02/03/2012 – Ephemeris – A Star Bowl quiz and a viewing opportunity tonight

Ephemeris for Friday, February 3rd.  The sun will rise at 7:59.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 5:53.   The moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 5:28 tomorrow morning.

A Star Bowl quiz will be held this evening between the NMC Astronomy Association and the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at this evening’s meeting of the society at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory.  The society will accept anyone to help us.  These NMC students are smart.  After the Star Bowl there will be a viewing night starting at 9 p.m.  On tap if its clear will be the last gasp of the planet Venus before it sets, Jupiter will be high up as well as the moon.  Mars will rise as the viewing starts, but we will need to wait until at least 10 p.m. for it to clear the thick earth’s atmosphere lower down in the sky.  The Observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road off either Garfield or Keystone roads.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

02/02/2012 – Ephemeris – February 2nd isn’t just for groundhogs

Ephemeris for Groundhog Day, Thursday, February 2nd.  The sun will rise at 8:00.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:52.   The moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 4:39 tomorrow morning.

I’m not sure if Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow this morning or not, but February 2nd was a special day to the ancients.  It is also Candlemas day for the Catholic Church.  It is also celebrated as a cross-quarter day.  The middle of the season of Winter, though the exact date of the middle of winter is the 4th.  And if Phil sees his shadow and we do get 6 more weeks of winters, that’s OK too.  By the calendar it actually more like 7 weeks to the vernal or spring equinox and the official end of winter.  Of the other cross-quarter days, only one stands out today.  It’s May 1st, May Day.  The way this year has been going, winter has had a hard time getting started.  The temperatures are above normal and the snowfall below normal.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

02/01/2012 – Ephemeris – Where are the bright planets this week?

Ephemeris for Wednesday, February 1st.  The sun will rise at 8:01.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:50.   The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 3:46 tomorrow morning.

Let’s see what’s happening with the bright planets for this week.  Venus is brilliant in the southwestern sky after sunset and will set at 9:19 in the west.  Jupiter is the most prominent planet of the evening sky, once Venus sets.  It’s located high in the southwest as it gets dark and is seen against the stars of the constellation Aries.  It will set at 12:48 a.m.. Mars is the up and coming planet.  It will rise at 9:05 p.m in the east and is below the hind end of the  constellation Leo the lion.  It is 73 million miles away and closing and is getting brighter.  It’s now as bright as most first magnitude stars.  Mars will pass due south at 3:33 a.m.  Saturn will rise at 12:22 a.m. just to the left of the bright star Spica in the east southeast.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

01/31/2012 – Ephemeris – February preview

Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 31st.  The sun will rise at 8:02.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 5:49.   The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:50 tomorrow morning.

Let’s preview the month of February.  It will be a day longer this year because it’s a leap year, the adjustment to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons.  The daylight hours throughout February will be getting longer.  Daylight hours will increase from 9 hours and 48 minutes tomorrow to 11 hours and 8 minutes on the 29th.  The altitude of the sun at noon will increase from 28 degrees tomorrow to nearly 38 degrees at month’s end.  The straits area will see the sun a degree lower.  Local noon, by the way for Interlochen and Traverse City is about 12:55 p.m, which is mainly due to the fact that our standard time meridian happens to run through Philadelphia and the sun is currently running 12 minutes slow.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

Addendum

Sunrise planets at 5 day intervals for February 2012

Click on the image to animate.

Sunset planets at 5 day intervals for February 2012

Click on the image to animate.

01/30/2012 – Ephemeris – Getting Sirius about color

Ephemeris for Monday, January 30th.  The sun will rise at 8:04.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 5:47.   The moon, at first quarter today, will set at 1:51 tomorrow morning.

The bright star shining so bright low in the south southeast at 9 p.m. is Sirius the Dog Star.  I talked about it Friday in the context of its constellation Canis Major, Orion’s larger hunting dog.  Sirius itself is a remarkable star.  It’s name means dazzling one and a look at it in binoculars or a telescope will prove it..  The twinkling effects are due to the earth’s atmosphere, but the bright arc light color is all his.  Sirius  is a perfect white star.  Compare it with the brightest star now overhead  Capella which has the same color as our sun.  Star colors tell us the temperature of the star surfaces, which run from cool red to hot blue.   On our Fahrenheit temperature scale, the sun’s surface is about 10,000 degrees,  Sirius is nearly twice that.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

Addendum

Orion and his Hunting Dogs. Created using Stellarium.

Sirius actually looks blue-white to me.  Of course during the day our yellow sun looks white.  I think it has to do with out night vision.

