Ephemeris: 04/02/2024 – Availability of and checking out eclipse glasses
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 8:12, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:18. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 4:59 tomorrow morning.
In six days there will be a total solar eclipse, if you’re right place. Northern Michigan is not the right place. We get a pretty good chunk of the Sun being covered by the Moon, about nearly 90% around here. This means that you will still need protection if you want to view the eclipse. My daughter reports that there are places around Traverse City that you can get solar eclipse glasses. However, to make sure that they are the proper eclipse glasses they will have a globe symbol with ISO in it for the International Organization for Standardization. Also, they must state that they conform to and meet the transmission requirements of ISO 12312-2, filters for direct observation of the sun. That doesn’t keep someone from making counterfeit ones. A way to check is with laying one lens onto a smartphone flashlight, which should be barely visible through it.
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: 04/01/2024 – Previewing April Skies
This is Ephemeris for April Fools’ Day, Monday, April 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 8:11, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:20. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 4:15 tomorrow morning.
Wow! We’re already in the second quarter of 2024. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will increase from 12 hours and 48 minutes today to 14 hours 13 minutes on the 30th. The altitude, or angle, of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 50 degrees today and will ascend to 60 degrees on the 30th. The altitude of the Sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower. The actual time of local apparent noon this month for the Interlochen/Traverse City area, when the Sun passes due south, will be about 1:43 p.m. The big event of this month and this year will be the total solar eclipse one week from today. I will be talking about it, and how to observe the eclipse safely most of this week.
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
April Evening Star Chart
April Morning Star Chart
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.
- The Summer Triangle appears in red.
- LyrR is the radiant of the Lyrid meteor shower, which will reach peak on the morning of the 22nd.
Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical
| EDT | |||||||
| Morning | Twilight | Evening | Twilight | Dark | Night | Moon | |
| Date | Astro. | Nautical | Nautical | Astro. | Start | End | Illum. |
| 2024-04-01 | 5h42m | 6h18m | 21h18m | 21h55m | 21h55m | 3h22m | 0.49 |
| 2024-04-02 | 5h40m | 6h16m | 21h19m | 21h56m | 21h56m | 4h16m | 0.38 |
| 2024-04-03 | 5h38m | 6h14m | 21h21m | 21h58m | 21h58m | 4h59m | 0.28 |
| 2024-04-04 | 5h35m | 6h12m | 21h22m | 21h59m | 21h59m | 5h33m | 0.18 |
| 2024-04-05 | 5h33m | 6h11m | 21h24m | 22h01m | 22h01m | 5h33m | 0.09 |
| 2024-04-06 | 5h31m | 6h09m | 21h25m | 22h03m | 22h03m | 5h31m | 0.04 |
| 2024-04-07 | 5h29m | 6h07m | 21h27m | 22h04m | 22h04m | 5h29m | 0.00 |
| 2024-04-08 | 5h27m | 6h05m | 21h28m | 22h06m | 22h06m | 5h27m | 0.00 |
| 2024-04-09 | 5h24m | 6h03m | 21h30m | 22h08m | 22h08m | 5h24m | 0.03 |
| 2024-04-10 | 5h22m | 6h01m | 21h31m | 22h09m | 23h21m | 5h22m | 0.08 |
| 2024-04-11 | 5h20m | 5h59m | 21h32m | 22h11m | – | 5h20m | 0.16 |
| 2024-04-12 | 5h18m | 5h57m | 21h34m | 22h13m | 0h41m | 5h18m | 0.25 |
| 2024-04-13 | 5h16m | 5h55m | 21h35m | 22h14m | 1h53m | 5h16m | 0.34 |
| 2024-04-14 | 5h13m | 5h53m | 21h37m | 22h16m | 2h53m | 5h13m | 0.44 |
| 2024-04-15 | 5h11m | 5h51m | 21h38m | 22h18m | 3h39m | 5h11m | 0.54 |
| 2024-04-16 | 5h09m | 5h49m | 21h40m | 22h20m | 4h15m | 5h09m | 0.64 |
| 2024-04-17 | 5h07m | 5h47m | 21h41m | 22h21m | 4h43m | 5h07m | 0.73 |
| 2024-04-18 | 5h04m | 5h45m | 21h43m | 22h23m | – | – | 0.81 |
| 2024-04-19 | 5h02m | 5h43m | 21h44m | 22h25m | – | – | 0.87 |
| 2024-04-20 | 5h00m | 5h41m | 21h46m | 22h27m | – | – | 0.93 |
| 2024-04-21 | 4h58m | 5h39m | 21h47m | 22h29m | – | – | 0.97 |
| 2024-04-22 | 4h56m | 5h37m | 21h49m | 22h30m | – | – | 0.99 |
| 2024-04-23 | 4h53m | 5h35m | 21h50m | 22h32m | – | – | 1.00 |
| 2024-04-24 | 4h51m | 5h33m | 21h52m | 22h34m | – | – | 0.99 |
| 2024-04-25 | 4h49m | 5h31m | 21h54m | 22h36m | 22h36m | 23h00m | 0.95 |
| 2024-04-26 | 4h47m | 5h30m | 21h55m | 22h38m | 22h38m | – | 0.90 |
| 2024-04-27 | 4h45m | 5h28m | 21h57m | 22h40m | 22h40m | 0h10m | 0.83 |
| 2024-04-28 | 4h42m | 5h26m | 21h58m | 22h42m | 22h42m | 1h15m | 0.74 |
| 2024-04-29 | 4h40m | 5h24m | 22h00m | 22h44m | 22h44m | 2h12m | 0.64 |
| 2024-04-30 | 4h38m | 5h22m | 22h01m | 22h46m | 22h46m | 2h58m | 0.53 |
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
Apr 1 Mo Venus: 16.8° W
1 Mo 4:58 am Moon South Dec.: 28.6° S
1 Mo 11:15 pm Last Quarter
5 Fr 11:51 pm Moon-Mars: 2° N
6 Sa 5:20 am Moon-Saturn: 1.2° N
7 Su 12:39 pm Moon-Venus: .4° S
7 Su 1:53 pm Moon Perigee: 358800 km
8 Mo 8:20 am Moon Ascending Node
8 Mo 2:18 pm Total Solar Eclipse
8 Mo 2:21 pm New Moon
10 We 2:46 pm Mars-Saturn: .4° N
10 We 5:08 pm Moon-Jupiter: 4° S
11 Th 8:38 am Moon-Pleiades: .4° N
11 Th 6:53 pm Mercury Inferior Conj.
13 Sa 6:36 pm Moon North Dec.: 28.6° N
15 Mo 9:47 am Moon-Pollux: 1.6° N
15 Mo 3:13 pm First Quarter
16 Tu 10:45 am Moon-Beehive: 3.8° S
19 Fr 10:09 pm Moon Apogee: 405600 km
22 Mo 2:44 am Lyrid Shower: ZHR = 20
22 Mo 6:45 am Moon Descending Node
22 Mo 10:02 pm Moon-Spica: 1.6° S
23 Tu 7:49 pm Full Pink Moon
26 Fr 4:00 pm Moon-Antares: .3° S
28 Su 10:28 am Moon South Dec.: 28.5° S
May 1 We Venus: 9.2° W
Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html.
Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events
LU Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
April, 2024 Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE | SUN SUN DAYLIGHT| TWILIGHT* |MOON RISE OR ILLUM |
| | RISE SET HOURS | END START |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Mon 1| 07:22a 08:11p 12:48 | 09:16p 06:17a |L Qtr Rise 04:15a 51%|
|Tue 2| 07:20a 08:12p 12:51 | 09:17p 06:15a | Rise 04:59a 41%|
|Wed 3| 07:18a 08:13p 12:54 | 09:18p 06:13a | Rise 05:33a 30%|
|Thu 4| 07:17a 08:14p 12:57 | 09:20p 06:11a | Rise 06:01a 20%|
|Fri 5| 07:15a 08:16p 13:00 | 09:21p 06:09a | Rise 06:24a 11%|
|Sat 6| 07:13a 08:17p 13:03 | 09:23p 06:07a | Rise 06:45a 5%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 7| 07:11a 08:18p 13:06 | 09:24p 06:05a | Rise 07:06a 1%|
|Mon 8| 07:09a 08:19p 13:10 | 09:26p 06:03a |New Set 08:34p 0%|
|Tue 9| 07:08a 08:21p 13:13 | 09:27p 06:02a | Set 09:58p 2%|
|Wed 10| 07:06a 08:22p 13:16 | 09:28p 06:00a | Set 11:21p 7%|
|Thu 11| 07:04a 08:23p 13:19 | 09:30p 05:58a | Set 12:40a 14%|
|Fri 12| 07:02a 08:24p 13:22 | 09:31p 05:56a | Set 01:52a 23%|
|Sat 13| 07:01a 08:26p 13:25 | 09:33p 05:54a | Set 02:52a 32%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 14| 06:59a 08:27p 13:28 | 09:34p 05:52a | Set 03:39a 42%|
|Mon 15| 06:57a 08:28p 13:31 | 09:36p 05:50a |F Qtr Set 04:15a 52%|
|Tue 16| 06:55a 08:29p 13:34 | 09:37p 05:48a | Set 04:42a 62%|
|Wed 17| 06:54a 08:31p 13:36 | 09:39p 05:46a | Set 05:04a 71%|
|Thu 18| 06:52a 08:32p 13:39 | 09:40p 05:44a | Set 05:23a 79%|
|Fri 19| 06:50a 08:33p 13:42 | 09:42p 05:42a | Set 05:39a 86%|
|Sat 20| 06:49a 08:34p 13:45 | 09:43p 05:40a | Set 05:55a 92%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 21| 06:47a 08:36p 13:48 | 09:45p 05:38a | Set 06:11a 96%|
|Mon 22| 06:45a 08:37p 13:51 | 09:46p 05:36a | Set 06:28a 99%|
|Tue 23| 06:44a 08:38p 13:54 | 09:48p 05:34a |Full Rise 08:40p 100%|
|Wed 24| 06:42a 08:39p 13:57 | 09:50p 05:32a | Rise 09:49p 99%|
|Thu 25| 06:41a 08:41p 14:00 | 09:51p 05:30a | Rise 11:00p 96%|
|Fri 26| 06:39a 08:42p 14:02 | 09:53p 05:28a | Rise 12:10a 91%|
|Sat 27| 06:37a 08:43p 14:05 | 09:54p 05:27a | Rise 01:15a 84%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 28| 06:36a 08:44p 14:08 | 09:56p 05:25a | Rise 02:12a 76%|
|Mon 29| 06:34a 08:46p 14:11 | 09:57p 05:23a | Rise 02:58a 66%|
|Tue 30| 06:33a 08:47p 14:13 | 09:59p 05:21a | Rise 03:34a 55%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise
Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.
Ephemeris: 03/29/2024 – Calculating the date of Easter
This is Ephemeris for Good Friday, March 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 39 minutes, setting at 8:07, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:26. The Moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 1:09 tomorrow morning.
Easter will be celebrated by Western Christian churches this Sunday. Easter is a movable feast in that it falls on a different date each year following the first full moon of spring. It was an attempt to follow the Jewish Passover, which starts on the 15th of the month of Nisan. The Jewish calendar being a lunar calendar, the 15th is generally the night of the full moon, sometimes called the Paschal Full Moon. And since the Last Supper was a Seder, according to at least one Gospel, the Christian church wanted to link Easter with Passover as closely as possible using the Roman solar based (Julian) calendar. That’s not always the case, especially with our current Gregorian Calendar. Passover this year begins at sunset April 22nd because the Jewish lunar calendar is tied to the Julian Calendar.
