07/31/2015 – Ephemeris – Looking ahead at August in the skies

Ephemeris for Friday, July 31st.  The Sun rises at 6:27.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 9:10.   The Moon, at full today, will rise at 9:08 this evening.

Let’s look ahead at the month of August which starts tomorrow.  Daylight hours will decrease from 14 hours and 40 minutes tomorrow to 13 hours 18 minutes on the 31st.  The altitude of the sun at local noon, that is degrees of angle above the horizon will decrease from 63 degrees tomorrow to just over 53 degrees on the 31st.  Straits area listeners can subtract one more degree from those angles.  Local noon, when the sun is due south, is about 1:43 p.m.  The Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak at about 2 a.m. on the morning of the 13th, and should be spectacular with a nearly new Moon.  On the nights between now and then when the moon has set these meteor numbers will be building to the peak.  Saturn will be our only easily visible evening planet.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Star Chart for August 2015. Created using my LookingUp program.  Click on image to enlarge.The Moon is not plotted.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 10 p.m. EDT.  That is chart time.  Note, Traverse City is located 1 hour 45 minutes behind our time meridian.  To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

Evening Astronomical twilight ends at 11:12 p.m. EDT on August 1st, decreasing to 10:06 p.m. EDT on the 31st.

Morning astronomical twilight starts at 4:24 a.m. EDT on August 1st, and increasing to 5:18 a.m. EDT on the 31st.

Add a half hour to the chart time every week before the 15th and subtract and hour for every week after the 15th.

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

The green pointer from the Big Dipper is:

• Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.
• Drill a hole in the bowl of the Big Dipper and the water will drip on the back of Leo the Lion.
• Follow the arc of the Big Dipper’s handle to Arcturus
  • Continue with a spike to Spica
• The Summer Triangle is shown in red
• PerR in yellow is the Perseid radiant

Calendar of Planetary Events

Credit:  Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC)

To generate your own calendar go to http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html

Times are Eastern Daylight Time on a 24 hour clock.  Some additions made to aid clarity.

Conjunctions like the Mercury-Regulus: 0.9° N means Regulus will appear 0.9° north of Mercury.

Aug	01	Sa		Venus: 21.5° East of the Sun
	02	Su	06:11	Moon Perigee: 362,100 km
	03	Mo	22:53	Moon Descending Node
	06	Th	22:03	Last Quarter
	07	Fr	13:25	Mercury-Regulus: 0.9° N
	08	Sa	19:22	Moon-Aldebaran: 0.7° S
	10	Mo	07:11	Moon North Dec.: 18.3° N
	13	Th	02:17	Perseid Shower: ZHR* = 90
	14	Fr	10:54	New Moon
	15	Sa	15:19	Venus Inferior Conjunction with the Sun
	16	Su	10:34	Moon-Mercury: 2.2° N
	17	Mo	19:05	Moon Ascending Node
	17	Mo	22:33	Moon Apogee: 405,900 km
	19	We	23:35	Mars-Beehive: 0.5° S
	22	Sa	13:21	Moon-Saturn: 2.8° S
	22	Sa	15:31	First Quarter
	24	Mo	23:44	Moon South Dec.: 18.2° S
	26	We	17:04	Jupiter Conjunction with the Sun
	29	Sa	14:35	Full Moon
	30	Su	11:24	Moon Perigee: 358,300 km
	31	Mo	06:16	Moon Descending Node
	31	Mo	22:12	Neptune Opposition from the Sun
Sep	01	Tu		Venus: 25° West of the Sun

*ZHR – Zenithal Hourly Rate:  Approximate number of meteors per hour when the shower radiant is at the zenith.  For more information on this and other meteor showers in 2015 see the International Meteor Organization website calendar section: http://www.imo.net/calendar.