12/16/2022 – Ephemeris – The Anishinaabe constellation of Winter Maker announces the coming of winter
This is Ephemeris for Friday, December 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:14. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 1:22 tomorrow morning. | The native peoples of the Great Lakes area are the Anishinaabe, composed of the Odawa or Ottawa, and Chippewa or Ojibwe tribes. One of their great constellations is the Winter Maker, whose central part we know as Orion. Instead of turning to face the charge of Taurus the bull, holds his arms outstretched to embrace all the winter stars. His rising in November foretells the coming of winter. His name in their Anishinaabemowin language means North Wind. Now that winter is almost here, he is moving to the southern part of the sky in the evening to reign over the brilliant stars of winter. The star we call Sirius, the brightest nighttime star, is called Gizhii’anung. Anung means “star”.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Anishinaabe constellation of the Winter Maker, whose arms will encompass the rest of the winter stars, once they rise later in the evening. Also shown is the Hole in the Sky, which we know as the Pleiades.
12/15/2022 – Ephemeris – Stories of the Pleiades from many lands
This is Ephemeris for Thursday, December 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:13. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 12:16 tomorrow morning.
Let’s look at how some ancient cultures saw the Pleiades, the star cluster that is seen high in the eastern sky these evenings. To the Anishinaabe native peoples around here, the Pleiades is the “Hole in the Sky” or the seven stones that are heated for the sweat lodge ceremony. To the Kiowa, these were sister stars that had been whisked into the sky from the top of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, where they were threatened by a huge bear. In Norse mythology, these were the goddess Freya’s* hens. The name we know them by has rather misty origins. Some think the Greek name is from the mother of the seven sisters, Pleione. The Greek word for sail is similar to Pleiades, and the appearance of the Pleiades in the morning sky saw the best sailing weather in the Mediterranean.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
* Freya is the Norse goddess from which we get the name of the day of the week Friday from. In Latin, the day is named after the goddess Venus.
Addendum
The Greek Pleiades, a painting by Elihu Vedder in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain.
Seven maidens being attacked by a giant bear, having fled to the top of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Painting by Herbert Collins, http://www.nps.gov/deto
They are also the Seven Daughters of the Moon and Sun. They loved to dance and play, and when their father, the Moon was low in the sky, would descend to the Earth in a basket to do their thing. On one of their trips to the earth, one of them was captured by a human, and she ended up falling in love with him, and married him. When father Moon found out, he permanently dimmed her star, so now most people now only can spot 6 of the stars. This last bit seems to parallel the Greek story of the lost Pleiad.
12/14/2022 – Ephemeris – Let’s see where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week, and a second look at the Geminid meteor shower near its peak
This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, December 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:13. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:10 this evening.
Let’s see where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week. The Geminid meteor shower will be near peak again this evening, and the Moon will not interfere with it until just after 11 pm. The meteors will appear all over the sky, but will be seen to come from the constellation Gemini, high above Orion the hunter. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible from east to south-southwest this evening by 6 pm. Jupiter is the brightest of the three in the southeast, while dimmer Saturn is in the south-southwest at that hour. Mars will end up being above and to the right of Orion later on this evening. They will be shifting westward throughout the evening. Saturn, the westernmost of the bright planets, will set around 9:41 this evening. Venus and Mercury are also in the evening sky, but too close to the setting Sun to be easily spotted.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Evening planets at 8 pm in this panorama from east to southwest with the zodiacal constellations. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.
The waning gibbous Moon in as it might look like in binoculars or a telescope at low power at 6 am, Thursday, December 15, 2022. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw and GIMP.
Telescopic views of Saturn Jupiter and Mars (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope, with the same magnification. The image of Mars doesn’t show it, but the white north polar cap will appear at the top or north limb of Mars. The planets are shown at 8 pm tonight, December 14, 2022. Apparent diameters: Saturn 16.09″, its rings 37.49″; Jupiter 41.58″. Mars 16.61″. Mars’ distance is 52.4 million miles (84.4 million kilometers). The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on December 14, 2022. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 15th. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
12/12/2022 – Ephemeris – Orion and the scorpion
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, December 12th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:11. The Moon, 4 days before last quarter, will rise at 9 this evening.
