Ephemeris: 04/21/2026 – The Lyrid meteor shower reaches its peak tomorrow
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 47 minutes, setting at 8:35, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:46. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 2:21 tomorrow morning.
The second major meteor shower this year will reach its peak tomorrow afternoon around 3 PM (~19h UT). The best time to see it will be tomorrow morning after moonset at 2:21 AM. Astronomical twilight will begin to interfere after 5 AM. The other is tomorrow night starting 45 minutes later. The meteor shower is called the Lyrids, because they seem to come from near the constellation Lyra the harp and the bright star Vega. By 3 AM Vega will be high in the east. The radiant of the meteors is to the west of Vega, between Lyra and the dim constellation of Hercules. Though a major shower, the peak hourly rate is expected to be about 20 meteors an hour.
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
Ephemeris: 04/20/2026 – A seeming convergence of planets too close to the Sun to be seen from Michigan
This is Ephemeris for Monday, April 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 8:34, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:48. The Moon, halfway from new to first quarter, will set at 1:20 tomorrow morning.
There’s a close planetary alignment this happening and today in the morning sky that we can’t see, of Mercury Mars and Saturn which are too close to the sun, and the time of year is not the best for seeing them. So they’re invisible to us but visible for folks in the Southern Hemisphere. Even the Artemis 2 astronauts talked about them when they went into solar eclipse on their trip around the moon. But the action is all happening yesterday and today. As of last Friday they were, from left to right, Saturn Mars and Mercury. As of today it’s almost a vertical arrangement with Mars on top Saturn in the middle and Mercury on the bottom and by tomorrow it will be Mercury on the bottom Venus on the top and Saturn off to the right.
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
Ephemeris: 04/17/2026 – The Moon’s Far Side isn’t dark!
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, April 17th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 35 minutes, setting at 8:30, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:53. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
When I hear discussions about the Artemis 2 missions, some people who ought to know better still refer to the far side of the moon as the dark side. Officially we have the two faces of the moon: the near side and the far side. I’ll even accept front side and back side. Until 1959 no one had ever seen the far side of the moon so it was dark, in the sense that we could not see it. Not dark because of the lack of light. I’ve been thinking about it. The far side sees more light from the sun, so maybe we should call it the bright side. It certainly has fewer maria or seas, those dark patches that we see on the near side of the Moon. There’s only one on the far side, it’s called the Moscow Sea since the Russian spotted first. Mare Orientale, subject of much study by the Artemis 2 crew, straddles the near side-far side line. It’s closer to the sun when it’s fully illuminated than the near side by about half a million miles, and it doesn’t suffer solar eclipses to darken it like the near side, being already in night, like it always is, at full moon.
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
Ephemeris: 04/16/2026 – The greatest distance humans have traveled from the Earth
This is Ephemeris for Thursday, April 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 8:29, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:54. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 6:38 tomorrow morning.
On their trip around the moon the Artemis 2 crew set a new record for distance from the earth of 252,760 miles (406,778 kilometers) which beat by 4,105 miles (6,607 kilometers) the record of Apollo 13 of 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometers). This was helped a great deal by the fact that the moon reached apogee, its farthest distance from the Earth, a few hours after the Artemis 2 capsule, Integrity, passed by. So I think the record is going to hold up for a while. So the only way to get further away from the earth is to head out to Mars, or the Chinese make a farther flyby of the Moon. The Artemis 2 mission was to see if the capsule can sustain human life comfortably during an extended mission. It seemed proved it’s worth. The videos that came back seem to be reasonably roomy, much more so than the Apollo capsule.
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
Ephemeris: 04/15/2026 – Taking our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets
This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, April 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 8:28, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:56. The Moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6:15 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. By 9:15 PM tonight or about 45 minutes or so after sunset, Venus may be seen very low in the West. A telescope will show a very tiny disc on Venus, because it is still pretty much beyond the Sun, 141 million miles (226 million kilometers) away from us. Over the next 6 months it will be moving closer to us and becoming much larger. Jupiter is the brilliant star-like object high in the southwestern sky at the same time. Venus will set at 10:35, while Jupiter will hold out to 3 AM. Meanwhile, Mercury, Mars and Saturn are lined up just west of the Sun, but unfortunately are overwhelmed by bright morning twilight. Southern Hemisphere observers will them bunched up next week.
