
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
There will be more photos and stories at the meeting.
Ephemeris: 04/12/2024 – GTAS Meeting tonight: Hidden Figures
This is Ephemeris for Friday, April 12th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 22 minutes, setting at 8:24, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:01. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 1:52 tomorrow morning.
Tonight’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at 8 pm, at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory, will feature the student astronomy group’s movie night with a presentation of Hidden Figures. How female African American “Computers”, made the space program possible. Many of NASA’s facilities were in the segregated South. Back then computers were also people with tremendous math skills, who could work out problems of orbital mechanics by hand and with mechanical calculators. Plus we’ll see if anyone has made it back to report on Monday’s total solar eclipse. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads.
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
Ephemeris: 03/01/2024 – Mr. Eclipse to give a presentation about April’s Total Solar Eclipse
This is Ephemeris for Friday, March 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 6:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:17. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 1:09 tomorrow morning.
Tonight’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will start at a special time, 7 pm, at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory, because we will join the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society via Zoom for a talk by Fred Espenak formerly of NASA. He is known as Mr. Eclipse and of course he will be talking about the April 8th total solar eclipse. Fred Espenak has been responsible for NASA’s eclipse website through the 2017 total solar eclipse. He’s chased the shadow of the Moon around the world. Now retired, he hosts two websites. One of which is mreclipse.com. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads.
You may also join the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society meeting directly: Follow this link to register for Zoom. They have room for 500 people on Zoom, and they’d like to max that out!
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ephemeris: 12/01/2023 – I’ll be exploring ancient Greek astronomy tonight
This is Ephemeris for Friday, December 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 4 minutes, setting at 5:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:00. The Moon, halfway from full to last quarter, will rise at 8:51 this evening.
Tonight at this month’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society which will be at 8 pm at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. I will be giving an illustrated talk about The Astronomy of the Ancient Greeks. The Greek astronomical view of the universe held sway in the western world sixteen hundred years into the Christian era. I’ll look at the early Greek astronomers from Thales, the first astronomer and philosopher in the 6th century BCE to Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE. Afterward if it’s clear we’ll have a star party starting about 9 pm. The meeting will also be available via Zoom, which I’ll be using to give the talk. Go to gtastro.org for instructions and a link.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Ephemeris: 11/03/2023 – GTAS meeting tonight
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, November 3rd. The Sun will rise at 8:23. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 6:28. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:00 this evening.
A documentary on the astronomical life of Jack Newton will be shown tonight at 8 pm at the meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory, and on Zoom. Jack Newton is a rather famous Canadian amateur astronomer and a pioneer in astrophotography starting in the days before digital photography. After the meeting, at 9 pm, if it’s clear the society will host a star party to view the dark autumn skies including Saturn. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads. Zoom instructions will be at gtastro.org. On Sunday we get to fall back an hour, and get an extra hour of sleep as we go back an hour to standard time.
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.
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