Archive
02/28/2017 – Ephemeris – Previewing the skies of March 2017
Ephemeris for Fat Tuesday, February 28th. The Sun will rise at 7:21. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 6:29. The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 9:03 this evening.
Let’s preview the month of March which begins tomorrow. In March the increase in daylight hours is at its greatest, with Spring 3 weeks away. Daylight hours will increase from 11 hours and 11 minutes tomorrow to 12 hours and 44 minutes on the 31st. Along with that the altitude of the sun at local noon will increase from 38 degrees today to 49 ½ degrees at month’s end. The big astronomical event of this month will be a near grazing occultation of the bright star Aldebaran by the Moon. Aldebaran is the bright star in the face of Taurus the bull. This will occur just after 11 p.m. Saturday night the 4th. The southern half of the IPR listening area will be able to see it. See bobmoler.wordpress.com for more information.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
March Star Charts
Evening
Star Chart for March 2017. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.
Morning
Star Chart for March 2017 mornings. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.
The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 10 p.m. EDT, and again at 6 a.m. Those are chart times. Note, Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian. during EDT and 45 minutes behind our daylight standard time meridian. during EST). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1:45 or 0:45 earlier than the current time if you were near your time meridian.
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
- Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, and
- Straighten to a spike to Spica
- The Summer Triangle is shown in red
Evening nautical twilight ends at 7:32 p.m. EST on the 1st, increasing to 9:16 p.m. EDT on the 31st.
Evening astronomical twilight ends at 8:06 p.m. EST on the 1st, increasing to 9:53 p.m. EDT on the 31st.
Morning astronomical twilight starts at 5:43 a.m. EST on the 1st, and increasing to 5:48 a.m. EDT on the 31st.
Morning nautical twilight starts at 6:17 a.m. EST on the 1st, and Increasing to 6:25 a.m. EDT on the 31st.
NASA Calendar of Planetary Events
Credit: Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC)
To generate your own calendar go to http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html
Times are Eastern Time and follow the time change dates.
Date Time Event Mar 01 We Venus: 32.5° E 01 We 1:58 am Moon-Mars: 4.4° N 01 We 9:22 pm Neptune Conjunction 03 Fr 2:24 am Moon Perigee: 369100 km 04 Sa 9:38 pm Moon-Aldebaran: 0.2° S Occultation! 05 Su 6:32 am First Quarter 06 Mo 7:08 pm Mercury Superior Conjunction with the Sun 06 Mo 7:43 pm Moon North Dec.: 18.9° N 10 Fr 5:20 pm Moon-Regulus: 0.9° N 10 Fr 11:17 pm Moon Ascending Node 12 Su 2:00 am Daylight Saving Time starts (Spring Forward) 12 Su 10:54 am Full Moon 14 Tu 4:04 pm Moon-Jupiter: 2.7° S 18 Sa 1:25 pm Moon Apogee: 404700 km 20 Mo 6:29 am Vernal Equinox. Spring starts 20 Mo 6:49 am Moon-Saturn: 3.8° S 20 Mo 11:58 am Last Quarter 21 Tu 1:22 am Moon South Dec.: 18.9° S 25 Sa 6:31 am Venus Inferior Conjunction with the Sun 25 Sa 11:41 am Moon Descending Node 27 Mo 10:57 pm New Moon 30 Th 8:39 am Moon Perigee: 363900 km Apr 01 Sa Venus: 13.4° W
March 2017 Calendar
LU Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC March, 2017 Local time zone: EST +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | DATE | SUN SUN DAYLIGHT| TWILIGHT* |MOON RISE OR ILLUM | | | RISE SET HOURS | END START |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN| +=======================================================================+ |Wed 1| 07:19a 06:30p 11:11 | 07:34p 06:16a | Set 10:15p 14%| |Thu 2| 07:18a 06:32p 11:14 | 07:35p 06:15a | Set 11:26p 23%| |Fri 3| 07:16a 06:33p 11:17 | 07:36p 06:13a | Set 12:37a 33%| |Sat 4| 07:14a 06:34p 11:20 | 07:37p 06:11a | Set 01:45a 44%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 5| 07:12a 06:36p 11:23 | 07:39p 06:09a |F Qtr Set 02:50a 56%| |Mon 6| 07:11a 06:37p 11:26 | 07:40p 06:08a | Set 03:48a 67%| |Tue 7| 07:09a 06:38p 11:29 | 07:41p 06:06a | Set 04:40a 77%| |Wed 8| 07:07a 06:40p 11:32 | 07:43p 06:04a | Set 05:25a 86%| |Thu 9| 07:05a 06:41p 11:35 | 07:44p 06:02a | Set 06:04a 92%| |Fri 10| 07:03a 06:42p 11:38 | 07:45p 06:00a | Set 06:38a 97%| |Sat 11| 07:02a 06:44p 11:42 | 07:47p 05:59a | Set 07:09a 100%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ | EDT | Time Change | | | |Sun 12| 08:00a 07:45p 11:45 | 08:48p 06:57a |Full Rise 08:00p 100%| |Mon 13| 07:58a 07:46p 11:48 | 08:49p 06:55a | Rise 09:03p 98%| |Tue 14| 07:56a 07:47p 11:51 | 08:51p 06:53a | Rise 10:05p 94%| |Wed 15| 07:54a 07:49p 11:54 | 08:52p 06:51a | Rise 11:05p 89%| |Thu 16| 07:52a 07:50p 11:57 | 08:53p 06:49a | Rise 12:04a 82%| |Fri 17| 07:51a 07:51p 12:00 | 08:55p 06:47a | Rise 01:01a 74%| |Sat 18| 07:49a 07:53p 12:03 | 08:56p 06:46a | Rise 01:57a 66%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 19| 07:47a 07:54p 12:07 | 08:57p 06:44a | Rise 02:50a 56%| |Mon 20| 07:45a 07:55p 12:10 | 08:59p 06:42a |L Qtr Rise 03:40a 47%| |Tue 21| 07:43a 07:56p 12:13 | 09:00p 06:40a | Rise 04:27a 37%| |Wed 