04/28/2017 – Ephemeris – Astronomy Day star party tomorrow night

Ephemeris for Arbor Day, Friday, April 28th.  The Sun rises at 6:36.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 7 minutes, setting at 8:43.  The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 11:28 this evening.

Tomorrow is Astronomy Day,  the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will hold a special star party at the Northwestern Michigan College’s Joseph H. Rogers Observatory from 9 to 11 p.m.  Featured objects will be the three day old Moon, the planet Jupiter, its four largest moons and planet girdling cloud bands.  As it gets darker some spring star clusters will become visible, and maybe some galaxies, because in the spring we are looking out the thin side of our Milky Way galaxy, with the milky band banished to near the northern horizon.  Two of these star clusters are even visible to the naked eye.  One, the Beehive cluster is a feast for the small telescope, the other an entire constellation of Coma Berenices, or Berenices hair.  The observatory is located south of Traverse City, MI on Birmley Road which is between Garfield and Keystone roads.

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