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: 03/28/2024 Comet Pons-Brooks can be seen near Jupiter with binoculars
This is Ephemeris for Thursday, March 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 8:06, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:28. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 11:59 this evening.
A dim naked eye comet is gracing our evening skies now. It’s called 12P/Pons Brooks. The 12P designation means it was the 12th periodic comet discovered. It was discovered in 1812 by French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons and rediscovered 71 years later on its return by William Brooks. Last July it had an outburst and gained about 100 times increase in brightness. It has held on to most of that. However, right now it’s 5th magnitude which makes it very difficult to spot even in binoculars. Comets always appear to be much dimmer than their magnitude suggests. It was last seen in 1954 and has a 71-year orbit of the Sun that takes it out to Neptune’s orbit. It currently appears below-right of Jupiter.
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: 03/27/2024 – Let’s find out where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week
This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, March 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 8:04, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:30. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 10:50 this evening.
Let’s find out where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week, and see what planets are left. Mercury is visible in the evening sky shortly after sunset appearing very low in the west. It will be visible for the next few days or so, slowly heading back toward the Sun since this past Sunday. Higher up in the sky is bright Jupiter in the west southwest. It will set at 11:25 pm. Jupiter will be visible in the evening for only about another month or so. In the morning Mars, and especially Venus and Saturn may be impossible to spot, in the east-southeast in the bright twilight. Mars will rise at 6:28, and will be very low in the east-southeast. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is below-right of Jupiter in the evening. I’ll have more about it tomorrow.
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: 03/26/2024 – The dimmest constellation of the Zodiac is Cancer the crab
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, March 26th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 8:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:31. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 9:44 this evening.
The dimmest constellation of the Zodiac is Cancer the crab. It is located high in the southeast at 9 PM between the backwards question mark that is the front of Leo the lion towards the lower left and Castor and Pollux of Gemini to the upper right. Its claim to more modern astronomical fame is the star cluster within it called the Beehive Cluster also known in ancient times as Praesepe the manger which looks like a fuzzy spot to the naked eye. In binoculars or a small telescope it shows up as a rather sparse open cluster of stars and to me the whole cluster appears somewhat triangular like an old-fashioned beehive. The Beehive cluster is relatively close to us at about 610 light years away.
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: 03/25/2024 – Your subsequent opportunities for total solar eclipses in the U.S. if you miss the April 8th one
This is Ephemeris for Monday, March 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 8:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:33. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 8:39 this evening.
The Moon was officially full at 3:00 this morning. At that time it was in a penumbral eclipse. If you didn’t see it you didn’t miss much. Deep penumbral eclipses only show that the moon has a proverbial 5 o’clock shadow. This means that for the next new moon we’ll have a total solar eclipse. It’s in exactly 2 weeks. The eclipse totality path, in the United States, will run from Texas to Maine, and through Indiana and northwestern Ohio. The next total solar eclipse for the U.S. will occur in 2044, a sunset eclipse visible from parts of Montana and North Dakota. The next great eclipse for North America and the U.S. will be on August 12th of 2045, twenty years from now. The totality path will pass from Northern California all the way through to Florida.
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 eclipse will be visible in the area underneath the red lines. Within the dark blue lines is where totality will be visible. In United States that only includes parts of North Dakota and Montana at sunset. the funny three line teardrop in the right is where the eclipse will be in progress at sunset . Adapted from an eclipse map from NASA/GSFC, Fred Espenak.
This is the next Great American Eclipse after the April 8th eclipse . The path runs from Northern California to Florida . It is generally parallel to and south of the eclipse path of the August 21st 2017 eclipse. Adapted from an eclipse map from NASA/GSFC, Fred Espenak.
