11/30/2018 – Ephemeris – Previewing December skies

Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, November 30th. The Sun will rise at 7:58. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 5:04. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:29 tomorrow morning.

Let’s preview December’s skies. Winter will officially arrive on the 21st at 5:22 p.m., the winter solstice. The noontime sun will dip from 23 ½ degrees to a bit less than 22 degrees above the southern horizon on that day. There will be little movement in the sunset times: In the Traverse City/Interlochen area this will be from 5:03 tomorrow, down to 5:02 and then advancing to 5:11 at the end of the month. The sunrise times will advance from 7:58 tomorrow to 8:20 on the 31st. The big event in December will be the Geminid meteor shower whose maximum is on the morning of the 14th. An old comet will make a close pass of the Earth and may be quite bright by mid-month. Watch for Comet Wirtanen.

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

Addenda

December Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for December 2018 (9 p.m. EST December 15, 2018). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EST 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). 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 9 p.m. and 6 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.

December Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for December mornings 2018 (6 a.m. EST December 15, 2018). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge. The original morning chart uploaded December 1st was outdated.

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.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, and
• Extend like a spike to Spica,
• The Summer Triangle is in red.
• GemR on the evening and morning star charts is the radiant of the Geminid meteor shower which peaks on the morning of the 14th,

Twilight

			Time zone=EDT
	Morning twilight		Evening twilight		Dark night		Moon
Date	Astronomical	Nautical	Nautical	Astronomical	Start	End	Illum.
2018-12-01	6h20m	6h55m	18h16m	18h51m	18h51m	1h29m	0.33
2018-12-02	6h21m	6h56m	18h15m	18h50m	18h50m	2h39m	0.23
2018-12-03	6h22m	6h57m	18h15m	18h50m	18h50m	3h48m	0.14
2018-12-04	6h23m	6h58m	18h15m	18h50m	18h50m	4h56m	0.07
2018-12-05	6h24m	6h59m	18h15m	18h50m	18h50m	6h03m	0.03
2018-12-06	6h25m	7h00m	18h15m	18h50m	18h50m	6h25m	0.00
2018-12-07	6h26m	7h01m	18h15m	18h50m	18h50m	6h26m	0.00
2018-12-08	6h26m	7h02m	18h15m	18h50m	18h50m	6h26m	0.02
2018-12-09	6h27m	7h03m	18h15m	18h50m	19h15m	6h27m	0.06
2018-12-10	6h28m	7h04m	18h15m	18h50m	20h09m	6h28m	0.12
2018-12-11	6h29m	7h04m	18h15m	18h50m	21h06m	6h29m	0.19
2018-12-12	6h30m	7h05m	18h15m	18h51m	22h05m	6h30m	0.27
2018-12-13	6h30m	7h06m	18h15m	18h51m	23h05m	6h30m	0.36
2018-12-14	6h31m	7h07m	18h16m	18h51m	–	6h31m	0.45
2018-12-15	6h32m	7h07m	18h16m	18h51m	0h06m	6h32m	0.55
2018-12-16	6h32m	7h08m	18h16m	18h52m	1h07m	6h32m	0.65
2018-12-17	6h33m	7h09m	18h16m	18h52m	2h11m	6h33m	0.75
2018-12-18	6h30m	7h05m	18h13m	18h48m	3h16m	6h30m	0.84
2018-12-19	6h30m	7h06m	18h13m	18h49m	4h24m	6h30m	0.91
2018-12-20	6h31m	7h06m	18h14m	18h49m	5h34m	6h31m	0.97
2018-12-21	6h31m	7h07m	18h14m	18h50m	–	–	0.97
2018-12-22	6h32m	7h07m	18h15m	18h50m	–	–	1.00
2018-12-23	6h32m	7h08m	18h15m	18h51m	–	–	1.00
2018-12-24	6h33m	7h08m	18h16m	18h51m	18h51m	19h35m	0.97
2018-12-25	6h33m	7h09m	18h16m	18h52m	18h52m	20h49m	0.91
2018-12-26	6h34m	7h09m	18h17m	18h53m	18h53m	22h05m	0.82
2018-12-27	6h34m	7h09m	18h18m	18h53m	18h53m	23h19m	0.72
2018-12-28	6h34m	7h10m	18h18m	18h54m	18h54m	–	0.61
2018-12-29	6h34m	7h10m	18h19m	18h55m	18h55m	0h30m	0.49
2018-12-30	6h35m	7h10m	18h20m	18h55m	18h55m	1h40m	0.38
2018-12-31	6h35m	7h10m	18h21m	18h56m	18h56m	2h48m	0.28

Twilight calendar was generated using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

