Archive
01/15/2015 – Ephemeris – Family STEM Night at Greenspire School
Ephemeris for Thursday, January 15th. The sun will rise at 8:16. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 5:28. The moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:07 tomorrow morning.
Tonight the Greenspire School is sponsoring its annual Family STEM Night from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the school on Red Drive at the Grand Traverse Commons. Red Drive is a block west of Silver Drive that connects to Silver Lake Road at Franke Road. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. One of the demonstrations will be a 3D printer. The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be there also making dry ice comets, showing the sky and Comet Lovejoy through telescopes if it’s clear, and giving away two Galileoscope telescope kits and a some Race to the Planets trivia games courtesy of Professor Jerry Dobek and Project Astro. There are lots of hands on activities for the whole family.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
01/15/2013 – Ephemeris – The red giant star with a funny name Betelgeuse (Beetle Juice), plus STEM Night tonight at Greenspire School
Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 15th. The sun will rise at 8:15. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 5:28. The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 10:31 this evening.
The bright red star in constellation Orion’s shoulder is Betelgeuse, 643 light years away give or take 146 light years. Betelgeuse is a shortened form of an Arabic phrase that means “Armpit of the central one”. Orion is seen in the south in the evening. Even at its great distance it’s the star whose surface is easiest seen, after the sun of course. That’s because it’s so big. As somewhat larger around than the orbit of Jupiter, it turns out. Recent telescopic observations of Betelgeuse have shown plumes of gas surrounding the star. A star like Betelgeuse is so bloated that it can be described as a red hot vacuum, thus its edge or limb is much darker than its center. The sun has limb darkening too, but it is much less noticeable.
Tonight:
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Night.
We’ll have Gary Carlisle and I will be there to view the moon and Jupiter if it’s clear, Make craters hands-on. I’ll be helping to make comets. Bring your gloves because comets are COLD! We’ll be representing the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society.
Times above are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Orion facing Taurus letting Lepus escape with Jupiter in 2013. Check out Betelgeuse. Created using Stellarium.
Betelgeuse and its nebula. From the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 