Ephemeris: 03/22/2024 – There will be a penumbral eclipse of the Moon Monday morning
This is Ephemeris for Friday, March 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 7:58, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:39. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 7:16 tomorrow morning.
We are in an eclipse season. These occur at a bit less than 6 months intervals, and last about 35 days. During this period we will have a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse. Of course the big eclipse of this eclipse season is the April 8th total solar eclipse, which will be visible from the United States and be visible from here as a very deep partial eclipse. We start off this eclipse season with a lunar eclipse, not a really great lunar eclipse, but a lunar eclipse nonetheless. It is a penumbral eclipse where the Moon enters the Earth’s outer shadow where the Sun is only partially blocked to it. What we will see will be not much. It will reach its maximum at 3:13 am Monday morning, when the bottom part of the Moon will be slightly darker than the top.
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: 03/21/2024 – Three lunar craters named for heliocentrists by a geocentrist
This is Ephemeris for Thursday, March 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 7:57, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:41. The Moon, halfway from first quarter to full, will set at 6:59 tomorrow morning.
The gibbous moon tonight is exhibiting, over the last three days, three craters named for those who promoted the heliocentric or Sun centered solar system. The largest crater of the three, Copernicus, can be seen to the lower left of the center of the Moon. The asteroid that hit it made a big splash, which can be seen in its rays of ejecta being round and full. Then about halfway between it and the terminator is a small crater named for Johannes Kepler, and then nearby and on the terminator tonight is the crater named for the Greek philosopher who first proposed the Sun centered solar system, or in his case the universe, Aristarchus. He was a contemporary of and overshadowed by Aristotle, so his ideas were never adopted.
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
These craters were named by Giovanni Battista Riccioli, an astronomer and Jesuit priest. He established the lunar nomenclature we have today and named many of the largest craters. Being a 17th century Catholic, he bought the Roman Catholic line that the universe was geocentric, that is earth centered, yet he honored these heliocentrists with their own craters. He tended to group crater names by their relationship in life or their ideas, so the three proponents of the Sun centered solar system were given craters near each other in one section of the Moon.
Aristarchus of Samos was a Greek philosopher who lived between 310 and 230 BCE. He proposed a heliocentric solar system or universe, where Earth and all the planets revolved about the Sun. However, the work that he proposed it in has been lost. We know of his idea only referenced in the writings of others who attempted to debunk it.
Copernicus (Mikola Kopernik 1473-1543), was a Polish Catholic Canon, who was a mathematician, astronomer and translator, among other talents. He came up with the theory of the Sun centered or heliocentric solar system or in his day, universe.
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) was an astronomer, astrologer and mathematician who discovered the laws of planetary motion. While Copernicus kept the circular orbits of the planets, they still didn’t match the motions of the planets in the sky. So he had to add some epicycles to make it all work. He actually had more epicycles than Ptolemy had. Kepler was able to figure out that he didn’t need epicycles if he assumed that the orbits were elliptical. He developed his Three Laws of Planetary Motion.
Galileo also has a crater there (Galilaei). It’s a tiny crater right on the terminator, below Kepler in the images above, and not visible. The Virtual Moon Atlas does not give an origin of the naming of the crater. Back in 1651, when Riccioli was giving craters names, Galileo was still on the outs with the Vatican, and the church.
Ephemeris: 03/20/2024 – Let’s find out where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week
This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, March 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 7:56, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:43. The Moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 6:38 tomorrow morning.
Let’s find out where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week, and see what planets are left. Mercury is visible in the evening sky shortly after sunset appearing very low in the west. It will be visible for the next week or so, moving away from the Sun, but getting dimmer, and starting back toward the Sun after Sunday. Higher up in the sky is bright Jupiter in the west southwest. It will set at 11:45 pm. Jupiter will be visible in the evening for only about another month or so. In the morning Mars, Venus and Saturn may be impossible to spot, in the east-southeast in the bright twilight. Mars will rise at 6:43 am, followed by Venus at 7:13, with Saturn right below it.
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
