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Ephemeris: 08/13/2026 – The Milky Way seen in two cultures

August 13, 2026 Leave a comment

This is Ephemeris for International Left-Handers Day, Thursday, August 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 8:51, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:44. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 9:22 this evening.

In the folk tales of many lands and cultures the Milky Way has been seen as either a stream or pathway. The term we get for it, the Milky Way, is that it is a stream of milk from the breasts of the Egyptian goddess Nut, the goddess of the sky.

The Anishinaabe native peoples of our area gave it several names: Jiibay-Miikana, The Spirit Road, or Jiibay-ziibi, River of souls, Both for the journey of souls to the afterlife. Or Binesiwi-miikana, Thunderbird’s path. This last is interesting, because in spring as the Milky Way rises from the southeast it beckons migrating birds northward, and in autumn as the Milky Way sinks to the southwest, it bids them to fly southward to warmer climes.

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

A depiction of the Egyptian goddess NUT as the star studded sky.
A depiction of the Egyptian goddess NUT as the star studded sky. Source: min.news.
The sky dome at 11 PM in mid August showing the Milky Way.
The sky dome at 11 PM in mid August with Stellarium. The brightness of the Milky Way is enhanced, and the prominent constellations along the way are shown. From the upper left they are Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Aquila and Sagittarius.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Milky Way, Mythology Tags: ,

Ephemeris: 08/07/2026 – The Great Rift

August 7, 2026 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Friday, August 7th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 9:00, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:37. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 1:20 tomorrow morning.

Once one finds the Milky Way which is pretty hard to miss this month, it becomes obvious that the Milky Way is split lengthwise starting near Deneb, the northernmost star of the Summer Triangle, almost all the way to the Teapot of Sagittarius low in the south. That dark split is called the Great Rift. Galileo first discovered that the hazy clouds of the Milky Way were actually made of faint stars, so it was thought the dark areas were due to a lack of stars. The great 18th century astronomer William Herschel did star counts all over the sky with his telescope. A map his sister drew of the flattened shape of his universe shows the lack of distant stars in one direction. It’s not really fewer stars, but interstellar clouds of dust blocking the light of the stars behind them.

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

The Milky Way from Cygnus to Scutum
The Milky Way from Cygnus to Scutum. In this image, actually a stack of 5 images, on August 12, 2018. I was hoping to record Perseid meteors. It was a poor showing, as none appeared in these images. We were hampered that year by smoke from the western US wildfires which really affected the lower part of this image, which was still pretty high up in the sky. Featured here is the Great Rift, a series of dust clouds that split the Milky Way lengthwise into two sections. Credit Bob Moler (me).
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Milky Way, Observing Tags:

Ephemeris: 07/28/2026 – The size and shape of the Milky Way

July 28, 2026 Comments off

7/

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, July 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 9:13, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:25. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 6:11 tomorrow morning.

August and September are the two months in which the Milky Way dominates the evening sky. It also dominates the sky in the winter, six months from now but we’re looking out away from the center of the Milky Way. It is dimmer, an almost invisible as a band, but we have a great number of really bright stars, including those of Orion. The Milky Way is a galaxy, a large conglomeration of stars that are arranged in a disk, with the central bulge, whose diameter is about 87,400 light years. The thickness of the disk runs from 8,500 light years near the center to 1,000 light years farther out. The sun’s location is 25 to 26,000 light years from the center. From our location within the disk it appears to be a glowing band that surrounds the sky.

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

Artist's conception of the Milky Way. From NASA/JPL/Spitzer/Cal Tech
Artist’s conception of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL/Spitzer/Cal Tech
The summer and winter Milky Way viewing directions.
The summer and winter Milky Way viewing directions. During Spring and Autumn, we look out the sides to the universe beyond. Credit Credit: NASA with annotations by Bob King at Universe Today.
The span of the Milky Way across the summer sky
The span of the Milky Way across the summer sky as seen in the free Stellarium app. Specifically August 15th at 10 pm from Northern Michigan. The Milky Way has been set to its maximum brightness to show as much detail as possible. It really isn’t that bright. The horizon is only delineated by the compass points. The dark clouds of the Great Rift are also visible. The Milky Way, in Stellarium, is photo-realistic. The triangle of three bright stars above center is the Summer Triangle, Specifically, clockwise from the top star: Vega, Altair and Deneb. Large images can be truncated on the right. Click or tap on the image to enlarge and display the complete image.

Categories: Concepts, Ephemeris Program, Milky Way

Ephemeris: 05/04/2026 – Looking out of the Milky Way

May 4, 2026 Comments off

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, May 4th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 8:51, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:26. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 12:25 tomorrow morning.

The May evening sky, when it finally gets dark, contains fewer stars than those of winter. And they’re much dimmer. The main reason for that is that we are looking out the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way is no nowhere to be seen, because it rings the horizon. A bit is visible in the north. The summer triangle of bright stars is not completely up in the evening, and it straddles the Milky Way. So we are looking out to the universe beyond the Milky Way, for the most part. Even amateur telescopes will reveal a great number of galaxies, because there’s a huge cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo which is right behind and below Leo the lion in the sky. However, just about 90° from the plane of the Milky Way is a star cluster that looks like strands of hair.

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

May sky dome for 11 PM May 15th, showing constellations and deep sky objects. It shows how galaxies dominate the spring sky.
May sky dome for 11 PM May 15th, showing constellations and deep sky objects. It shows how galaxies dominate the spring sky. The tiny red circles are galaxies, other Milky Ways beyond our own. The other symbols are also what we call deep sky objects, that are extended objects among and beyond the solar system, such as star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Most of the other symbols cluster around the plane of the Milky Way, that can be seen along the northern half of the horizon. The little orange circles are galactic or open star clusters which are relatively young and born out of the nebulae (red squares) in the the galactic plane. The green circles with the cross inside are globular star clusters which are very old and compact and are aranged within a large spherical volume concentrated on the center of the Milky Way. The green circles will line through it are planetary nebulae which have nothing to do with planets but are dying stars who puffed out their outer layers of gas. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Galaxies, Milky Way

Ephemeris: 03/23/2026 – Looking out beyond the spring stars

March 23, 2026 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Monday, March 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 19 minutes, setting at 7:59, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:38. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 2:23 tomorrow morning.

It is becoming more obvious as the Moon waxes, that there’s more bright stars in the south and southwestern part of the sky than there are in the southeastern sky. That’s because the Milky Way runs through the winter part of the sky. It’s not as bright as the Milky Way appears in the summer since we are looking away from the center of our Galaxy. The disk of our galaxy causes stars to congregate near that Milky band, whether we can see it well or not. That is the main reason the winter stars are so bright. In the southeast we are looking at the spring sky. Leo the lion and of course the Great Bear with the Big Dipper are there, but we are mostly looking outside the disk or galaxy to the universe beyond. So we’re looking through fewer nearby stars, so the spring sky seems somewhat lackluster compared to the crazy chaos of the winter sky.

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; EST, UT – 5 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Comparing the skies of spring on the left, specifically 9:00 PM on March 23rd. Looking at the Milky Way and the stars that we could see in our Galaxy and a view of what’s on the outside. The little red ovals are galaxies. There are some blue ovals in there too, which are also galaxies, but more than one. They are interacting galaxies. Also visible, is the major galaxy cluster of spring on the far left, the Virgo cluster, a big mashup of galaxies. Notice that along the milky path there are hardly any galaxies. This is called the zone of avoidance. It isn’t that the galaxies avoid that area, but that the dust and gas in the galactic plane blocks light from the galaxies behind it. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Galaxies, Milky Way, Seasonal skies

Ephemeris: 09/15/2025 – Last month to view the southern Milky Way from Michigan

September 15, 2025 Comments off
Taking a closeup look at the top of the first image using the Stellarium app. I use that distinctive group of 5 stars in the south end of Scutum, which is a Milky Way filled area between Aquila, above, and Sagittarius. I don’t have a name for it. I wish it did, but it is quite a landmark, (or maybe I should say skymark) to find some of the deep sky objects farther north of Sagittarius. But there’s no bright stars to point away. The five-star group can be easily seen in binoculars. I’ve used that as a guide since I was a kid. Created using Stellarium, annotations using LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP. Note the star cluster on the lower left is M25, not M24.