 

01/27/2012 – Ephemeris – The constellation Canis Major

Ephemeris for Friday, January 27th.  The sun will rise at 8:07.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 5:43.   The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 10:49 this evening.

What kind of a hunter would the constellation Orion be without his trusty hunting dogs.  The larger of the dogs is Canis Major which can be found if you extend Orion’s belt stars down to the left.  There in the south southeast will appear the brightest night time star Sirius the Dog Star.  It is in the heart of the dog, which appears to be begging.  Well it’s tilted funny.  Other than that it’s a pretty good representation of a dog as a stick figure.  The name Sirius doesn’t mean Dog Star, but means Dazzling One due to its great brightness.  It outshines all other night stars, only to be out shown by the planets Venus, Jupiter and occasionally Mars.  Binoculars will show a nice little star cluster a short ways below Sirius known as M41.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

Addendum

Orion and his Hunting Dogs. Created using Stellarium.

01/26/2012 – Ephemeris – The moon will appear near Venus tonight

Ephemeris for Thursday, January 26th.  The sun will rise at 8:08.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 5:42.   The moon, 3 days past new, will set at 9:46 this evening.

The waxing crescent moon will appear near the bright planet Venus tonight in the southwestern sky after sunset.  They were actually closer earlier today, although not that close.  The moon happens to be north of the ecliptic plane, which is actually the plane of the earth’s orbit of the sun.  Venus is a bit below.    The moon has to be close to that plane at new or full moon for eclipses to take place.  The moon’s orbit is tilted at 5 degrees to that plane, and crosses it twice a month.  So we get eclipse seasons twice a year.  The next eclipse is a solar eclipse May 20th, which we’ll see the start of at sunset here.  Venus will be close to that plane at its inferior conjunction June 5th when it passes in front of the sun in transit.  We’ll see the first 3 hours of that before sunset.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

Addendum

Venus and the moon on the evening January 26, 2012. Created using Stellarium.

01/25/2012 – Ephemeris – Where are the planets this week?

Ephemeris for Wednesday, January 25th.  The sun will rise at 8:08.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 5:40.   The moon, 2 days past new, will set at 8:42 this evening.

It’s time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets.  Venus is brilliant in the southwestern sky after sunset and will set at 9:01 in the west.  Jupiter is the most prominent planet of the evening sky, once Venus sets.  It’s located high in the south southeast as it gets dark and is seen against the stars of the constellation Aries.  It will pass due south at 6:21 p.m. and it will set at 1:08 a.m.. Mars will rise at 9:36 p.m in the east northeast and is below the hind end of the  constellation Leo the lion.  It is 76.7 million miles away and closing and has been getting brighter.  It’s now as bright as most first magnitude stars.  Mars will pass due south at 4:02 a.m.  Saturn will rise at 12:49 a.m. just to the left of the bright star Spica in the east southeast.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

Addendum

Mars 9 days ago. Photograph by Scott Anttila

Another gorgeous shot of Mars by Scott Anttila.  At the time Mars appeared 10.3 seconds of arc in diameter.  By comparison the moon and sun appear about 1,800 seconds of arc in diameter.  Note that Mars appears slightly gibbous in shape.  It will appear full on March 3rd. when it will be in opposition from the sun.  It will be closest to us on March 5th. at about 62.6 million miles.  At that time it will have an apparent diameter of 13.9 seconds of arc.

The CME from Monday hit the earth’s magnetic field at 10:10 a.m. EST

A geomagnetic storm is now raging above us and is inducing currents in the ground and transmission lines.. On the bright side look for a aurorae (Norther or Southern Lights) tonight!

01/24/2012 – Ephemeris – The face of the constellation Taurus – The Hyades

Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 24th.  The sun will rise at 8:09.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 5:39.   The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:36 this evening.

To the upper right of the constellation Orion in the south in the evening is a letter V of stars with a bright orange star at one tip.  This is the face of  Taurus the bull.  In some constellation depictions the bull is charging Orion who is turned to face him.  The V of stars isn’t very bright and are outshone by the Pleiades star cluster to the right in Taurus’ shoulder.  In Greek mythology the V of stars are the Hyades, half sisters of the Pleiades.  It is a star cluster like the Pleiades and very important, because it is the closest star cluster to us at 153 light years distant.  It helped determine the scale of the universe.  The bright star at the tip is Aldebaran the follower (of the Pleiades).  It is not part of the Hyades and is less than half way to it at 65 light years.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

Addendum

The Hyades, Orion and the Pleiades. Created using Cartes du Ciel