12/31/2019 – Ephemeris – Previewing the skies of January 2020

Ephemeris for New Years Eve, Tuesday, December 31st. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:11. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:47 this evening.

Tomorrow starts a new year and a new decade. The daylight hours start slowly getting longer and will accelerate during the month. Daylight hours will increase from 8 hours and 52 minutes tomorrow to 9 hours and 45 minutes on the 31st. The sunrise time will decrease from 8:20 tomorrow to 8:03 at months end. The sunset times will increase from 5:12 tomorrow to 5:49 on the 31st. Along with that the altitude of the sun at noon will increase from 22 degrees tomorrow to nearly 28 degrees at month’s end. It will be a degree lower for folks in the Straits area because they are a degree of latitude farther north. Local noon, by the way for Interlochen and Traverse City is about 12:51 p.m. in January.

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

Addendum

January Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for January 2020 (9 p.m. EST January 15, 2020). Click on image to enlarge.Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

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. The brilliant planet Venus will enter the sky at the chart time during the latter half of the month in the southwest.  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).

January Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for January mornings 2020 (6 a.m. EST January 15, 2020). Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

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.
• The leaky bowl of the Big Dipper drips on Leo.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, then
• Follow the spike to Spica.
• QuadR on the star charts is the radiant of the Quadrantid meteor shower which peaks on the 4th at 3:20 a.m. EST (8:20 UT).

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EST
	Morning twilight		Evening twilight		Dark night		Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2020-01-01	6h35m	7h10m	18h21m	18h57m	23h48m	6h35m	0.38
2020-01-02	6h35m	7h10m	18h22m	18h57m	–	6h35m	0.48
2020-01-03	6h35m	7h11m	18h23m	18h58m	0h49m	6h35m	0.58
2020-01-04	6h35m	7h11m	18h24m	18h59m	1h50m	6h35m	0.67
2020-01-05	6h35m	7h11m	18h25m	19h00m	2h52m	6h35m	0.76
2020-01-06	6h35m	7h11m	18h26m	19h01m	3h57m	6h35m	0.85
2020-01-07	6h35m	7h10m	18h27m	19h02m	5h03m	6h35m	0.92
2020-01-08	6h35m	7h10m	18h28m	19h03m	6h10m	6h35m	0.97
2020-01-09	6h35m	7h10m	18h29m	19h04m	–	–	0.97
2020-01-10	6h35m	7h10m	18h30m	19h05m	–	–	1
2020-01-11	6h35m	7h10m	18h31m	19h06m	–	–	1
2020-01-12	6h34m	7h10m	18h32m	19h07m	19h07m	19h44m	0.97
2020-01-13	6h34m	7h09m	18h33m	19h08m	19h08m	21h01m	0.92
2020-01-14	6h34m	7h09m	18h34m	19h09m	19h09m	22h17m	0.84
2020-01-15	6h34m	7h08m	18h35m	19h10m	19h10m	23h32m	0.74
2020-01-16	6h33m	7h08m	18h36m	19h11m	19h11m	–	0.63
2020-01-17	6h33m	7h08m	18h37m	19h12m	19h12m	0h46m	0.51
2020-01-18	6h32m	7h07m	18h38m	19h13m	19h13m	1h59m	0.39
2020-01-19	6h32m	7h07m	18h39m	19h14m	19h14m	3h12m	0.28
2020-01-20	6h31m	7h06m	18h41m	19h15m	19h15m	4h22m	0.19
2020-01-21	6h31m	7h05m	18h42m	19h16m	19h16m	5h30m	0.11
2020-01-22	6h30m	7h05m	18h43m	19h17m	19h17m	6h30m	0.05
2020-01-23	6h30m	7h04m	18h44m	19h19m	19h19m	6h30m	0.01
2020-01-24	6h29m	7h03m	18h45m	19h20m	19h20m	6h29m	0
2020-01-25	6h28m	7h03m	18h46m	19h21m	19h21m	6h28m	0.01
2020-01-26	6h28m	7h02m	18h48m	19h22m	19h33m	6h28m	0.04
2020-01-27	6h27m	7h01m	18h49m	19h23m	20h35m	6h27m	0.08
2020-01-28	6h26m	7h00m	18h50m	19h25m	21h36m	6h26m	0.14
2020-01-29	6h25m	6h59m	18h51m	19h26m	22h37m	6h25m	0.22
2020-01-30	6h24m	6h59m	18h53m	19h27m	23h37m	6h24m	0.3
2020-01-31	6h23m	6h58m	18h54m	19h28m	–	6h23m	0.39

