Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, January 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 12 minutes, setting at 5:28, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:15. The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 8:17 this evening.

Orion, the central winter constellation is seen in the southern sky this evening. He is a hunter, as artists depict him, he is preoccupied with the charge of Taurus the bull from the upper right. At Orion’s feet, and unnoticed by him is the small constellation of Lepus the hare. It’s very hard to see a rabbit in its eight dim stars: however, I can see a rabbit’s head ears and shoulders. A misshapen box is the head and face of this critter facing to the left. His ears extend upwards from the upper right star of the box, and the bend forward a bit. Two stars to the right of the box and a bit farther apart hint at the front part of the body. In Lepus telescopes can find M79, a distant globular star cluster, one of the few visible in the winter sky.

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

Addendum

My view of Lepus the hare. Star field from Cartes du Ciel. Desert Cottontail drawing from Arizona-Senora Desert Museum website. Superimposed with GIMP.

An animation showing the stars, constellations and artwork of Lepus, Orion and Taurus from Stellarium. The constellation lines suggest a rabbit ears TV antenna. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.