08/31/2017 – Ephemeris – Looking ahead at the month of September

Ephemeris for Thursday, August 31st. The Sun will rise at 7:04. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 8:20. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:24 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look at the skies for the month of September. The sun will moving at its greatest speed in its retreat to the south. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 13 hours and 13 minutes tomorrow to 11 hours 44 minutes on the 30th. The altitude of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 54 degrees tomorrow, and will descend to 42 degrees on the 30th. The season of summer is getting short, so enjoy it while you can. Summer ends and autumn begins at 4:02 p.m. on September 22nd. We are losing Jupiter in the evening sky in September, but this month, but on the 12th Mercury will be at its greatest separation from the Sun in the morning sky and relatively easy to spot.

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

Addenda

September Evening Sky Chart

Star Chart for September 2017 (10 p.m. September 15, 2017). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

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

Note the chart times of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. are for the 15th. For each week before the 15th add ½ hour. For each week after the 15th subtract ½ hour. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog.

September Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for September 2017 mornings based on 6 a.m. September 15th. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

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
• Leaky Big Dipper drips on Leo
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus,
• The Summer Triangle is in red

Evening nautical twilight ends at 9:28 p.m. EDT on the 1st, decreasing to 8:31 p.m. EDT on the 30th.
Evening astronomical twilight ends at 10:06 p.m. EDT on the 1st, decreasing to 9:05 p.m. EDT on the 30th.
Morning astronomical twilight starts at 5:26 a.m. EDT on the 1st, and increasing to 6:07 a.m. EDT on the 30th.
Morning nautical twilight starts at 6:04 a.m. EDT on the 1st, and increasing to 6:42 a.m. EDT on the 30th.

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Sep 01  Fr          Venus: 31.7° W
    01  Fr  2:10 am Venus-Beehive: 1.5° S
    04  Mo  2:41 pm Moon Descending Node
    05  Tu 12:18 am Neptune Opposition
    06  We  3:03 am Full Moon
    10  Su  1:30 am Mercury-Regulus: 0.7° S
    10  Su  5:39 pm Jupiter-Spica: 3.1° N
    12  Tu  5:59 am Mercury Elongation: 17.9° W
    12  Tu  8:09 am Moon-Aldebaran: 0.4° S
    13  We  2:25 am Last Quarter
    13  We 12:04 pm Moon Perigee: 369900 km
    14  Th  9:00 am Moon North Dec.: 19.4° N
    16  Sa 10:50 am Moon-Beehive: 3.2° N
    16  Sa  2:26 pm Mercury-Mars Conjunction: 0.1° N
    17  Su  2:28 pm Moon Ascending Node
    17  Su  8:56 pm Moon-Venus: 0.6° N
    18  Mo 12:32 am Moon-Regulus: 0.1° S
    19  Tu  5:30 pm Venus-Regulus: 0.5° N
    20  We  1:30 am New Moon
    22  Fr  3:51 am Moon-Jupiter: 4° S
    22  Fr  4:02 pm  Autumnal Equinox
    26  Tu  8:09 pm Moon-Saturn: 3.8° S
    27  We  2:49 am Moon Apogee: 404300 km
    27  We 10:54 pm First Quarter
    28  Th  6:06 am Moon South Dec.: 19.5° S
Oct 01  Su          Venus: 24.5° W

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.

August Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

LU                Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
September, 2017    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Fri  1| 07:05a  08:18p  13:13 | 09:25p  05:59a |      Set  03:16a   82%|
|Sat  2| 07:06a  08:17p  13:10 | 09:23p  06:00a |      Set  04:13a   89%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  3| 07:07a  08:15p  13:07 | 09:21p  06:01a |      Set  05:13a   94%|
|Mon  4| 07:09a  08:13p  13:04 | 09:19p  06:03a |      Set  06:17a   98%|
|Tue  5| 07:10a  08:11p  13:01 | 09:17p  06:04a |      Set  07:22a  100%|
|Wed  6| 07:11a  08:09p  12:58 | 09:14p  06:05a |Full  Rise 08:38p   99%|
|Thu  7| 07:12a  08:07p  12:55 | 09:12p  06:07a |      Rise 09:08p   97%|
|Fri  8| 07:13a  08:06p  12:52 | 09:10p  06:08a |      Rise 09:39p   91%|
|Sat  9| 07:14a  08:04p  12:49 | 09:08p  06:09a |      Rise 10:11p   84%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 10| 07:16a  08:02p  12:46 | 09:06p  06:11a |      Rise 10:47p   75%|
|Mon 11| 07:17a  08:00p  12:43 | 09:04p  06:12a |      Rise 11:27p   64%|
|Tue 12| 07:18a  07:58p  12:40 | 09:02p  06:13a |      Rise 12:13a   53%|
|Wed 13| 07:19a  07:56p  12:37 | 09:00p  06:15a |L Qtr Rise 01:05a   42%|
|Thu 14| 07:20a  07:54p  12:34 | 08:58p  06:16a |      Rise 02:05a   31%|
|Fri 15| 07:21a  07:52p  12:30 | 08:56p  06:17a |      Rise 03:10a   21%|
|Sat 16| 07:23a  07:51p  12:27 | 08:54p  06:19a |      Rise 04:18a   12%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 17| 07:24a  07:49p  12:24 | 08:52p  06:20a |      Rise 05:27a    6%|
|Mon 18| 07:25a  07:47p  12:21 | 08:50p  06:21a |      Rise 06:36a    2%|
|Tue 19| 07:26a  07:45p  12:18 | 08:48p  06:22a |      Rise 07:43a    0%|
|Wed 20| 07:27a  07:43p  12:15 | 08:46p  06:24a |New   Set  08:17p    1%|
|Thu 21| 07:29a  07:41p  12:12 | 08:44p  06:25a |      Set  08:45p    4%|
|Fri 22| 07:30a  07:39p  12:09 | 08:42p  06:26a |      Set  09:14p    8%|
|Sat 23| 07:31a  07:37p  12:06 | 08:41p  06:28a |      Set  09:44p   15%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 24| 07:32a  07:35p  12:03 | 08:39p  06:29a |      Set  10:17p   22%|
|Mon 25| 07:33a  07:34p  12:00 | 08:37p  06:30a |      Set  10:52p   30%|
|Tue 26| 07:35a  07:32p  11:57 | 08:35p  06:31a |      Set  11:32p   39%|
|Wed 27| 07:36a  07:30p  11:54 | 08:33p  06:33a |F Qtr Set  12:16a   49%|
|Thu 28| 07:37a  07:28p  11:50 | 08:31p  06:34a |      Set  01:05a   58%|
|Fri 29| 07:38a  07:26p  11:47 | 08:29p  06:35a |      Set  01:59a   68%|
|Sat 30| 07:39a  07:24p  11:44 | 08:27p  06:36a |      Set  02:58a   76%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise