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11/09/2015 – Ephemeris – The celestial sisters
Ephemeris for Monday, November 9th. The Sun will rise at 7:31. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:21. The Moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6:15 tomorrow morning.
A marvelous member of the autumn skies can be found rising in the east at 8 in the evening. It is the famous star cluster called the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. I might also add the ‘Tiny Dipper’. Many people can spot a tiny dipper shape in its six or seven stars, and mistake it for the Little Dipper. As nearsighted as I am, though corrected, I’ve never been able to see more than a few stars and a bit of fuzz. However with binoculars, over a hundred stars appear along with the dipper shape of the brightest. The fuzz I saw was unresolved stars, but in photographs the Pleiades actually contains wisps of dust that reflect the star’s blue light which the cluster is passing through. In Greek and Plains Indian mythology the sisters were young maidens.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
The Pleiades rising at 8 p.m. November 9th. Created using Stellarium.
The Pleiades, about what you’d see in binoculars.
I’ll be in Cadillac tonight
I’ll be giving an illustrated talk tonight to the Cadillac Garden Club at St. Ann’s Parish in Cadillac at 7 p.m. I’ll be talking about all the ways the Sun affects the Earth. At 8 p.m., if it’s clear, I and other members of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will have some telescopes set up in the parking lot to view the wonders of the heavens. The meeting appears to be open to the public and the viewing after definitely is.
09/30/2014 – Ephemeris – Previewing October skies and events
Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 30th. The sun will rise at 7:39. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 45 minutes, setting at 7:24. The moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 11:43 this evening.
Let’s look at the skies for the month of October. The sun will still be moving south rapidly. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 11 hours and 42 minutes tomorrow to 10 hours, 14 minutes at month’s end. The altitude of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 42 degrees tomorrow in the Interlochen area, and will descend to 31 degrees on Halloween. This month will see two eclipses visible from our area plus a close encounter that a comet will have near Mars and our assets on and around Mars. We will be able to see, weather permitting a total lunar eclipse in the morning a week from today, the 8th and a partial solar eclipse on the 23rd, just before sunset.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Star Chart for October 2014. Created using my LookingUp program.
The Moon is not plotted. The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 8 p.m. That is chart time.
Astronomical twilight ends at 9:00 p.m. on October 1st, decreasing to 8:11 on the 31st.
Add a half hour to the chart time every week before the 15th and subtract and hour for every week after the 15th.
For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.
Also shown is the Summer Triangle in red. Clockwise from the top star is Deneb in Cygnus, Vega in Lyra and Altair in Aquila.
The green pointers from the Big Dipper are:
- Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.
- The arc of the dipper’s handle points to Arcturus.
Information on the total lunar eclipse on the 8th will be posted starting Monday October 6th.
01/16/2014 – Ephemeris – NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador
Ephemeris for Thursday, January 16th. The sun will rise at 8:15. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 5:29. The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 6:25 this evening.
I am proud to announce that I have been appointed one of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s new 38 new Solar System Ambassadors for 2014. Solar System Ambassadors are volunteers that host star parties, and provide presentations about space, the universe, and NASA missions to promote awareness of the STEM or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields as career choices or at least to encourage the students to become more science literate voters. Ambassadors work with school classes, scout groups and non-profit organizations. Being now newly retired I have the freedom of daytime visits. I will be serving the northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Interested? The easiest way to initially contact me by email is at info@gtastro.org or bob@bjmoler.org.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 