See my blog post: Twilight Zone for the definitions of the different periods of twilight here: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Date			Local	Event
			Time
Dec	1	Sa		Venus: 39.9° W
	3	Mo	01:42:00 PM	Moon-Venus: 3.8° S
	7	Fr	02:20:00 AM	New Moon
	9	Su	12:30:00 AM	Moon-Saturn: 1.2° S
	9	Su	06:12:00 AM	Moon South Dec.: 21.5° S
	10	Mo	12:57:00 PM	Moon Descending Node
	12	We	07:25:00 AM	Moon Apogee: 405200 km
	14	Fr	07:16:00 AM	Geminid Shower: ZHR = 120
	14	Fr	06:21:00 PM	Moon-Mars: 3.9° N
	15	Sa	05:59:00 AM	Mercury Elongation: 21.3° W
	15	Sa	06:49:00 AM	First Quarter
	21	Fr	02:31:00 AM	Moon-Aldebaran: 1.7° S
	21	Fr	02:49:00 PM	Mercury-Jupiter: 0.8° N
	21	Fr	05:22:00 PM	Winter Solstice
	22	Sa	03:03:00 AM	Mercury-Antares: 6° N
	22	Sa	10:08:00 AM	Jupiter-Antares: 5.2° N
	22	Sa	12:49:00 PM	Full Moon
	22	Sa	04:00:00 PM	Ursid Shower: ZHR = 10
	23	Su	06:48:00 AM	Moon North Dec.: 21.6° N
	24	Mo	04:52:00 AM	Moon Perigee: 361100 km
	24	Mo	06:54:00 AM	Moon Ascending Node
	24	Mo	11:52:00 PM	Moon-Beehive: 0.6° N
	26	We	11:06:00 AM	Moon-Regulus: 2.5° S
	29	Sa	04:34:00 AM	Last Quarter

All event times are given for UTC-5:00: Eastern Standard or Daylight Time

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

Ephemeris of Sky Events for NMC Observatory
December, 2018 – Local time zone: EST
Date		Sun			Twilight*		Moon			Illum
		Rise	Set	Hours	End	Start	Phase	R/S**	Time	Fractn
Sat	1	07:59a	05:03p	09:04	06:12p	06:49a		Rise	02:38a	29.00%
Sun	2	08:00a	05:03p	09:03	06:12p	06:50a		Rise	03:47a	19.00%
Mon	3	08:01a	05:03p	09:01	06:12p	06:51a		Rise	04:55a	12.00%
Tue	4	08:02a	05:02p	09:00	06:12p	06:52a		Rise	06:02a	6.00%
Wed	5	08:03a	05:02p	08:59	06:12p	06:53a		Rise	07:07a	2.00%
Thu	6	08:04a	05:02p	08:57	06:12p	06:54a		Rise	08:10a	0.00%
Fri	7	08:05a	05:02p	08:56	06:12p	06:55a	New	Set	05:40p	1.00%
Sat	8	08:06a	05:02p	08:55	06:12p	06:56a		Set	06:25p	3.00%
Sun	9	08:07a	05:02p	08:54	06:12p	06:57a		Set	07:15p	7.00%
Mon	10	08:08a	05:02p	08:53	06:12p	06:58a		Set	08:09p	12.00%
Tue	11	08:09a	05:02p	08:52	06:12p	06:59a		Set	09:06p	19.00%
Wed	12	08:10a	05:02p	08:52	06:12p	06:59a		Set	10:05p	27.00%
Thu	13	08:10a	05:02p	08:51	06:12p	07:00a		Set	11:05p	36.00%
Fri	14	08:11a	05:02p	08:50	06:13p	07:01a		Set	12:05a	45.00%
Sat	15	08:12a	05:02p	08:50	06:13p	07:02a	F Qtr	Set	01:07a	55.00%
Sun	16	08:13a	05:03p	08:49	06:13p	07:02a		Set	02:10a	65.00%
Mon	17	08:13a	05:03p	08:49	06:13p	07:03a		Set	03:15a	74.00%
Tue	18	08:14a	05:03p	08:49	06:14p	07:03a		Set	04:23a	83.00%
Wed	19	08:15a	05:04p	08:49	06:14p	07:04a		Set	05:33a	90.00%
Thu	20	08:15a	05:04p	08:48	06:15p	07:05a		Set	06:45a	96.00%
Fri	21	08:16a	05:05p	08:48	06:15p	07:05a		Set	07:56a	99.00%
Sat	22	08:16a	05:05p	08:48	06:16p	07:06a	Full	Rise	05:22p	100.00%
Sun	23	08:17a	05:06p	08:49	06:16p	07:06a		Rise	06:25p	98.00%
Mon	24	08:17a	05:06p	08:49	06:17p	07:07a		Rise	07:35p	93.00%
Tue	25	08:17a	05:07p	08:49	06:17p	07:07a		Rise	08:49p	85.00%
Wed	26	08:18a	05:08p	08:49	06:18p	07:07a		Rise	10:05p	76.00%
Thu	27	08:18a	05:08p	08:50	06:19p	07:08a		Rise	11:18p	66.00%
Fri	28	08:18a	05:09p	08:50	06:19p	07:08a		Rise	12:30a	54.00%
Sat	29	08:19a	05:10p	08:51	06:20p	07:08a	L Qtr	Rise	01:39a	43.00%
Sun	30	08:19a	05:11p	08:51	06:21p	07:08a		Rise	02:47a	33.00%
Mon	31	08:19a	05:12p	08:52	06:22p	07:09a		Rise	03:53a	24.00%

* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise