01/09/2020 – Ephemeris – What is Ephemeris about?
Ephemeris for Thursday, January 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 1 minute, setting at 5:20, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:18. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 8:15 tomorrow morning.
The Ephemeris program has been a labor of love of mine for going on 45 orbits of the Sun this June. The topics are astronomy and space. What can be seen with the naked eye, binoculars or a small telescope. We look at constellations visible in the evening, their stories, both of western civilization and of the native peoples of our land. We look at the planets, especially the naked-eye planets on Wednesday, and whenever the Moon appears close to one to point it out. We also give heads up on upcoming events like eclipses and meteor showers, plus local events like viewing opportunities we call star parties. I have a companion blog, often illustrated: It’s at bobmoler dot wordpress dot com.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
When the Moon is in the evening sky I will talk about what can be seen on its surface that night, usually near the terminator, which in the evening is the sunrise line, where the shadows are longest. I don’t cover the Moon every month. Search “Moon” to find all the posts that I do. I just might have a post on the phase you are interested in. Otherwise when the bright Moon overpowers the constellations, I talk about what we know about the bright stars visible, astronomical news or concepts, whatever can be explained in 45 seconds. Sometimes I can only whet your appetite. Click the about button above for more information about the Ephemeris program and me.
01/08/2020 – Ephemeris – Looking for the naked-eye planets
Ephemeris for Wednesday, January 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours even, setting at 5:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:19. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 7:15 tomorrow morning.
Let’s look at the naked-eye planets for this week. Venus is our evening star low in the southwest in the early evening. It will set at 8:20 p.m. Saturn sets only 20 minutes after sunset and is not visible. It will pass behind the Sun on the 13th and will then join Jupiter in the morning sky. Jupiter is too close to the Sun in the morning twilight to be seen. Mars is visible in the morning sky and will rise in the east-southeast at 5:02 a.m. It’s not very bright because it’s 198 million (319 million km) miles away, but it’s getting slowly closer to the Earth at the rate of about 4 million miles (6 million km) a week. Mercury is now too close to the Sun to be seen in the morning, but will move into the evening sky on Friday.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus and the Gibbous Moon in the evening tonight at 7 p.m. January 8, 2020. Orion is still easily spotted in the moonlight. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.
The gibbous Moon as it might appear in binoculars at 7 p.m. January 8, 2019. Created using Stellarium.
Venus, much larger than it would appear in any telescope to show its gibbous phase, tonight January 8, 2019. Created using Stellarium.
Mars in the morning with the bright stars at 7 a.m. January 9, 2020. Note that Mars is approaching the red giant star Antares. The name Antares means “Rival of Mars” (Ant – anti, Ares -the Greek god of war that the Romans appropriated as Mars). Mars will pass 4.8 degrees north of Antares on the 17th. Created using Stellarium.
Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on January 8, 2020. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 9th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.
01/07/2020 – Ephemeris – What the heck is an ephemeris? Plus my Betelgeuse update
Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 7th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 58 minutes, setting at 5:18, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:19. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 6:09 tomorrow morning.
What the heck is an ephemeris? According to Wikipedia: “In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (plural: ephemerides; from Latin ephemeris, meaning ‘diary’, from the Greek,… meaning ‘diary, <or> journal’) gives the positions of… astronomical objects… at a given time or times. Historically, positions were given as printed tables of values, given at regular intervals of date and time.” My tables are now databases which I generate for the year during the prior December from published algorithms. I will show all on my blog today: It’s at bobmoler<dot>wordpress<dot>com. (You are already here) I used to have to interpolate values from printed ephemerides for the first 5 or so years.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
An Ephemeris Example
Here’s an ephemeris for the Interstellar comet for 2I/Borisov AKA C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Horizons system.
R.A. is right ascension – East-west position in the sky, like longitude on the Earth, only it’s in hours, minutes and seconds. One hour = 15 degrees.
DEC is declination – North-south position, in the sky, exactly like latitude on the Earth in degrees, minutes and seconds.
