12/02/2019 – Ephemeris – Orion rising

Ephemeris for Monday, December 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 5:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:01. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:58 this evening.

We have a fat crescent of a Moon tonight. However it shouldn’t affect the constellation now rising. In the east the central winter constellation Orion the hunter throws a leg over the horizon between 8 and 9 p.m. as Robert Frost told in his poem Star-Splitter. The upright rectangle that is his body on December evenings is tilted to the left as he rises, with bright red star Betelgeuse at the top left of the rectangle, his shoulder. At the opposite corner is blue-white Rigel, a knee. In the center of the rectangle is a line of three stars nearly vertically aligned, which represents Orion’s belt. Above Orion is another bright orange star at one end of a letter V shape of stars. That’s Aldebaran the angry eye in the face of Taurus the bull who apparently is none too happy with Orion.

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

Addendum

Finder chart for the rising Orion at 8 p.m. December 2nd. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.