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, September 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 7:52, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:23. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:14 tomorrow morning.

September is the second of the two months we get to see the southern part of the Milky Way in the evening sky. At 10 PM the asterism of the Teapot of the constellation Sagittarius is pouring its tea on the southwestern horizon. It is in that direction that we look to the center of the Milky Way. Unfortunately there are clouds of dust and gas between us and the center, so we cannot see it visually, though it can be seen by radio waves and other means. There are a host of objects visible in binoculars and small telescopes. One does not need a star map to be able to find them, just point a telescope at low power or binoculars in that direction and sweep around slowly. There are treasures of star clusters and nebulae to be found.

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

Annotated Sagittarius photograph
Sagittarius in a short time exposure with added annotations. The “M” designations are objects in Charles Messier’s catalog created in the latter half of the 18th century. LSSC is the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud, SSSC is the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud. Credit Bob Moler.

In the image above the amount of detail of the stars is approximately that of a pair of binoculars. The various nebulae and star clusters are denoted with M numbers. These are some of the brightest, what we call deep sky objects, in the catalog by Charles Messier, who is looking for comets. He numbered them as he came across them. The brightest star cluster is M7, which Claudius Ptolemy recorded in the 2nd century CE. The brightest nebula is M8, the Lagoon Nebula out of which a star cluster is being formed. In binoculars, it looks like a short horizontal gash. Next in brightness is M17, a fuzzy spot in binoculars, but appears as a glowing check mark, or swimming swan in a telescope. M20, the Trifid Nebula, is the next brightest nebula in which dark dust lanes divide it into three lobes. M16, the Eagle Nebula is very dim. Most of the time I miss the nebulosity, but its embedded star cluster is quite easily seen. The rest of the Messier objects are star clusters or a star cloud. Of these M22 is a globular star cluster and one of the easiest of these clusters to resolve, though it might take a telescope of 150 mm (6″) diameter to do it.

Categories: Constellations, Milky Way, Nebulae, Observing, Star Clusters Tags: ,

Ephemeris: 08/21/2025 – The Milky Way’s Great Rift

August 21, 2025 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, August 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 45 minutes, setting at 8:38, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:53. The Moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 5:57 tomorrow morning.

Once one finds the Milky Way which is pretty hard to miss this month, it becomes obvious that the Milky Way is split lengthwise starting near Deneb, the northernmost star of the Summer Triangle, almost all the way to the Teapot of Sagittarius low in the south. That dark split is called the Great Rift. Galileo first discovered that the hazy clouds of the Milky Way were actually made of faint stars, so it was thought the dark areas were due to a lack of stars. The great 18th century astronomer William Herschel did star counts all over the sky with his telescope. A map his sister drew of the flattened shape of his universe shows the lack of distant stars in one direction. It’s not really fewer stars, but interstellar clouds of dust blocking the light of the stars behind them.

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

The span of the Milky Way across the summer sky as seen in the free Stellarium app. Specifically August 15th at 10 pm from Northern Michigan. The Milky Way has been set to its maximum brightness to show as much detail as possible. It really isn’t that bright. The horizon is only delineated by the compass points. The dark clouds of the Great Rift are also visible. The Milky Way, in Stellarium, is photo-realistic. The triangle of three bright stars above center is the Summer Triangle, Specifically, clockwise from the top star: Vega, Altair and Deneb. Large images can be truncated on the right. Click or tap on the image to enlarge and display the complete image.
The span of the Milky Way across the summer sky as seen in the free Stellarium app. The Milky Way has been set to its maximum brightness to show as much detail as possible. It really isn’t that bright. The horizon is only delineated by the compass points. The dark clouds of the Great Rift are also visible. The Milky Way, in Stellarium, is photo-realistic. The triangle of three bright stars above center is the Summer Triangle, Specifically, clockwise from the top star: Vega, Altair and Deneb. Large images can be truncated on the right. Click or tap on the image to enlarge and display the complete image.
Herschel's Universe
The shape of the universe (Milky Way) as measured by William Herschel by counting stars in the eyepiece fields of his telescope pointed in various directions. The large indent on the right is caused by the Great Rift, clouds of gas and dust the block the light of the stars behind it, not the lack of stars in that direction. The Great Rift is easily seen in the summer sky running through the Milky Way. Drawing by Caroline Herschel.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Milky Way, Observing Tags:

