03/03/2017 – Ephemeris – Astronomy talk and star party tonight and the occultation of Aldebaran tomorrow night

Ephemeris for Friday, March 3rd.  The Sun will rise at 7:15.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 6:33.  The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 12:36 tomorrow morning.

Tonight the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will present a talk by Becky Shaw on international observatories at 8 p.m. at Northern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory.  Also tonight at the observatory, there will be viewing of the Moon and other wonders of the March skies.  Tomorrow night shortly after 11 p.m. the bright star Aldebaran in Taurus the bull will be covered or occulted by the Moon for about half of the IPR listening area.  It will be seen by observers south of a line from Leland to south of Mancelona centered on 11:13 p.m.  The farther south one is the longer the occultation will last.  Start looking by 11 p.m. and check my yesterday’s blog post for more information.

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