Archive
11/29/2016 – Ephemeris – Heads up: Friday’s on the possible origins of the Star of Bethlehem
Ephemeris for Tuesday, November 29th. The Sun will rise at 7:58. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 6 minutes, setting at 5:04. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
This Friday the 2nd at 8 p.m. I will be giving a talk investigating the origin of the Star of Bethlehem. This will be during December’s monthly meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society, at Northwestern Michigan College’s Joseph H. Rogers observatory located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road. The talk is a scientific treatment of the subject, rather than a religious one. We’ll look at what the Gospel writers got right and possibly got wrong. We’ll look at historical writings and oriental observations of the heavens around that time. These will be augmented by computer simulations of what have been important celestial events visible around that time. There is no admission charge. There will be viewing of the skies afterward if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Title Slide for Friday’s program
Friday with this post I’ll add the article I’ve written for our newsletter about the program.
10/07/2016 – Ephemeris – Busy astronomical weekend in Traverse City
Ephemeris for Friday, October 7th. The Sun will rise at 7:48. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 22 minutes, setting at 7:11. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 11:30 this evening.
This is another busy weekend for the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society. Tonight there will be a general meeting of the society at 8 p.m. followed by a star party at 9 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory, located on Birmley Road south of Traverse City, to which all are welcome. The featured speaker for the meeting will be Randy Leach presenting Astrophotography for the Average Guy. Photographing the sky without spending big bucks. Tomorrow evening members of the society will be on the north side of the 200 block of East Front street in Traverse City with their telescopes for the International Observe the Moon Night. We’ll start at 7 p.m. if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Substitute speaker: Yours truly: Personal recollections of 4 total solar eclipses and a look ahead at next year’s eclipse.
09/09/2016 – Ephemeris – There’s a star party tomorrow at the NMC Rogers Observatory
Ephemeris for Friday, September 9th. The Sun will rise at 7:15. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 8:03. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 12:50 tomorrow morning.
For the sixth weekend in a row the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will host an observing event. Just one this weekend. It will be a star party at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory tomorrow night, Saturday night the 10th from 9 to 11 p.m. The observatory’s and GTAS members telescopes will be used to view the Moon and the planets Saturn and Mars. Some of the brighter deep-sky objects of the summer sky will also be visible. There will be an alternate program available if it’s cloudy. Last weekend’s star party , out at the Sleeping Bear Dunes was a perfectly clear night with and nearly 1800 folks showed up to view the wonders of the Milky Way. The society and the park thank all who attended.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
08/02/2016 – Ephemeris – Two events for the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society this weekend
Ephemeris for Friday, September 2nd. The Sun will rise at 7:06. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 9 minutes, setting at 8:16. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 9:00 this evening.
This is another busy weekend for the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society. Tonight there will be a general meeting of the society at 8 p.m. followed by a star party at 9 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory, located on Birmley Road south of Traverse City, to which all are welcome. The featured speaker for the meeting will be Dr. David Penney who will talk about Late Pleistocene Fauna and Extinction and its possible astronomical cause. Saturday there will be a star party at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Dune Climb starting at 9 p.m. Both star parties will feature the star clusters and nebulae found in the Milky Way, and views of Saturn and Mars. The dunes are the darkest spot around.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Last night’s sunset was beautiful, but didn’t promise clear skies
Just after sunset from a hill top near Suttons Bay, MI. Credit Bob Moler.
The view is across most of the Leelanau Peninsula, the Manitou Passage, and North Manitou Island at the sunlit bottoms of the clouds just after sunset.
The event was the annual Grand Traverse Astronomical Society picnic and star party. Most of the evening was consumed by fleeting glimpses of Saturn and deep sky objects through the holes in the clouds by members telescopes and the society’s 25 inch “Dobinator” which was run by a crew headed by telescope “wrangler” Don Flegel. Before sunset the Sun provided some glorious prominences for us.
06/03/2019 – Ephemeris – Two local astronomical events on tap for this weekend
Ephemeris for Friday, June 3rd. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 9:23, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:58. The Moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 5:56 tomorrow morning.
There are two local astronomical events this weekend, starting this evening with the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society’s meeting tonight starting at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. The program will be by Becky Shaw about some current female astronomers. At 9 p.m. will be a star party. Tomorrow night, the 4th society members will be in the town of Arcadia for a star party at the ball field starting at 9 p.m. Turn right from Oak St off M22 to North Ridgewood Drive. The townships around the Arcadia Dunes are in the process of applying for International Dark Skies Community status. Though it won’t get dark until late, the planets Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will be featured.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
02/04/2016 – Ephemeris – The Great Underwater Panther & Fun star contest tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, March 4th. The Sun will rise at 7:14. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 6:35. The Moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:47 tomorrow morning.
The Anishnabek people of the Great Lakes Region, which includes the Odawa and Chippewa Indians have two constellations of winter that I know of. The first is The Winter Maker which uses many of Orion’s stars plus Procyon the Little Dog Star. It rises in the eastern skies in the evening as winter is beginning. The second is the Great Underwater Panther. Which uses the stars of Leo the lion’s backward question mark as its tail and the small knot of stars that are the head of hydra the water snake below Cancer as its head. I imagine this constellation was a warning to youngsters to keep off the thinning ice of spring, lest they fall in and be snatched by the great underwater panther that lives down there.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Alternately showing Leo and Hydra of our “Western” constellation and the Anishinabek constellation of the Great Underwater Panther. Created using Stellarium. The constellation drawing of the panther is mine after Michael Wassegijig Price.
Starpardy Tonight!
An astronomical quiz between the astronomy students and members of the Northwestern Michigan College Astronomy Club vs. the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be held tonight at 8 p.m. at the NMC Observatory. Folks attending can watch and learn or join one of the teams. The format is that of the popular Jeopardy show. These quizzes used to be called Star Bowls, after the old College Bowl TV shows. It’s been morphed into the Jeopardy format over the years, so this year I’m calling it Starpardy. And I can… I play Alex Trebek for this one, my second outing. Professor Jerry Dobek will be scorekeeper and arbiter of the Final Starpardy response, which will be open-ended this time. So come, enjoy the fun.
After the quiz there will be, weather permitting, a star party, and clear or not Becky Shaw will be by to continue her series on female astronomers of history and present day.
02/05/2016 – Ephemeris – Women in astronomy night at the GTAS tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, February 5th. The Sun will rise at 7:57. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 58 minutes, setting at 5:56. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 6:12 tomorrow morning.
Tonight there will be a meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory, featuring a graduate from NMC and the astronomy program: Becky Shaw who will present a talk Women in Astronomy. This is a second presentation of more female astronomers, the last was in November I especially recommend this for girls in school interested in the STEM fields, that is Science, Technology, Engineering and Math to find out the wonderful contributions these women have made. Astronomy, by the way encompasses all the STEM fields. The meeting starts at 8 p.m. and the observatory is located on Birmley Road, south of Traverse City. At 9 p.m. the will also be star party if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Appropriate to our speaker’s topic: In the news now is Smith’s Cloud, discovered by Gail Smith (now Gail Bieger-Smith) in 1963 as an astronomy student at Leiden University in the Netherlands. In new studies with the Green Bank (Radio) Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope the velocity and composition of the cloud has been measured. It somehow was ejected from the Milky Way some 70 million years ago, but it’s coming back! In 30 million years it will crash back in, hitting the Milky Way’s other gas clouds and will probably cause a burst of star formation of maybe 2 million new stars.
Smith’s cloud superimposed on the Milky Way. Smith’s Cloud is only visible at radio wavelengths, while the Milky Way shown is a visible photograph. Credit: Saxton/Lockman/NRAO/AUI/NSF/Mellinger.
12/04/2015 – Ephemeris – Yours truly will survey ancient and pre-scientific cosmologies tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, December 4th. The Sun will rise at 8:02. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 5:02. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 2:09 tomorrow morning.
This evening’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society starting at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory will be a traditional December program. This program alternates with a program on the Star of Bethlehem which will be revamped for next year. This year I’m presenting Ancient Cosmologies, a look at the cosmologies or world views of many mostly pre-scientific cultures, including how the Biblical world view was influenced by one of them. Then we’ll see the beginnings of Greek scientific thought that codified by Ptolemy in the second century AD, held sway for 1,500 years. Also I’ll look at Monday’s occultation of Venus and Comet Catalina. At 9 p.m. there will be a star party at the observatory with another program. All are welcome.
I’ll post more on the Occultation of Venus on the blog tomorrow and Monday
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/05/2015 – Ephemeris – Astronomy in Traverse City tonight: Parallax and Planets
Ephemeris for Friday, June 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 9:24. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 11:53 this evening and tomorrow the Sun will rise at 5:58.
Stellar parallax is a way to measure distances to the nearest stars by observing them six months apart, from opposite ends of the Earth’s orbit. Parallax is why we have two eyes to judge distance. Parallax is also proof that the earth revolves around the Sun. Dr. David Penney will investigate this at this evening’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. Everyone is welcome. Also at 9 p.m. there will be a star party at the observatory. The astronomical objects of the evening will be the planets Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 