02/28/2019 – Ephemeris – Looking ahead at March skies

Ephemeris for Thursday, February 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 6 minutes, setting at 6:28, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:20. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:38 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look at the skies of March, which will start tomorrow. During March the increase in daylight hours are at its greatest, with spring 3 weeks away. Daylight hours will increase from 11 hours and 9 minutes tomorrow to 12 hours and 42 minutes on the 31st. Along with that, the altitude of the Sun at noon will increase from 38 degrees tomorrow to 49 ½ degrees at month’s end. Local noon, by the way for Interlochen and Traverse City, is about 12:50 p.m, which is mainly due to the fact that our standard time meridian happens to run through Philadelphia. That’s before daylight time starts in eleven days. Winter ends and spring will begin at 5:58 p.m. on the 20th.

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

Addenda

March Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for March 2019 (10 p.m. EDT March 15, 2019). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 10 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, West 75° longitude. (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 10 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.

March Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for March mornings 2019 (6 a.m. EST March 15, 2019). 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.
• 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.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EST/EDT
	Morning twilight		Evening twilight		Dark night		Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2018-03-01	5h44m	6h17m	19h32m	20h06m	–	–	0.99
2018-03-02	5h42m	6h16m	19h33m	20h07m	–	–	1.00
2018-03-03	5h40m	6h14m	19h34m	20h08m	20h08m	20h40m	0.98
2018-03-04	5h38m	6h12m	19h36m	20h10m	20h10m	21h48m	0.93
2018-03-05	5h37m	6h11m	19h37m	20h11m	20h11m	22h54m	0.87
2018-03-06	5h35m	6h09m	19h38m	20h12m	20h12m	23h57m	0.79
2018-03-07	5h33m	6h07m	19h40m	20h14m	20h14m	–	0.70
2018-03-08	5h31m	6h05m	19h41m	20h15m	20h15m	0h58m	0.60
2018-03-09	5h29m	6h03m	19h42m	20h16m	20h16m	1h56m	0.50
2018-03-10	5h27m	6h02m	19h44m	20h18m	20h18m	2h50m	0.40
2018-03-11	6h26m	7h00m	20h45m	21h19m	21h19m	4h40m	0.31
2018-03-12	6h24m	6h58m	20h46m	21h20m	21h20m	5h25m	0.22
2018-03-13	6h22m	6h56m	20h47m	21h22m	21h22m	6h06m	0.15
2018-03-14	6h20m	6h54m	20h49m	21h23m	21h23m	6h20m	0.08
2018-03-15	6h18m	6h52m	20h50m	21h25m	21h25m	6h18m	0.04
2018-03-16	6h16m	6h50m	20h51m	21h26m	21h26m	6h16m	0.01
2018-03-17	6h14m	6h49m	20h53m	21h27m	21h27m	6h14m	0.00
2018-03-18	6h12m	6h47m	20h54m	21h29m	21h29m	6h12m	0.02
2018-03-19	6h10m	6h45m	20h55m	21h30m	22h21m	6h10m	0.06
2018-03-20	6h12m	6h47m	21h01m	21h36m	23h30m	6h12m	0.12
2018-03-21	6h10m	6h45m	21h02m	21h37m	–	6h10m	0.21
2018-03-22	6h08m	6h43m	21h03m	21h39m	0h39m	6h08m	0.31
2018-03-23	6h06m	6h41m	21h05m	21h40m	1h48m	6h06m	0.42
2018-03-24	6h03m	6h39m	21h06m	21h42m	2h54m	6h03m	0.54
2018-03-25	6h01m	6h37m	21h07m	21h43m	3h54m	6h01m	0.66
2018-03-26	5h59m	6h35m	21h09m	21h45m	4h48m	5h59m	0.77
2018-03-27	5h57m	6h33m	21h10m	21h46m	5h34m	5h57m	0.86
2018-03-28	5h55m	6h31m	21h12m	21h48m	–	–	0.93
2018-03-29	5h53m	6h29m	21h13m	21h49m	–	–	0.93
2018-03-30	5h51m	6h27m	21h14m	21h51m	–	–	0.98
2018-03-31	5h49m	6h25m	21h16m	21h52m	–	–	1.00

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/2019/09/27/.

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Date			Local Time	Event
Mar	1	Fr	01:23 AM	Moon South Dec.: 21.6° S
	1	Fr		Venus: 40.8° W
	1	Fr	01:40 PM	Moon-Saturn: 0.3° S
	2	Sa	06:03 AM	Moon Descending Node
	2	Sa	04:28 PM	Moon-Venus: 1.3° N
	4	Mo	06:25 AM	Moon Apogee: 406400 km
	6	We	11:04 AM	New Moon
	6	We	07:48 PM	Neptune Conjunction
	13	We	06:13 AM	Moon-Aldebaran: 2° S
	14	Th	06:27 AM	First Quarter
	14	Th	09:43 PM	Mercury Inferior Conj.
	15	Fr	01:59 PM	Moon North Dec.: 21.8° N
	16	Sa	12:22 PM	Moon Ascending Node
	17	Su	09:01 AM	Moon-Beehive: 0.5° N
	18	Mo	07:59 PM	Moon-Regulus: 2.5° S
	19	Tu	03:47 PM	Moon Perigee: 359400 km
	20	We	05:58 PM	Vernal Equinox
	20	We	09:43 PM	Full Moon
	26	Tu	10:28 PM	Moon-Jupiter: 2° S
	28	Th	12:10 AM	Last Quarter
	28	Th	09:02 AM	Moon South Dec.: 21.9° S
	29	Fr	01:11 AM	Moon-Saturn: 0.1° N
	29	Fr	09:08 AM	Moon Descending Node
	30	Sa	11:08 PM	Mars-Pleiades: 3.2° S
	31	Su	08:14 PM	Moon Apogee: 405600 km
Apr	1	Mo		Venus: 34.6° W

All event times are given for UTC-5 hr: Eastern Standard or UTC-4 hr: Daylight Saving Time starting March 10th.

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
March, 2019 – Local time zone: EST
		Sun			Twilight*		Moon			Illum
Date		Rise	Set	Hours	End	Start	Phase	R/S**	Time	Fractn
Fri	1	07:20a	06:30a	11:09	07:33p	06:17a		Rise	05:22a	18
Sat	2	07:18a	06:31p	11:12	07:34p	06:15a		Rise	06:02a	12
Sun	3	07:16a	06:32p	11:15	07:35p	06:13a		Rise	06:36a	6
Mon	4	07:15a	06:34p	11:18	07:36p	06:12a		Rise	07:06a	3
Tue	5	07:13a	06:35p	11:22	07:38p	06:10a		Rise	07:33a	0
Wed	6	07:11a	06:36p	11:25	07:39p	06:08a	New	Set	06:41p	0
Thu	7	07:09a	06:37p	11:28	07:40p	06:06a		Set	07:41p	2
Fri	8	07:07a	06:39p	11:31	07:42p	06:05a		Set	08:43p	5
Sat	9	07:06a	06:40p	11:34	07:43p	06:03a		Set	09:45p	10
*** Start EDT ***
Sun	10	08:04a	07:41p	11:37	08:44p	07:01a		Set	11:49p	17
Mon	11	08:02a	07:43p	11:40	08:46p	06:59a		Set	12:54a	25
Tue	12	08:00a	07:44p	11:43	08:47p	06:57a		Set	02:00a	35
Wed	13	07:58a	07:45p	11:46	08:48p	06:56a		Set	03:05a	45
Thu	14	07:57a	07:47p	11:49	08:50p	06:54a	F Qtr	Set	04:08a	56
Fri	15	07:55a	07:48p	11:53	08:51p	06:52a		Set	05:06a	67
Sat	16	07:53a	07:49p	11:56	08:52p	06:50a		Set	05:58a	77
Sun	17	07:51a	07:50p	11:59	08:53p	06:48a		Set	06:42a	87
Mon	18	07:49a	07:52p	12:02	08:55p	06:46a		Set	07:21a	94
Tue	19	07:47a	07:53p	12:05	08:56p	06:44a		Set	07:54a	98
Wed	20	07:46a	07:54p	12:08	08:57p	06:42a	Full	Rise	07:35p	100
Thu	21	07:44a	07:55p	12:11	08:59p	06:40a		Rise	08:52p	99
Fri	22	07:42a	07:57p	12:14	09:00p	06:39a		Rise	10:07p	95
Sat	23	07:40a	07:58p	12:18	09:02p	06:37a		Rise	11:20p	88
Sun	24	07:38a	07:59p	12:21	09:03p	06:35a		Rise	12:30a	80
Mon	25	07:36a	08:00p	12:24	09:04p	06:33a		Rise	01:36a	71
Tue	26	07:34a	08:02p	12:27	09:06p	06:31a		Rise	02:37a	62
Wed	27	07:33a	08:03p	12:30	09:07p	06:29a		Rise	03:32a	52
Thu	28	07:31a	08:04p	12:33	09:08p	06:27a	L Qtr	Rise	04:20a	42
Fri	29	07:29a	08:05p	12:36	09:10p	06:25a		Rise	05:02a	33
Sat	30	07:27a	08:07p	12:39	09:11p	06:23a		Rise	05:38a	24
Sun	31	07:25a	08:08p	12:42	09:12p	06:21a		Rise	06:09a	17

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

Created using my LookingUp for DOS output as CSV.