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
Ephemeris: 04/14/2026 – My virtual flight with the Artemis II crew
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 8:26, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:58. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 5:55 tomorrow morning.
I hadn’t enjoyable time last week Monday afternoon listening to Artemis 2 astronauts talking with the science team on Earth about what they were seeing Moon’s far side. I have the program called Virtual Moon Atlas which allows one to see the entire Moon with the phase and shadows. And I was able to rotate it and get the phase right so it appeared pretty much as it did to the astronauts. So I was able to follow along with their discussions of the far side features that they were seeing and photographing. I could zoom in to craters and features they were talking about, but nowhere near the detail they were seeing. So I consider it to be a really great time of, in essence, flying along with the astronauts.
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
Ephemeris: 04/13/2026 – How the Greeks saw the constellation Leo
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, April 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 8:25, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:00. The Moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 5:35 tomorrow morning.
The constellations that we know are mostly those that come from the Sumerians and other civilizations who lived around what is now modern day Iraq. They were adopted and adapted by the ancient Greeks, and to us. Foremost of these was Leo the lion, seen high in the south-southeastern sky at 10 PM. It is easily found by imagining the bottom of the Big Dipper leaks. It will drip on the back of Leo, with its distinctive backward question mark as his front with his head and mane. To the Greeks he was the Nemean Lion, whose coat was impervious to arrows or spears. Heracles (Hercules) was able to kill it by first stunning it with a club then strangling it with his bare hands. It was the first of his Twelve Labors.
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
Ephemeris: 04/10/2026 – The origin of the constellation Leo the lion.
This is Ephemeris for Friday, April 10th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 8:21, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:05. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 4:29 tomorrow morning.
The constellation of Leo the lion was envisioned as far back as 4,000 BCE by the Sumerians. It was known as UR.GU.LA, the Great or Divine Lion. Back then it was in the same seasonal location where Gemini is today, the most northern of the constellations of the Zodiac, where the Sun was at the summer solstice. It was important for that reason. They showed him in their artwork as having wings, a sign of his divinity. The Sumerians gave Regulus, Leo’s brightest star, the name MUL.LUGAL, meaning the King Star, with MUL meaning or pertaining to “Star” and LUGAL meaning “King”. Regulus means the same thing. As empires and languages changed over the millennia, the star’s name always meant King.
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
Leo as depicted by the Sumerians circa 4,000 BCE. Created with Stellarium using the Babylonian (Seleucid) Sky Culture.
Ephemeris: 04/09/2026 – Finding Leo the lion
This is Ephemeris for Thursday, April 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 8:20, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:07. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 3:58 tomorrow morning.
At 10 p.m. the spring constellation of Leo the lion will be high in the south-southeast. It can be found by locating the Big Dipper high in the northeast and imagining that a hole were drilled in the bowl to let the water leak out. It would drip on the back of this giant cat. The Lion is standing or lying facing westward. His head and mane are seen in the stars as a backwards question mark. This group of stars is also called the sickle. The bright star Regulus is at the bottom, the dot at the bottom of the question mark. A triangle of stars, to the left of Regulus, is the lion’s haunches. Leo contains some nice galaxies visible in moderate sized telescopes. The stars in Leo’s part of the sky are fewer than those in 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
Ephemeris: 04/08/2026 – Taking our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets
This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, April 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 8:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:08. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 3:20 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the whereabouts of the naked-eye planets. By 9 PM tonight or about 40 minutes or so after sunset, Venus may be seen very low in the West. Binoculars or a telescope will show a very tiny disc on Venus, because it is pretty much behind the Sun, 145 million miles (231 million kilometers) away from us. Over the next 6 months it will be moving closer to us and becoming much larger. Jupiter is the brilliant star-like object high in the southwestern sky at 9:30 PM. Venus will set at 10:15, while Jupiter will hold out to 3:30 AM. Meanwhile, Mercury, Mars and Saturn are lined up just west of the Sun, but unfortunately are overwhelmed by bright morning twilight. The Artemis II astronauts reported seeing them during their solar eclipse.
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
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 