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      Time    Event
Jan 1  We            Venus: 34.6° E
    1  We  08:30 pm  Moon Apogee: 404600 km
    2  Th  11:45 pm  First Quarter
    4  Sa  03:20 am  Quadrantid Meteor Shower: ZHR = 120
    5  Su  04:59 am  Perihelion: 0.9832 AU
    9  Th  06:29 pm  Moon Ascending Node
   10  Fr  01:03 am  Moon North Dec.: 23.2° N
   10  Fr  10:01 am  Mercury Superior Solar Conjunction
   10  Fr  02:10 pm  Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
                         (Europe, Africa, Asia, Aus)
   10  Fr  02:21 pm  Full Moon
   11  Sa  06:54 pm  Moon-Beehive: 1° S
   13  Mo  09:23 am  Saturn Solar Conjunction
   13  Mo  03:20 pm  Moon Perigee: 366000 km
   17  Fr  07:58 am  Last Quarter
   17  Fr  06:03 pm  Mars-Antares: 4.8° N
   20  Mo  02:13 pm  Moon-Mars: 2.4° S
   22  We  03:31 pm  Moon Descending Node
   22  We  09:42 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 0.4° N
   22  We  10:37 pm  Moon South Dec.: 23.2° S
   24  Fr  04:42 pm  New Moon
   28  Tu  02:29 am  Moon-Venus: 4.5° N
   29  We  04:28 pm  Moon Apogee: 405400 km
Feb 1  Sa            Venus: 40.4° E

All event times are given for UTC-5 Eastern Standard 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

LU             Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
January, 2020    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Wed  1| 08:20a  05:12p  08:52 | 06:22p  07:09a |      Set  11:48p   39%|
|Thu  2| 08:20a  05:13p  08:53 | 06:23p  07:09a |F Qtr Set  12:48a   48%|
|Fri  3| 08:20a  05:14p  08:54 | 06:24p  07:09a |      Set  01:49a   58%|
|Sat  4| 08:20a  05:15p  08:55 | 06:25p  07:10a |      Set  02:52a   67%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  5| 08:20a  05:16p  08:56 | 06:26p  07:10a |      Set  03:56a   76%|
|Mon  6| 08:19a  05:17p  08:57 | 06:27p  07:09a |      Set  05:02a   84%|
|Tue  7| 08:19a  05:18p  08:58 | 06:28p  07:09a |      Set  06:09a   91%|
|Wed  8| 08:19a  05:19p  09:00 | 06:29p  07:09a |      Set  07:15a   96%|
|Thu  9| 08:19a  05:20p  09:01 | 06:30p  07:09a |      Set  08:15a   99%|
|Fri 10| 08:18a  05:21p  09:02 | 06:31p  07:09a |Full  Rise 05:20p  100%|
|Sat 11| 08:18a  05:23p  09:04 | 06:32p  07:09a |      Rise 06:29p   98%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 12| 08:18a  05:24p  09:05 | 06:33p  07:09a |      Rise 07:44p   94%|
|Mon 13| 08:17a  05:25p  09:07 | 06:34p  07:08a |      Rise 09:01p   87%|
|Tue 14| 08:17a  05:26p  09:09 | 06:35p  07:08a |      Rise 10:17p   78%|
|Wed 15| 08:16a  05:27p  09:11 | 06:36p  07:08a |      Rise 11:32p   67%|
|Thu 16| 08:16a  05:29p  09:12 | 06:37p  07:07a |      Rise 12:46a   56%|
|Fri 17| 08:15a  05:30p  09:14 | 06:38p  07:07a |L Qtr Rise 01:59a   45%|
|Sat 18| 08:15a  05:31p  09:16 | 06:40p  07:06a |      Rise 03:11a   34%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 19| 08:14a  05:32p  09:18 | 06:41p  07:06a |      Rise 04:22a   24%|
|Mon 20| 08:13a  05:34p  09:20 | 06:42p  07:05a |      Rise 05:30a   15%|
|Tue 21| 08:12a  05:35p  09:22 | 06:43p  07:05a |      Rise 06:32a    9%|
|Wed 22| 08:12a  05:36p  09:24 | 06:44p  07:04a |      Rise 07:27a    4%|
|Thu 23| 08:11a  05:38p  09:27 | 06:45p  07:03a |      Rise 08:14a    1%|
|Fri 24| 08:10a  05:39p  09:29 | 06:47p  07:03a |New   Set  05:27p    0%|
|Sat 25| 08:09a  05:41p  09:31 | 06:48p  07:02a |      Set  06:29p    1%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 26| 08:08a  05:42p  09:33 | 06:49p  07:01a |      Set  07:32p    4%|
|Mon 27| 08:07a  05:43p  09:36 | 06:50p  07:00a |      Set  08:35p    9%|
|Tue 28| 08:06a  05:45p  09:38 | 06:52p  06:59a |      Set  09:36p   15%|
|Wed 29| 08:05a  05:46p  09:40 | 06:53p  06:59a |      Set  10:37p   22%|
|Thu 30| 08:04a  05:48p  09:43 | 06:54p  06:58a |      Set  11:37p   31%|
|Fri 31| 08:03a  05:49p  09:45 | 06:55p  06:57a |      Set  12:38a   40%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset
Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.