The wonderful constellation of Orion the hard luck hunter is seen rising in the east as twilight fades. According to one Greek myth he was killed by the sting of a scorpion, thus he can only rise as the summer constellation of Scorpius the scorpion sets in the southwest, and he must set as the scorpion rises on early spring evenings. By 9 pm, he is located in the east-southeast. His three belt stars are nearly vertically arranged in a line and equally spaced. They point down to the horizon, where the brightest nighttime star Sirius will rise at about 9:20 pm. The belt stars lie within a large rectangle of stars tilted to the left. His shoulders and knees. The top left star is the bright red Betelgeuse. The bottom right star is blue-white Rigel. We’ll explore more of Orion all winter.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
A panorama showing Orion rising while Scorpius the scorpion is below the horizon. Both the atmosphere and the ground were removed in this view. The horizon is the green horizontal line. Orion, apparently, is so afraid of the scorpion, that he won’t enter the sky until the scorpion is long gone, putting the Sun between the two. This business of the two never being in the sky at the same time only works for observers in the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium
12/09/2022 – Ephemeris – The earliest sunset of the year
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, December 9th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 53 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:09. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 5:59 this evening.
We are at the period of time of the earliest sunset, in the middle of a 13-day stretch where the Sun sets within the same minute. We are still 12 days from the winter solstice, the day of the shortest daylight hours, on the 21st. The reason is twofold. The Sun is near its farthest position south of the equator, where the longitude lines are closer together, so it takes less time to cross them. 15 degrees in longitude equals one hour in Earth’s rotation. Add to that we are less than a month from Earth’s perihelion in its orbit of the Sun, that is at its closest, and is moving faster than average. The combined effects delay sunrise and sunset, from what they’d be if the Sun was on the equator and the Earth’s orbit was circular. We will have our latest sunrise on January 2nd.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
How the Sun’s declination affects how rapidly it appears to cross time lines (meridians)
Table of Earliest and Latest Sunrises and Sunsets during the year for Interlochen/Traverse City area of Michigan.
In December the Earth is approaching perihelion, its closest to the Sun, so it moves faster than average. This makes the Sun to appear to move faster eastward against the stars in our sky. This tends to make our sunrises, apparent local noons and sunsets later than they would otherwise be. This makes sunset bottom out early and extends the date of the latest sunrise
For the June or summer solstice around here, the Earth is near aphelion, its farthest from the Sun where the Earth is at its slowest in its orbit. By reflection, the Sun appears to move its slowest against the stars in our sky. This effect works against the high latitude effect, making the effect smaller. Looking at the table above, the days between the earliest and latest times is shorter for the summer solstice than for the winter solstice.
12/08/2022 – Ephemeris – Tonight’s full-ish Moon is near where the June solstice Sun was
This is Ephemeris for Thursday, December 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:08. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 5:10 this evening.
The bright Moon near full in December rises very high in the south around midnight to 1 am. It is near where the Sun is at the summer solstice. Actually, tonight it is to the lower right of the constellation of Gemini, and to give a topical reference. Tonight, the Moon appears as a soccer ball being kicked by Castor, one of the twins. It’s right off the toe of his foot. In June, the Sun and Full Moon’s positions are reversed. The Sun rises very high in the southern sky at local noon, while the full moon stays low in the south. Or Moon is odd in that respect, Most large satellites of the other planets orbit over their primary’s equator. Our Moon’s orbit is aligned to about 5 degrees off Earth’s own orbit of the Sun, which is angled at 23 and a half degrees from Earth’s equator.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Moon near the summer solstice point overnight tonight at 1:15 am (the 9th). The sky is overlaid with the equatorial grid. The bright blue line that runs just above Orion’s belt is the celestial equator. The declination lines match Earth’s latitude lines are 10 degrees apart. The vertical blue lines are right ascension lines, like earthly longitude lines, and are 15 degrees apart. Each one represents one hour. The orange line is the ecliptic, the path of the Sun in the sky, also the plane of the Earth’s orbit. The red line is the Moon’s orbit, which is inclined by about 5 degrees to the ecliptic. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium and LibreOffice Draw.
12/07/2022 – Ephemeris – An occultation of Mars and a look at the other naked eye planets.
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Wednesday, December 7th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:07. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 4:31 this evening.
Let’s see where the naked-eye planets have wandered off to this week. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible this evening, in the southeastern sky by 6 pm. At that time, Mars will be below, left of the bright full Moon. Jupiter is the brightest of the three in the southeast, while dimmer Saturn is in the south-southeast at that hour. Mars will be hidden behind the Moon from about 10:15 to 11:15 pm tonight for the IPR area. Being a full moon, Mars might be difficult to spot. It may take binoculars to spot it below, left of the Moon by 9:30, and a small telescope when Mars is near the edge of the Moon. The disappearance of Mars will be at the Moon’s 7 o’clock position, and reappearance at the 4 o’clock position. Bobmoler.wordpress.com (you are already here) has more information.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Panoramic view of planets and Moon this evening at 7 pm tonight, December 7, 2022. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.
