Archive
01/15/2021 – Ephemeris – The constellation Lepus the hare
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.
01/29/2019 – Ephemeris – The rabbit that got away
Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 41 minutes, setting at 5:46, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:04. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:55 tomorrow morning.
Orion, the central winter constellation is seen in the south at 9 p.m. He is a hunter, but he’s 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 do 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 of these compact star clusters visible in the winter sky.
Addendum
An animation showing the stars, constellations and artwork of Lepus, Orion and Taurus. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
My view of Lepus the hare. Star field from Cartes du Ciel. Desert Cottontail drawing from Arizona-Senora Desert Museum website. Superimposed with GIMP.
02/05/2018 – Ephemeris – The rabbit that got away
Ephemeris for Monday, February 5th. The Sun will rise at 7:57. It’ll be up for 10 hours even, setting at 5:57. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 12:06 tomorrow morning.
Orion, the central winter constellation is seen in the south at 9 p.m. He is a hunter, but he’s 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 dim stars: however, I do 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. Some see a whole rabbit facing the other way. In Lepus telescopes can find M79, a distant globular star cluster, one of the few in the winter sky.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Pick your favorite Lepus outline. Cartes du Ciel, Stellarium, or Hallo Northern SKY (with grid lines).
01/23/2017 – Ephemeris – The rabbit that got away
Ephemeris for Monday, January 23rd. The Sun will rise at 8:10. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 5:39. The Moon, half way from last quarter to new, will rise at 5:17 tomorrow morning.
Orion, the central winter constellation is seen in the south-southeast at 9 p.m. He is a hunter, but is preoccupied in defending himself from the charge of Taurus the bull to 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 whole rabbit in its eight dim stars: however, I do 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 show the front part of the body. The free computer program at Stellarium.org shows a whole rabbit facing the opposite direction.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
An animation showing the stars, constellations and artwork of Lepus, Orion and Taurus. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
01/29/2016 – Ephemeris – The rabbit that got away
Ephemeris for Friday, January 29th. The Sun will rise at 8:05. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 40 minutes, setting at 5:46. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:40 this evening.
Orion, the central winter constellation is seen in the south at 9 p.m. He is a hunter, but he’s 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 do 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 of these compact clusters visible in the winter sky.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
An animation showing the stars, constellations and artwork of Lepus, Orion and Taurus. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
As you can see, the image above of Lepus isn’t how I imagine the hare as I mentioned in the text.
01/07/2016 – Ephemeris – The Orion entourage
Ephemeris for Thursday, January 7th. The Sun will rise at 8:19. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 5:18. The Moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6:42 tomorrow morning.
The whole Orion entourage is now visible in the southeast at 9 p.m. Orion the hunter with stars at his shoulders and knees and has a belt of three stars in a straight line. He has one arm upraised holding a club from the reddish star Betelgeuse and in the other arm he’s holding a lion skin shield fending off an attack from Taurus the bull above and right of him. Following the belt stars to the lower left we come to the brightest night-time star Sirius the Dog Star in the heart of Canis Major, his great hunting dog. Making a nearly equilateral triangle with Sirius and Betelgeuse is Procyon the little dog star in Canis Minor, Orion’s other small hunting dog. Hunched at the distracted Orion’s feet is the small constellation of Lepus the hare.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Orion Entourage as seen at 9 p.m. January 7, 2016. Created using Stellarium
Orion and the head of Taurus photograph by myself January 4, 2016 at 11:30 p.m. It’s a stack of 5 untracked 20 second exposures.
Limiting magnitude is about 8, so you’re seeing stars you’d see with binoculars. The glow off to the left s from Traverse City, the center of which is 6 miles away to my northeast. I’m looking south here to get out of the glow, so Orion is more upright. I didn’t quite make it. My southwest through northwest is the darkest.
As you can probably guess I’ve got a new camera for my birthday/Christmas, a Canon EOS Rebel T5, and I’m investigating its astrophotographic capabilities. So expect some more “new” actual photographs on these posts.
02/27/2014 – Ephemeris – Lepus the hare, the rabbit that got away
Ephemeris for Thursday, February 27th. The sun will rise at 7:23. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 4 minutes, setting at 6:27. The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6:36 tomorrow morning.
Orion, the central winter constellation is seen in the south at 9 p.m. He is a hunter, but he’s 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 do 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 of these compact star clusters visible in the winter sky.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Lepus the hare as imagined in Stellarium. I haven’t added the four stars in the ears as I saw it based on the older Sky and Telescope magazine star charts.
Globular star cluster M79 is very distant: 41,000 light years from us and 60,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way. It possibly was a member of the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy that seems to have become entangled with our own Milky Way galaxy. That’s what massive galaxies do to smaller, less massive dwarf galaxies: “Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated”.
01/14/2013 – Ephemeris – Lepus the hare, overlooked by Orion
Ephemeris for Monday, January 14th. The sun will rise at 8:16. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 5:27. The moon, 3 days past new, will set at 9:23 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 fart
Orion facing Taurus letting Lepus escape with Jupiter in 2013. Created using Stellarium.
her 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.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
02/16/2012 – Ephemeris – The constellation of Lepus the hare
Ephemeris for Thursday, February 16th. The sun will rise at 7:41. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 6:11. The moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:39 tomorrow morning.
Orion, the central winter constellation is seen in the south at 9 p.m. He is a hunter, but is preoccupied in defending himself from the charge of Taurus the bull to 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 whole rabbit in its eight dim stars: however, I do 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 show the front part of the body. The free computer program Stellarium shows a different orientation to the hare. You might check it out at Stellarium.org.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Lepus and a preoccupied Orion. Image from Stellarium.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 