Ephemeris: 02/28/25 – Previewing March Skies

This is Ephemeris for Friday, February 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 6:29, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:19. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:34 this evening.

Let’s preview the month of March. In March the increase in daylight hours is at its greatest, with spring 3 weeks away. Daylight hours will increase from 11 hours and 11 minutes tomorrow to 12 hours and 44 minutes on the 31st. Along with that the altitude of the Sun at local noon will increase from 38 degrees tomorrow to 49 ½ degrees at month’s end. Local noon tomorrow, by the way, for Interlochen and Traverse City is 12:54 pm, which is mainly due to the fact that our standard time meridian happens to run through Philadelphia. That’s before daylight time starts on the 9th. On that date local noon will be 1:52 pm. Spring will begin later this month on the 20th when the Sun will pass overhead on the equator heading northward.

We change to Daylight Saving Time on the 9th. EST to EDT. Bah, Humbug!

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Addendum

March Evening Star Chart

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 10 p.m. EDT in the evening and 6 a.m. on the 16th for the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian. (An hour and 45 minutes behind our Daylight Saving Time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere (rotating star finder) you may have to set it to 45 minutes or 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than your current time.

Note the chart times of 10 PM on the 15th, and 6 AM on the 16th. For each week before then, add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after then, subtract ½ hour. For planet positions on dates other than the dateshere, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.

March Morning Star Chart

For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.

• Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.
• The leaky bowl of the Big Dipper drips on Leo.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, and
• Extend it as a spike to Spica.
• The Summer Triangle appears in red.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

Omitted due to WordPress issues

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

     Date   Time EST  Event
Mar  1  Sa            Venus: 30.4° E
     1  Sa  12:40 AM  Moon Ascending Node
     1  Sa   4:18 PM  Moon Perigee: 362000 km
     1  Sa   6:18 PM  Moon-Venus: 6.4° N
     5  We   7:32 AM  Moon-Pleiades: 0.6° S
     6  Th  11:32 AM  First Quarter
     7  Fr  10:56 AM  Moon North Dec.: 28.7° N
     8  Sa  12:59 AM  Mercury Elongation: 18.2° E
     8  Sa   7:27 PM  Moon-Mars: 1.8° S
                 EDT
     9  Su   6:06 AM  Moon-Pollux: 2.1° N
    10  Mo   7:10 AM  Moon-Beehive: 2.8° S
    12  We   2:07 AM  Moon-Regulus: 2.4° S
    12  We   6:03 AM  Saturn Conjunction
    12  We   1:52 PM  Mercury-Venus: 5.5° N
    14  Fr   2:55 AM  Full Moon
    14  Fr   3:00 AM  Total Lunar Eclipse
    14  Fr   9:45 AM  Moon Descending Node
    16  Su   3:16 PM  Moon-Spica: 0.4° N
    17  Mo  12:37 PM  Moon Apogee: 405800 km
    19  We   6:20 PM  Neptune Conjunction
    20  Th   5:02 AM  Vernal Equinox
    20  Th  11:58 AM  Moon-Antares: 0.5° N
    22  Sa   2:47 AM  Moon South Dec.: 28.7° S
    22  Sa   7:29 AM  Last Quarter
    22  Sa   9:26 PM  Venus Inferior Conj.
    24  Mo   3:47 PM  Mercury Inferior Conj.
    28  Fr  12:29 PM  Moon Ascending Node
    29  Sa   6:48 AM  Partial Solar Eclipse
    29  Sa   6:58 AM  New Moon
    29  Sa   3:27 PM  Mars-Pollux: 4° S
    30  Su   1:26 AM  Moon Perigee: 358100 km

Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html

If you go to the above site you can print out a list like the above for the entire year or calendar pages for your time zone.

Note that the site is now kept up for archival purposes. Fred Espenak retired from NASA several years ago and has his own site, AstroPixels, which contains much the same information: http://astropixels.com/almanac/almanac.html.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

LU              Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
March, 2025    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Sat  1| 07:19a  06:31p  11:11 | 07:34p  06:16a |      Set  08:55p    5%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  2| 07:18a  06:32p  11:14 | 07:35p  06:15a |      Set  10:17p   12%|
|Mon  3| 07:16a  06:33p  11:17 | 07:36p  06:13a |      Set  11:40p   21%|
|Tue  4| 07:14a  06:35p  11:20 | 07:38p  06:11a |      Set  01:02a   31%|
|Wed  5| 07:12a  06:36p  11:23 | 07:39p  06:09a |      Set  02:21a   42%|
|Thu  6| 07:10a  06:37p  11:26 | 07:40p  06:08a |F Qtr Set  03:31a   53%|
|Fri  7| 07:09a  06:38p  11:29 | 07:41p  06:06a |      Set  04:28a   64%|
|Sat  8| 07:07a  06:40p  11:32 | 07:43p  06:04a |      Set  05:12a   74%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
| EDT  |      Time Change      |                |                       |
|Sun  9| 08:05a  07:41p  11:36 | 08:44p  07:02a |      Set  06:45a   83%|
|Mon 10| 08:03a  07:42p  11:39 | 08:45p  07:00a |      Set  07:11a   90%|
|Tue 11| 08:01a  07:44p  11:42 | 08:47p  06:59a |      Set  07:32a   95%|
|Wed 12| 08:00a  07:45p  11:45 | 08:48p  06:57a |      Set  07:49a   98%|
|Thu 13| 07:58a  07:46p  11:48 | 08:49p  06:55a |      Set  08:06a  100%|
|Fri 14| 07:56a  07:48p  11:51 | 08:51p  06:53a |Full  Rise 08:27p  100%|
|Sat 15| 07:54a  07:49p  11:54 | 08:52p  06:51a |      Rise 09:30p   97%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 16| 07:52a  07:50p  11:57 | 08:53p  06:49a |      Rise 10:35p   93%|
|Mon 17| 07:50a  07:51p  12:01 | 08:55p  06:47a |      Rise 11:40p   88%|
|Tue 18| 07:49a  07:53p  12:04 | 08:56p  06:45a |      Rise 12:47a   81%|
|Wed 19| 07:47a  07:54p  12:07 | 08:57p  06:43a |      Rise 01:53a   73%|
|Thu 20| 07:45a  07:55p  12:10 | 08:59p  06:42a |      Rise 02:57a   64%|
|Fri 21| 07:43a  07:56p  12:13 | 09:00p  06:40a |      Rise 03:55a   55%|
|Sat 22| 07:41a  07:58p  12:16 | 09:01p  06:38a |L Qtr Rise 04:45a   45%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 23| 07:39a  07:59p  12:19 | 09:03p  06:36a |      Rise 05:25a   35%|
|Mon 24| 07:37a  08:00p  12:22 | 09:04p  06:34a |      Rise 05:58a   25%|
|Tue 25| 07:36a  08:02p  12:26 | 09:05p  06:32a |      Rise 06:24a   16%|
|Wed 26| 07:34a  08:03p  12:29 | 09:07p  06:30a |      Rise 06:47a    9%|
|Thu 27| 07:32a  08:04p  12:32 | 09:08p  06:28a |      Rise 07:08a    3%|
|Fri 28| 07:30a  08:05p  12:35 | 09:10p  06:26a |      Rise 07:29a    0%|
|Sat 29| 07:28a  08:07p  12:38 | 09:11p  06:24a |New   Set  08:48p    0%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 30| 07:26a  08:08p  12:41 | 09:12p  06:22a |      Set  10:13p    4%|
|Mon 31| 07:24a  08:09p  12:44 | 09:14p  06:20a |      Set  11:39p   10%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise

Created using my LookingUp for DOS output as text.