J2000.0 means that the above coordinates are based on where the vernal equinox point in the sky was on January 1, 12:00 Terrestrial Time, 2000. Or January 1, 2000, 11:58:55.816 UTC as reported in Wikipedia.
APmag – Apparent visual magnitude. Magnitudes are like golf scores. The higher magnitude the dimmer the object. It’s really, really dim.
delta – Distance from the Earth in terms of Astronomical Units (AU). 1 AU is Earth’s mean distance from the Sun.
deldot – The change in delta. It’s in kilometers per second. If positive, it’s going away.
For more information on how I produce ephemerides for this program go here: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/
The dimming of Betelgeuse
I finally got a clear evening. However snow and freezing rain the rest of the week.
Betelgeuse in Orion at 7:07 p.m. January 6, 2020. Taken with my Samsung Galaxy S10+ in the moonlight. Compare the brightness of Betelgeuse with Rigel, Bellatrix and the belt stars.
Orion’s brightest stars with their names for 9 p.m. January 7, 2019. Click on the image to make Orion a giant hunter. Created using Stellarium.
See last Thursday’s post on the dimming of Betelgeuse: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2020/01/02/
01/06/2020 – Ephemeris – The Earth was closest to the Sun in its orbit yesterday
Ephemeris for Monday, January 6th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 5:17, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:19. The Moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 5:02 tomorrow morning.
Yesterday’s perihelion, or closest point of the Earth to the Sun of roughly 91.4 million miles (147 million km) is only 1.7% closer to the Sun than average. It doesn’t do much to make our winters warmer, but it does make winter the shortest season. That’s because the Earth travels faster when near the Sun than when it’s farther away. Winter lasts only 89 ½ days. The Earth’s aphelion, when it’s farthest from the Sun will be on the 4th of July, in summer, making that the longest season at 93 ½ days. Of course being this far north it feels like winter is longer than summer, but astronomically it’s the other way around. Being a leap year, with February having 29 days, spring will arrive a calendar day early on the 19th of March.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Earth’s orbit, somewhat exaggerated, showing perihelion and the seasons. Credit “Starts with a Bang” blog by Ethan Siegel.
The Seasons for 2020 from data in Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon, and Planets Third Edition by Jean Meeus. Date and times are in TD, Dynamical Time. Subtract about 1 minutes to convert to Universal Time (UT). Also subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time and 4 hours for Eastern Daylight Time.
For and explanation of the Cross-Quarter Days column, check out my Ground Hog Day post last year: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/02-02-2019-ephemeris-extra-groundhog-day-and-other-seasonal-days/
01/03/2020 – Ephemeris – Astronomical events this weekend
Ephemeris for Friday, January 3rd. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 5:14. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:49 tomorrow morning.
Tonight at 8 p.m. there will be a telescope clinic by the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at the Rogers Observatory south of Traverse City on Birmley Road for those who have either received a telescope for Christmas or have one hidden away in an attic, to learn how to use it. Bring ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.
Tomorrow morning we’ll see the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower after the Moon sets. The radiant for this shower is near the handle of the Big Dipper, though they will be seen all over the sky. The peak should be around 3:20 a.m. with the possibility of over a hundred meteors visible per hour.
On Sunday at 5 a.m. the Earth will be its closest to the Sun for the year of 91,394,000 miles (147,085,000 km).
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The location of the Quadrantid radiant at 3:20 a.m. January 4, 2020 for the peak of the meteor shower. Created using Stellarium.
The Earth’s orbit, somewhat exaggerated, showing perihelion and the seasons. Credit “Starts with a Bang” blog by Ethan Siegel.
01/02/2020 – Ephemeris – Orion’s great red star Betelgeuse is dimming
Ephemeris for Thursday, January 2nd. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 53 minutes, setting at 5:13. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 12:48 tomorrow morning.
The bright red giant star in the constellation Orion’s shoulder is in the news. It is dimming, and it is dimmer now than it has been for a very long time. A chart by the American Association of Variable Star Observers shows that this is the dimmest it’s been going back to 1970 and maybe a long time before that. Betelgeuse was first noticed to vary in brightness in 1838. It is the left star at the top of Orion’s upright rectangle of stars. Bellatrix is the right corner star. Betelgeuse is now only a little brighter than it, and much dimmer than Rigel the lower right corner star. A couple of years ago it was brighter than it had been since 1970. Astronomers are watching and waiting. They expect Betelgeuse to explode as a supernova sometime in the next million years.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Orion’s brightest stars with their names for 9 p.m. January 7. Click on the image to make Orion a giant hunter. Created using Stellarium, which shows Betelgeuse at its average magnitude of 0.45.
Orion and Betelgeuse on Christmas night 2019 by David Dickinson. Photo from a smart phone from Virginia Beach. Note that Betelgeuse is not much brighter than Bellatrix and much dimmer than Rigel.
Magnitude estimates of Betelgeuse since 1970. Credit AAVSO.
Note on the magnitude scale: The lower the magnitude the brighter the star. Stars with magnitudes less than 1.5 are first magnitude stars. Second magnitude stars are between 1.5 and 2.5, and so on.
For more information check out Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/144465/waiting-for-betelgeuse-whats-up-with-the-tempestuous-star/
And Dr. Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dont-panic-betelgeuse-is-almost-certainly-not-about-to-explode
01/01/2020 – Ephemeris – A Happy New Year look at the naked-eye planets
Happy New Year, this is Ephemeris for New Years Day, Wednesday, January 1st. 2020. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:12. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 11:48 this evening.
Let’s look at the naked-eye planets for this week. Venus is our evening star low in the southwest in the early evening. It will set at 8:02 p.m. Saturn sets only 50 minutes after sunset and is not visible. It will pass behind the Sun on the 13th and will then join Jupiter in the morning sky. Jupiter is too close to the Sun in the morning twilight to be seen. Mars is visible in the morning sky and will rise in the east-southeast at 5:04 a.m. It’s not very bright because it’s 202 million (326 million km) miles away, but it’s getting slowly closer to the Earth at the rate of about 4 million miles (6 million km) a week. Mercury is now too close to the Sun to be seen in the morning, but will move into the evening sky on the 10th.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus and the Moon in the evening tonight at 7 p.m. January 1, 2020. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.
The crescent Moon as it might appear in binoculars or a small telescope tonight at 7 p.m. January 1, 2020. Created using Stellarium.
Venus, much larger than it would appear in any telescope to show its gibbous phase, tonight January 1, 2019. Created using Stellarium.
Mars in the morning with the bright stars at 7 a.m. January 1, 2020. Note that Mars is approaching the red giant star Antares. The name Antares means “Rival of Mars” (Ant – anti, Ares -the Greek god of war that the Romans appropriated as Mars). Mars will pass 4.8 degrees north of Antares on the 17th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.
Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on January 1, 2020. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 2nd. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.
12/31/2019 – Ephemeris – Previewing the skies of January 2020
Ephemeris for New Years Eve, Tuesday, December 31st. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:11. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:47 this evening.
Tomorrow starts a new year and a new decade. The daylight hours start slowly getting longer and will accelerate during the month. Daylight hours will increase from 8 hours and 52 minutes tomorrow to 9 hours and 45 minutes on the 31st. The sunrise time will decrease from 8:20 tomorrow to 8:03 at months end. The sunset times will increase from 5:12 tomorrow to 5:49 on the 31st. Along with that the altitude of the sun at noon will increase from 22 degrees tomorrow to nearly 28 degrees at month’s end. It will be a degree lower for folks in the Straits area because they are a degree of latitude farther north. Local noon, by the way for Interlochen and Traverse City is about 12:51 p.m. in January.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
January Evening Star Chart
Star Chart for January 2020 (9 p.m. EST January 15, 2020). Click on image to enlarge.Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.
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. The brilliant planet Venus will enter the sky at the chart time during the latter half of the month in the southwest. 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).
January Morning Star Chart
Star Chart for January mornings 2020 (6 a.m. EST January 15, 2020). Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.
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.
- The leaky bowl of the Big Dipper drips on Leo.
- Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, then
- Follow the spike to Spica.
- QuadR on the star charts is the radiant of the Quadrantid meteor shower which peaks on the 4th at 3:20 a.m. EST (8:20 UT).
Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical
| EST | |||||||
| Morning twilight | Evening twilight | Dark night | Moon | ||||
| Date | Astro. | Nautical | Nautical | Astro. | Start | End | Illum. |
| 2020-01-01 | 6h35m | 7h10m | 18h21m | 18h57m | 23h48m | 6h35m | 0.38 |
| 2020-01-02 | 6h35m | 7h10m | 18h22m | 18h57m | – | 6h35m | 0.48 |
| 2020-01-03 | 6h35m | 7h11m | 18h23m | 18h58m | 0h49m | 6h35m | 0.58 |
| 2020-01-04 | 6h35m | 7h11m | 18h24m | 18h59m | 1h50m | 6h35m | 0.67 |
| 2020-01-05 | 6h35m | 7h11m | 18h25m | 19h00m | 2h52m | 6h35m | 0.76 |
| 2020-01-06 | 6h35m | 7h11m | 18h26m | 19h01m | 3h57m | 6h35m | 0.85 |
| 2020-01-07 | 6h35m | 7h10m | 18h27m | 19h02m | 5h03m | 6h35m | 0.92 |
| 2020-01-08 | 6h35m | 7h10m | 18h28m | 19h03m | 6h10m | 6h35m | 0.97 |
| 2020-01-09 | 6h35m | 7h10m | 18h29m | 19h04m | – | – | 0.97 |
| 2020-01-10 | 6h35m | 7h10m | 18h30m | 19h05m | – | – | 1 |
| 2020-01-11 | 6h35m | 7h10m | 18h31m | 19h06m | – | – | 1 |
| 2020-01-12 | 6h34m | 7h10m | 18h32m | 19h07m | 19h07m | 19h44m | 0.97 |
| 2020-01-13 | 6h34m | 7h09m | 18h33m | 19h08m | 19h08m | 21h01m | 0.92 |
| 2020-01-14 | 6h34m | 7h09m | 18h34m | 19h09m | 19h09m | 22h17m | 0.84 |
| 2020-01-15 | 6h34m | 7h08m | 18h35m | 19h10m | 19h10m | 23h32m | 0.74 |
| 2020-01-16 | 6h33m | 7h08m | 18h36m | 19h11m | 19h11m | – | 0.63 |
| 2020-01-17 | 6h33m | 7h08m | 18h37m | 19h12m | 19h12m | 0h46m | 0.51 |
| 2020-01-18 | 6h32m | 7h07m | 18h38m | 19h13m | 19h13m | 1h59m | 0.39 |
| 2020-01-19 | 6h32m | 7h07m | 18h39m | 19h14m | 19h14m | 3h12m | 0.28 |
| 2020-01-20 | 6h31m | 7h06m | 18h41m | 19h15m | 19h15m | 4h22m | 0.19 |
| 2020-01-21 | 6h31m | 7h05m | 18h42m | 19h16m | 19h16m | 5h30m | 0.11 |
| 2020-01-22 | 6h30m | 7h05m | 18h43m | 19h17m | 19h17m | 6h30m | 0.05 |
| 2020-01-23 | 6h30m | 7h04m | 18h44m | 19h19m | 19h19m | 6h30m | 0.01 |
| 2020-01-24 | 6h29m | 7h03m | 18h45m | 19h20m | 19h20m | 6h29m | 0 |
| 2020-01-25 | 6h28m | 7h03m | 18h46m | 19h21m | 19h21m | 6h28m | 0.01 |
| 2020-01-26 | 6h28m | 7h02m | 18h48m | 19h22m | 19h33m | 6h28m | 0.04 |
| 2020-01-27 | 6h27m | 7h01m | 18h49m | 19h23m | 20h35m | 6h27m | 0.08 |
| 2020-01-28 | 6h26m | 7h00m | 18h50m | 19h25m | 21h36m | 6h26m | 0.14 |
| 2020-01-29 | 6h25m | 6h59m | 18h51m | 19h26m | 22h37m | 6h25m | 0.22 |
| 2020-01-30 | 6h24m | 6h59m | 18h53m | 19h27m | 23h37m | 6h24m | 0.3 |
| 2020-01-31 | 6h23m | 6h58m | 18h54m | 19h28m | – | 6h23m | 0.39 |
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
Date Time Event
Jan 1 We Venus: 34.6° E
1 We 08:30 pm Moon Apogee: 404600 km
2 Th 11:45 pm First Quarter
4 Sa 03:20 am Quadrantid Meteor Shower: ZHR = 120
5 Su 04:59 am Perihelion: 0.9832 AU
9 Th 06:29 pm Moon Ascending Node
10 Fr 01:03 am Moon North Dec.: 23.2° N
10 Fr 10:01 am Mercury Superior Solar Conjunction