Ephemeris: 11/04/2024 – The Milky Way in Autumn

November 4, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Monday, November 4th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 1 minute, setting at 5:26, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:26. The Moon, 4 days past new, will set at 6:58 this evening.

As of yesterday the sunsets and sunrises have slipped back an hour so we have darker evenings and brighter mornings, as we came back to Standard Time. It seems odd that we spend less time of the year under Standard Time than we do under Daylight Time. Anyway, looking at the evening sky we see that Venus tonight will be above the four-day-old crescent Moon in the southwest after sunset. By 7 PM the northernmost star of the Summer Triangle, Deneb in Cygnus the swan or the Northern Cross, will be almost directly overhead. And the Milky Way at that time will run from northeast, overhead to the southwestern horizon. Remember tomorrow is Election Day. Make sure you cast your ballot before the end of voting tomorrow, if you haven’t already.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

The dome of the sky at 7:00 this evening,
The dome of the sky at 7:00 this evening, November 4th 2024, in four frames. The first showing only the stars and the Milky Way. The second labeling the first magnitude stars, the planet Saturn and the zenith with a cross with the letter Z. The third showing the outlines of the constellations along the Milky Way. The fourth adds the constellation names. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Milky Way, Observing Tags: , ,

Ephemeris: 07/25/2024 – The Milky Way as it will appear tonight

July 25, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, July 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 9:16, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:23. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:43 this evening.

With the Moon out of the sky until almost 11:30 PM we get our first look at the summer Milky Way in the evening. The Milky Way will stretch from the east-northeast, high in the east to the South. The asterism of the stout little Teapot in Sagittarius, low to the south, is near the bottom end of the Milky Way. The milky stream appears as steam coming out of the spout. With more stars there, one might be able to see the Centaur with a bow and arrow. The front part of the teapot is the bow. The bottom left, and the far right star are the back and the tip of the arrow which is pointing at the heart of Scorpius the scorpion in the south-southwest. We’ll be exploring the wonders of the summer Milky Way this month and next.

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

Dome of the sky from horizon to horizon at 11 PM tonight
The Dome of the sky from horizon to horizon at 11 PM tonight July 25th. The Milky Way streams from north northeast through high in the east through the three bright stars of the Summer Triangle and down to the southern horizon. The lines of the Teapot asterism of the constellation of Sagittarius and Scorpius are in the south. The Milky Way and the stars are shown somewhat brighter than they would appear in the sky. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
Categories: Constellations, Ephemeris Program, Milky Way, Observing Tags: ,

Ephemeris: 09/11/2023 – Scutum, an almost invisible constellation in the Milky Way

September 11, 2023 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Monday, September 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 8:01, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:17. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 4:32 tomorrow morning.

In the southern sky between the Teapot of Sagittarius below and Aquila the Eagle above, with Altair the southernmost star of the Summer Triangle, lies Scutum the shield of John Sobieski the Polish king who stopped the advance of the Turks at Kalenberg in 1683. The Polish half of me is very proud. Scutum is one of two official constellations which are related to real persons. The other one is Coma Berenices, a hank of the Egyptian Queen Berenice’s hair. However, the stars here are so dim and embedded in the glow of the Milky Way as to be nearly impossible to discern. Scutum lies in one of the richest portions of the Milky Way, wonderful to scan with binoculars and telescopes for star clusters and nebulae, clouds of dust and gas.

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

Scutum finder for 9:30 pm, September 11th
Scutum finder for 9:30 pm, September 11th. Created using Stellarium and GIMP apps.
Categories: Constellations, Ephemeris Program, Milky Way, Observing, Uncategorized Tags: