05/25/2018 – Ephemeris – Star party scheduled for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore May 26, 2018

Ephemeris for Friday, May 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 9 minutes, setting at 9:15, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:04. The Moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 4:52 tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow night May 26th there will be, weather permitting a star party at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, this will take place at the Dune Climb. Telescopes will take over the parking lot closest to the Dunes The event starts at 9 p.m., while it’s still light out and the location can be found. The nearly full Moon will be first to be spotted, followed by Venus and Jupiter. The planet Jupiter’s four brightest moon will be seen along with its cloud bands. Starting at 9 p.m. there will be a short ranger talk, followed by an astronomer to explain what will be seen that night. The star party is made possible by the rangers of the park and the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society.

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

Addendum

This is the beginning of setup for the October 21, 2017 star party at the dune climb. Taken early while there was enough light. The dune blocks up to 12 degrees from the southwest to northwest, but the rest of the horizon is quite low. Venus will be high enough to clear the dune for most of the evening.  The ladder is up to assemble the society’s 25 inch “Emmettron” Obsession Dobsonian telescope.  The telescope was overhauled including having the mirror aluminized and new encoders over the winter, thanks to Don Flegel our telescope wrangler.  Click to enlarge.  Photo by Bob Moler.