05/31/2018 – Ephemeris – Previewing June skies

Ephemeris for Thursday, May 31st. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 19 minutes, setting at 9:20, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:00. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 11:10 this evening.

Let’s preview June skies. There will be a lot of Sun in June and very little night. The daylight hours will increase a bit from 15 hours and 21 minutes Tomorrow to 15 hours and 34 minutes on the 21st, retreating back to 15 hours 31 minutes at month’s end. The altitude of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will hover around 68 to 69 degrees. Local noon, when the sun is actually due south will occur at about 1:43 p.m. Summer begins on the 21st at 6:07 a.m. when the sun reaches its farthest north. The actual amount of night-time will be quite short mostly due to the length of daylight, but also because twilight lasts much longer than average because the sun sets at a shallow angle. On the 21st there’s theoretically only 3 ½ hours of total darkness.

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

Addendum

June Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for June 2018 (11 p.m. EDT June 15, 2018). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 11 p.m. EDT in the evening and 4:30 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). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

Note the chart times of 11 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. are for the 15th. For each week before the 15th add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after the 15th subtract ½ hour. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.

June Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for June 2018 mornings based on 4:30 a.m. June 15th. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

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

Star chart annotations

 

• 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 and
• Continue with a spike to Spica.
• The Summer Triangle is in red.

Twilight

Evening nautical twilight ends at 10:46 p.m. EDT on the 1st, increasing to 10:59 p.m. EDT on the 30th.
Evening astronomical twilight ends at 11:44 p.m. EDT on the 1st, increasing to 12:02 a.m. EDT on the 30th.
Morning astronomical twilight starts at 3:44 a.m. EDT on the 1st, and decreasing to 3:38 a.m. EDT on the 30th.
Morning nautical twilight starts at 4:42 a.m. EDT on the 1st, and decreasing to 4:40 a.m. EDT on the 30th.

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Date        Time    Event
Jun 01  Fr          Venus: 34.5° E
    01  Fr  3:09 am Moon South Dec.: 20.7° S
    02  Sa 12:34 pm Moon Apogee: 405300 km
    03  Su  7:58 am Moon-Mars: 3.5° S
    03  Su  8:39 am Moon Descending Node
    05  Tu  9:53 pm Mercury Superior Conj.
    06  We  2:32 pm Last Quarter
    07  Th 11:35 pm Venus-Pollux: 4.7° S
    13  We  3:43 pm New Moon
    14  Th  7:55 pm Moon Perigee: 359500 km
    14  Th  8:52 pm Moon North Dec.: 20.8° N
    16  Sa  9:13 am Moon-Venus: 2.3° N
    16  Sa  1:50 pm Moon Ascending Node
    16  Sa  3:38 pm Moon-Beehive: 1.5° N
    18  Mo  3:25 am Moon-Regulus: 1.7° S
    19  Tu 10:23 pm Venus-Beehive: 0.4° N
    20  We  6:51 am First Quarter
    21  Th  6:07 am Summer Solstice
    23  Sa  2:47 pm Moon-Jupiter: 4.6° S
    24  Su  5:35 pm Mercury-Pollux: 4.8° S
    27  We  8:25 am Saturn Opposition
    27  We 11:59 pm Moon-Saturn: 2° S
    28  Th 12:53 am Full Moon
    28  Th 10:30 am Moon South Dec.: 20.8° S
    29  Fr 10:43 pm Moon Apogee: 406100 km
    30  Sa 12:44 pm Moon Descending Node
Jul 01  Su          Venus: 40.7° E

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.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

     LU                  Ephemeris of Sky Events for NMC Observatory
     June, 2018    Local time zone: EDT
     +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
     | DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
     |      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
     +=======================================================================+
     |Fri  1| 06:00a  09:20p  15:20 | 10:43p  04:37a |      Rise 11:56p   90%|
     |Sat  2| 05:59a  09:21p  15:21 | 10:44p  04:36a |      Rise 12:38a   83%|
     +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
     |Sun  3| 05:59a  09:22p  15:22 | 10:45p  04:36a |      Rise 01:14a   75%|
     |Mon  4| 05:59a  09:22p  15:23 | 10:46p  04:35a |      Rise 01:46a   67%|
     |Tue  5| 05:58a  09:23p  15:25 | 10:47p  04:34a |      Rise 02:15a   58%|
     |Wed  6| 05:58a  09:24p  15:26 | 10:48p  04:34a |L Qtr Rise 02:43a   48%|
     |Thu  7| 05:57a  09:25p  15:27 | 10:49p  04:33a |      Rise 03:10a   38%|
     |Fri  8| 05:57a  09:25p  15:28 | 10:50p  04:33a |      Rise 03:37a   28%|
     |Sat  9| 05:57a  09:26p  15:28 | 10:51p  04:32a |      Rise 04:06a   19%|
     +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
     |Sun 10| 05:57a  09:26p  15:29 | 10:52p  04:32a |      Rise 04:39a   11%|
     |Mon 11| 05:57a  09:27p  15:30 | 10:52p  04:31a |      Rise 05:17a    5%|
     |Tue 12| 05:56a  09:28p  15:31 | 10:53p  04:31a |      Rise 06:02a    1%|
     |Wed 13| 05:56a  09:28p  15:31 | 10:54p  04:31a |New   Set  09:20p    0%|
     |Thu 14| 05:56a  09:29p  15:32 | 10:54p  04:31a |      Set  10:26p    2%|
     |Fri 15| 05:56a  09:29p  15:32 | 10:55p  04:31a |      Set  11:25p    7%|
     |Sat 16| 05:56a  09:29p  15:33 | 10:55p  04:30a |      Set  12:14a   14%|
     +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
     |Sun 17| 05:56a  09:30p  15:33 | 10:56p  04:30a |      Set  12:55a   24%|
     |Mon 18| 05:56a  09:30p  15:33 | 10:56p  04:30a |      Set  01:30a   34%|
     |Tue 19| 05:56a  09:30p  15:33 | 10:56p  04:31a |      Set  02:01a   45%|
     |Wed 20| 05:57a  09:31p  15:33 | 10:57p  04:31a |F Qtr Set  02:29a   56%|
     |Thu 21| 05:57a  09:31p  15:33 | 10:57p  04:31a |      Set  02:57a   66%|
     |Fri 22| 05:57a  09:31p  15:33 | 10:57p  04:31a |      Set  03:24a   76%|
     |Sat 23| 05:57a  09:31p  15:33 | 10:57p  04:31a |      Set  03:54a   84%|
     +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
     |Sun 24| 05:58a  09:31p  15:33 | 10:57p  04:32a |      Set  04:26a   90%|
     |Mon 25| 05:58a  09:31p  15:33 | 10:57p  04:32a |      Set  05:02a   95%|
     |Tue 26| 05:58a  09:31p  15:32 | 10:57p  04:33a |      Set  05:42a   99%|
     |Wed 27| 05:59a  09:31p  15:32 | 10:57p  04:33a |      Set  06:27a  100%|
     |Thu 28| 05:59a  09:31p  15:31 | 10:57p  04:34a |Full  Rise 09:54p   99%|
     |Fri 29| 06:00a  09:31p  15:31 | 10:56p  04:34a |      Rise 10:37p   97%|
     |Sat 30| 06:00a  09:31p  15:30 | 10:56p  04:35a |      Rise 11:15p   93%|
     +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
     * Nautical Twilight
     ** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset