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Ephemeris: 04/08/2025 – A look at Proxima Centauri

April 8, 2025 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 9 minutes, setting at 8:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:08. The Moon, halfway from first quarter to full, will set at 5:57 tomorrow morning.

The nearest star to our Sun is a triple star system called Alpha Centauri or Rigil Kentaurus. It is in the skies of the Southern Hemisphere, but visible from the far southern parts of the United States. I’ve seen it from the Florida Keys and also from the latitude of the Big Island of Hawai’i. The closest member of that group this is a star we call Proxima Centauri or just Proxima for short. It is not visible to the naked eye. It is a red dwarf star maybe 12% the Sun’s mass, and at 11th magnitude. Proxima would be tough to spot with a pair of binoculars in a region of the sky which is filled with stars because it’s in the band of the Milky Way. Alpha Centauri, itself, is located near the Southern Cross, the farthest of the two bright stars to the east of it.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Alpha Centauri (Rigil Kentaurus) finder using the Southern Cross as seen from approximately 20 degrees north latitude, where the Southern Cross just clears the southern horizon on late spring evenings. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
Alpha Centauri (Rigil Kentaurus) finder using the Southern Cross
The star field containing Proxima Centauri, including Alpha and Beta Centauri. Hadar (Beta Centauri) is itself a triple star system, but 361 light years away. Image credit: Skatebiker at English Wikipedia, annotations, except for the Proxima finder circle, by the author.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Stars Tags: , , , , ,