Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, February 16th. The Sun will rise at 7:41. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 6:12. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:09 this evening.

The way the horns of Taurus the bull are shown in the sky, they are long and pointed above the head, not like a Texas Longhorn, off to the side. Near the tip of the eastern most horn is a faint and small fuzzy object. When Charles Messier saw it in 1758 he placed it as number 1 in his famous catalog of fuzzy objects that weren’t comets. It in 1913 it was realized that it was seen before. On July 5th, 1054 AD to be precise by Chinese astronomers. It, for a few weeks became the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. It was a supernova, a massive star ending its life in a big explosion. In the 19th century Lord Rosse saw it with his huge telescope and called it the Crab Nebula. In its center is a tiny neutron star that spins 30 times a second.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Crab Nebula (M 1) finder Chart. Orientation for 9 p.m. February 16th. It’s overall magnitude is 8.4 making it difficult to spot with binoculars or a telescope finder. I usually center the horn tip star Zeta Tauri and shift the telescope west a bit. Chart created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Hubble Space Telescope view of the Crab Nebula. Visually it appears a an oval blob. Credit NASA/ESA.

The heart of the Crab Nebula and activity around the neutron star, which also is a pulsar as seen in x-rays by the Chandra satellite. Credit: NASA/CXC/A.Jubett.