10 Fr 02:10 pm Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
(Europe, Africa, Asia, Aus)
10 Fr 02:21 pm Full Moon
11 Sa 06:54 pm Moon-Beehive: 1° S
13 Mo 09:23 am Saturn Solar Conjunction
13 Mo 03:20 pm Moon Perigee: 366000 km
17 Fr 07:58 am Last Quarter
17 Fr 06:03 pm Mars-Antares: 4.8° N
20 Mo 02:13 pm Moon-Mars: 2.4° S
22 We 03:31 pm Moon Descending Node
22 We 09:42 pm Moon-Jupiter: 0.4° N
22 We 10:37 pm Moon South Dec.: 23.2° S
24 Fr 04:42 pm New Moon
28 Tu 02:29 am Moon-Venus: 4.5° N
29 We 04:28 pm Moon Apogee: 405400 km
Feb 1 Sa Venus: 40.4° E
All event 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 Events
LU Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC January, 2020 Local time zone: EST +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | DATE | SUN SUN DAYLIGHT| TWILIGHT* |MOON RISE OR ILLUM | | | RISE SET HOURS | END START |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN| +=======================================================================+ |Wed 1| 08:20a 05:12p 08:52 | 06:22p 07:09a | Set 11:48p 39%| |Thu 2| 08:20a 05:13p 08:53 | 06:23p 07:09a |F Qtr Set 12:48a 48%| |Fri 3| 08:20a 05:14p 08:54 | 06:24p 07:09a | Set 01:49a 58%| |Sat 4| 08:20a 05:15p 08:55 | 06:25p 07:10a | Set 02:52a 67%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 5| 08:20a 05:16p 08:56 | 06:26p 07:10a | Set 03:56a 76%| |Mon 6| 08:19a 05:17p 08:57 | 06:27p 07:09a | Set 05:02a 84%| |Tue 7| 08:19a 05:18p 08:58 | 06:28p 07:09a | Set 06:09a 91%| |Wed 8| 08:19a 05:19p 09:00 | 06:29p 07:09a | Set 07:15a 96%| |Thu 9| 08:19a 05:20p 09:01 | 06:30p 07:09a | Set 08:15a 99%| |Fri 10| 08:18a 05:21p 09:02 | 06:31p 07:09a |Full Rise 05:20p 100%| |Sat 11| 08:18a 05:23p 09:04 | 06:32p 07:09a | Rise 06:29p 98%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 12| 08:18a 05:24p 09:05 | 06:33p 07:09a | Rise 07:44p 94%| |Mon 13| 08:17a 05:25p 09:07 | 06:34p 07:08a | Rise 09:01p 87%| |Tue 14| 08:17a 05:26p 09:09 | 06:35p 07:08a | Rise 10:17p 78%| |Wed 15| 08:16a 05:27p 09:11 | 06:36p 07:08a | Rise 11:32p 67%| |Thu 16| 08:16a 05:29p 09:12 | 06:37p 07:07a | Rise 12:46a 56%| |Fri 17| 08:15a 05:30p 09:14 | 06:38p 07:07a |L Qtr Rise 01:59a 45%| |Sat 18| 08:15a 05:31p 09:16 | 06:40p 07:06a | Rise 03:11a 34%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 19| 08:14a 05:32p 09:18 | 06:41p 07:06a | Rise 04:22a 24%| |Mon 20| 08:13a 05:34p 09:20 | 06:42p 07:05a | Rise 05:30a 15%| |Tue 21| 08:12a 05:35p 09:22 | 06:43p 07:05a | Rise 06:32a 9%| |Wed 22| 08:12a 05:36p 09:24 | 06:44p 07:04a | Rise 07:27a 4%| |Thu 23| 08:11a 05:38p 09:27 | 06:45p 07:03a | Rise 08:14a 1%| |Fri 24| 08:10a 05:39p 09:29 | 06:47p 07:03a |New Set 05:27p 0%| |Sat 25| 08:09a 05:41p 09:31 | 06:48p 07:02a | Set 06:29p 1%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 26| 08:08a 05:42p 09:33 | 06:49p 07:01a | Set 07:32p 4%| |Mon 27| 08:07a 05:43p 09:36 | 06:50p 07:00a | Set 08:35p 9%| |Tue 28| 08:06a 05:45p 09:38 | 06:52p 06:59a | Set 09:36p 15%| |Wed 29| 08:05a 05:46p 09:40 | 06:53p 06:59a | Set 10:37p 22%| |Thu 30| 08:04a 05:48p 09:43 | 06:54p 06:58a | Set 11:37p 31%| |Fri 31| 08:03a 05:49p 09:45 | 06:55p 06:57a | Set 12:38a 40%| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ * Nautical Twilight ** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.