Mars occultation animation in half hour steps for 9:15 pm, 9:45 pm, 10:15 pm (Ingress), 10:45 pm (mid-occultation), 11:15 pm (egress), 11:45 pm. The Moon and the apparent path of Mars rotates as they cross the sky from east to west. In actuality, the Moon is much brighter than Mars, so picking the planet out tonight will be a challenge. It will take the Moon almost a minute to completely cover Mars, and nearly another minute to uncover it. The plot is centered on the Moon here, but the Moon provides most of the motion here. On average, the Moon moves 12 degrees a day, while Mars moves less than a degree against the starry background. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
Telescopic views of Saturn Jupiter and Mars (north up) as they would be seen in a small telescope, with the same magnification. The image of Mars doesn’t show it, but the white north polar cap will appear at the top or north limb of Mars. The planets are shown at 8 pm tonight, December 7, 2022. Apparent diameters: Saturn 16.25″, its rings 37.86″; Jupiter 42.55″. Mars 17.05″. Mars’ distance is 51.0 million miles (82.1 million kilometers). This is the closest it comes to the Earth this orbit. The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
The naked-eye planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise on a single night, starting with sunset on the right on December 7, 2022. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 8th. Click on the image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app and GIMP.
World map showing the area that the occultation of Mars will be visible. Occultation visibility will move from west to east. Credit: Occult version 4. This evening in the EST zone is the 8th for Universal Time (UT), or GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) if you’re older.
12/06/2022 – Ephemeris – The Moon will pass in front of Mars tomorrow night
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, December 6th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:06. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:45 tomorrow morning.
Late tomorrow evening we might get to view a really cool event, clouds permitting, when the full moon will cover or in astronomical lingo occult the planet Mars. In the Grand Traverse Region, this will occur for an hour between approximately 10:15 to 11:15 pm. The exact times depend on your location, and can vary by a minute or two over the IPR coverage area. Being a full moon, Mars might be difficult to spot. It may take binoculars to spot it below, left of the Moon by 9:30, and a small telescope when Mars is near the edge of the Moon. The disappearance of Mars will be at the Moon’s 7 o’clock position, and reappearance at the 4 o’clock position.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Mars ingress and egress chart and times for Traverse City, MI. The times will vary by a minute or two in the IPR listening area, ingress being earlier to the west and north and later east and south. Egress times will be earlier west and later east of Traverse City. Mars takes about a minute to completely disappear and reappear again because it’s not an unresolvable point like stars.
Occultation of Mars map. The occultation of Mars by the Moon will be visible from within the bounded area. For Traverse City, MI, Mars will disappear around 10:15 pm, December 7, 2022, and reappear around 11:15 pm.
In astronomical events of solar eclipses and occultations YOU are part of the event. No, not you, but your location. Whether you see the event or not or what time the contacts (ingress, egress) happen depends on your location. And will happen for that location whether you are there, or it’s clear, or not.
12/05/2022 – Ephemeris – Mars will hide behind the full Moon Wednesday night
This is Ephemeris for Monday, December 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 58 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:05. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:36 tomorrow morning.
Late Wednesday night we might get to view a really cool event when the full moon will cover or in astronomical lingo occult the planet Mars. In the Grand Traverse Region, this will occur for an hour between approximately 10:15 to 11:15 pm. The exact times depend on your location, and can vary by several minutes or more. Being a full moon, Mars might be difficult to spot. I’ll have more and hopefully more accurate information tomorrow. When astronomical objects line up like this, it’s called a syzygy. This time it’s a lineup of the Sun, Earth Moon and Mars in nearly a straight line, with both the Moon and Mars in opposition from the Sun on the same night. When the Moon is in opposition, we call it a full moon instead.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Mars ingress and egress chart and times for Traverse City, MI. The times will vary by a minute or two in the IPR listening area, ingress being earlier to the west and north and later east and south. Egress times will be earlier west and later east of Traverse City.
World map showing the area that the occultation of Mars will be visible. Occultation visibility will move from west to east. Credit: Occult version 4.
12/02/2022 – Ephemeris – Astronomical events tonight and tomorrow in Traverse City
This is Ephemeris for Friday, December 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 5:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:02. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 3:07 tomorrow morning.
We have a big astronomy and space weekend starting tonight at 8 pm I’ll be giving a talk about the Star of Bethlehem at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road, with observing at 9 pm, clouds permitting. This is part of the December meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society. Tomorrow is NASA Family Day at the Dennos Museum Center. There are fun activities at 1 pm, making comets and exploring the phases of the Moon. At 2 pm, Dr. Jerry Dobek from NMC and the GTAS will be giving a talk at the Milliken Auditorium. Museum admission is waived for the event, which is to celebrate the Museum’s having a NASA Kiosk through the end of the month.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
