Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Thursday, March 6th.  The sun will rise at 7:11.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 6:36.   The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 12:56 tomorrow morning.

The Moon’s appearance has changed since I last talked about it on Tuesday.  The Crescent is wider.  The terminator, the sunrise line on the Moon that gives the Moon it’s now crescent phase has uncovered most of the Sea of Tranquility.  In fact the sun will have risen at the Apollo 11 landing site by this evening.  With a small telescope just beneath the center of the moon and near the terminator is one of my favorite craters Theophilus with its well-defined central peak.  It’s kind of middle-aged for craters on the moon from 1 to 3 billion years old.  It’s in much better shape than the crater Cyrillus of nearly the same size that it partially overlaps, which is thought to be at least a billion years older and shows it.

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

Addendum

The Moon at 9 p.m. March 6, 2014 highlighting the Sea of Tranquility the Apollo 11 landing site (approximate) and the crater Theophilus. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.

Lunar craters Theophilus and Cyrillus. Credit: NASA/LRO mapped onto Virtual Moon Atlas.