22| 07:41a 07:58p 12:16 | 09:01p 06:38a | Rise 05:09a 28%| |Thu 23| 07:39a 07:59p 12:19 | 09:03p 06:36a | Rise 05:48a 19%| |Fri 24| 07:38a 08:00p 12:22 | 09:04p 06:34a | Rise 06:24a 12%| |Sat 25| 07:36a 08:01p 12:25 | 09:05p 06:32a | Rise 06:58a 6%| +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+ |Sun 26| 07:34a 08:03p 12:28 | 09:07p 06:30a | Rise 07:31a 2%| |Mon 27| 07:32a 08:04p 12:32 | 09:08p 06:28a |New Set 07:43p 0%| |Tue 28| 07:30a 08:05p 12:35 | 09:10p 06:26a | Set 08:56p 1%| |Wed 29| 07:28a 08:06p 12:38 | 09:11p 06:24a | Set 10:10p 5%| |Thu 30| 07:26a 08:08p 12:41 | 09:12p 06:22a | Set 11:24p 11%| |Fri 31| 07:25a 08:09p 12:44 | 09:14p 06:20a | Set 12:36a 20%| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ * Nautical Twilight ** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset
Grazing Occultation of Aldebaran March 4 or 5, 2017 (Depending on your location)
Path of the occultation of Aldebaran for March 4-5, 2017. Note where the top edge of the path goes. Right through northern Michigan.
Here’s the line where the limit of the occultation passes in northwestern lower Michigan. Occult4 kml file plotted on Google Earth.
The central time of the occultation is 11:13 p.m. Start viewing the Moon before 11 p.m. The farther south one is of the line the earlier the occultation starts and the longer it lasts. I’ll have lots more information in Thursday’s post.
01/22/2016 – Ephemeris – Getting sunrise and sunset times for your location
Ephemeris for Friday, January 22nd. The Sun will rise at 8:12. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 5:36. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:31 tomorrow morning.
With the bright moon, blocking all but the brightest stars, it’s a good time to do some housekeeping. When I started this program 40 ½ years ago Interlochen Public Radio (IPR) had only one transmitter and a single antenna pattern. It was simply WIAA then. The sunrise and sunset times worked well for that. However since then with transmitters from Manistee to the Straits I cannot hope to cover it all with a single set of times. The differences in the times also vary with the seasons. To get help on the Internet go to my monthly site ephemeris.bjmoler.org and click on Calendars. There are calendars for Ludington, Cadillac, Interlochen/Traverse City, Petoskey and Mackinaw City. Select a month to view or printout a whole year, or use the email link to request a sunrise, sunset, and Moon calendar for your town. There’s also a link to get sunrise and sunset times for anywhere in the world
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
As an aside. I wrote the program to compute the calendars back in the ’80s. It produces calendars in three formats, of which I still use two: comma separated values, and HTML. The HTML output is what is used for the calendar pages. The comma separated value files are input into a database which is used to create for me the first paragraph of the transcript. For the blog posting I omit “This is Bob Moler with…” as redundant. The program also produces database tables of the planets from which I base the Wednesday planet program rise, set and sometimes transit times.
The actual Ephemeris audio programs are also found on the ephemeris.bjmoler.org under the audio link. A whole week of programs are available.
01/05/2015 – Ephemeris – Ephemeris’ dirty little secret
Ephemeris for Monday, January 5th. The sun will rise at 8:19. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 56 minutes, setting at 5:16. The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 6:14 this evening.
With the bright moon, blocking all but the brightest stars, it’s a good time to do some housekeeping. When I started this program 39 ½ years ago IPR had only one transmitter and a single antenna pattern. The sunrise and sunset times worked well for that. However since then with transmitters from Manistee to the Straits I cannot hope to cover all that in a single program. The differences in the times vary with the seasons. To get help on the Internet go to my monthly site ephemeris.bjmoler.org and click on Calendars. There are calendars for Ludington, Cadillac, Interlochen/Traverse City, Petoskey and Mackinaw City. Select a month to view or printout a whole year. Use the email link to request a sunrise, sunset, and Moon calendar for your town.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Click on Calendars in the header. and you will get this page.
This is the top of the Mackinaw City calendar where you can select to start at any month.
Partial image of the January calendar for Mackinaw City. The last column illum Fractn is the moon’s illuminated fraction. It is set for 24h UT, which is early evening on the date listed.
Interesting note: You can draw a straight line through Ludington, Interlochen/Traverse City, Petoskey and Mackinaw City. The angle with that line and the meridian is about 23 1/2 degrees. The same as the tilt of the Earth’s axis. Therefore near the winter solstice the sunrise times are nearly the same, but the sunset times can differ greatly. Conversely at the summer solstice the sunset times are nearly the same, but the sunrise times are the most divergent.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 