12/30/2019 – Ephemeris – Some space advances this year
Ephemeris for Monday, December 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:10, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:20. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 9:45 this evening.
Let’s look back at space activity this past year. SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket twice successfully for commercial payloads. It also performed the Demo 1 flight to send a uncrewed Dragon 2 to the International Space Station. That went off without a hitch. However when testing the same capsule a month later it was destroyed in a fueling mishap that postponed further flight tests until next month. The other Commercial Crew contractor Boeing was having problems with its Star Liner capsule. The latest being a mishap with their test flight to dock with the ISS. Supposedly a timing malfunction caused it to use too much fuel, so it ended in the wrong orbit. However it did land safely.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, carrying the U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program 2 Mission, lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., June 25, 2019. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
The Demo 1 Dragon docking with the International Space Station. Credit NASA
Starliner Orbital Test Launch on an Atlas 5. Credit Boeing.
12/27/2019 – Ephemeris – A Decade of astronomical and space firsts
Ephemeris for Friday, December 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:08, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:19. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 6:38 this evening.
The 2010s were quite a decade in astronomy and space. 24 years ago the first exoplanet, that is planet orbiting another star, was discovered: 51 Pegasi b. As of December 8th the number of confirmed exoplanets stands at 4,104. At mid decade we got a close look at the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons, and early this year at the distant object temporarily called Ultima Thule. Early this year the Event Horizon Telescope consortium released the image of a black hole over 50 million light years away. Also the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories detected two neutron stars colliding which set off a frenzy of activity by astronomers who viewed the aftermath from gamma rays to microwaves.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Kepler Spacecraft studied a single patch of sky for several years and has discovered the bulk of the exoplanets. Credit NASA.
Enhanced color portrait of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
486958 Arrokoth original dubbed Ultima Thule by the New Horizons team on approach combining low resolution image with the high resolution monochromatic image shows the body in almost true color. Credit NASA/JHAPL/SWRi
The first image of the black hole in M87. Credit Event Horizon Telescope.
Neutron Star Collision GW 170817 timeline. Horizontal axis in seconds (exponential). Click on chart to enlarge. From the High Energy Stereoscopic System website.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 