06/30/2020 – Ephemeris – Previewing the skies of July 2020

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, June 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:01. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 3:15 tomorrow morning.

Lets preview July’s skies. The Sun, having reached its northern solstice, is beginning to slide southward again, at first imperceptibly, then with greater speed. The daylight hours will decrease from 15 hours and 30 minutes tomorrow to 14 hours 40 minutes at month’s end. The daylight hours will be slightly shorter south of Interlochen, and slightly longer to the north. The altitude of the Sun at local noon, when it is due south will decrease from 68 degrees tomorrow to 63 degrees at month’s end. Despite the warmth, the Earth will reach its greatest distance from the Sun on Saturday the 4th. Both Jupiter and Saturn reach opposition from the Sun this month and officially become evening planets.

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

Addendum

July Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for July 2020 (11 p.m. EDT July 15, 2019). 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, 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 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.

July Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for July mornings 2020 (4:30 a.m. EDT July 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.
• Leaky dipper drips on Leo.
• 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.
• DAqR is the radiant of the South Delta Aquariid meteor shower (Peaks on the 27th)

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EDT
	Morning twilight		Evening twilight		Dark night		Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2020-07-01	3h38m	4h41m	23h00m	0h03m	3h15m	3h38m	0.88
2020-07-02	3h39m	4h42m	22h59m	0h02m	–	–	0.95
2020-07-03	3h40m	4h43m	22h59m	0h01m	–	–	0.95
2020-07-04	3h42m	4h43m	22h58m	0h00m	–	–	0.99
2020-07-05	3h43m	4h44m	22h58m	23h59m	–	–	1
2020-07-06	3h44m	4h45m	22h57m	23h58m	–	–	0.99
2020-07-07	3h46m	4h46m	22h56m	23h57m	–	–	0.95
2020-07-08	3h47m	4h47m	22h56m	23h56m	23h56m	–	0.89
2020-07-09	3h49m	4h48m	22h55m	23h54m	23h54m	0h05m	0.82
2020-07-10	3h50m	4h49m	22h54m	23h53m	23h53m	0h30m	0.74
2020-07-11	3h52m	4h51m	22h53m	23h52m	23h52m	0h52m	0.65
2020-07-12	3h54m	4h52m	22h52m	23h50m	23h50m	1h13m	0.55
2020-07-13	3h55m	4h53m	22h51m	23h49m	23h49m	1h33m	0.45
2020-07-14	3h57m	4h54m	22h50m	23h47m	23h47m	1h55m	0.36
2020-07-15	3h59m	4h55m	22h49m	23h46m	23h46m	2h19m	0.26
2020-07-16	4h01m	4h57m	22h48m	23h44m	23h44m	2h47m	0.18
2020-07-17	4h02m	4h58m	22h47m	23h43m	23h43m	3h20m	0.11
2020-07-18	4h04m	4h59m	22h46m	23h41m	23h41m	4h01m	0.05
2020-07-19	4h06m	5h01m	22h45m	23h39m	23h39m	4h06m	0.01
2020-07-20	4h08m	5h02m	22h44m	23h38m	23h38m	4h08m	0
2020-07-21	4h10m	5h03m	22h42m	23h36m	23h36m	4h10m	0.01
2020-07-22	4h12m	5h05m	22h41m	23h34m	23h34m	4h12m	0.06
2020-07-23	4h14m	5h06m	22h40m	23h32m	23h32m	4h14m	0.12
2020-07-24	4h16m	5h08m	22h38m	23h30m	23h58m	4h16m	0.21
2020-07-25	4h17m	5h09m	22h37m	23h28m	–	4h17m	0.32
2020-07-26	4h19m	5h10m	22h35m	23h26m	0h24m	4h19m	0.44
2020-07-27	4h21m	5h12m	22h34m	23h24m	0h50m	4h21m	0.56
2020-07-28	4h23m	5h13m	22h32m	23h22m	1h18m	4h23m	0.67
2020-07-29	4h25m	5h15m	22h31m	23h20m	1h49m	4h25m	0.77
2020-07-30	4h27m	5h16m	22h29m	23h18m	2h27m	4h27m	0.86
2020-07-31	4h29m	5h18m	22h28m	23h16m	3h11m	4h29m	0.93

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
Jul 1  We            Venus: 34.3° W
    3  Fr  11:18 pm  Moon Descending Node
    4  Sa  10:59 am  Aphelion: 1.0167 AU
    4  Sa  09:37 pm  Moon South Dec.: 24.1° S
    5  Su  12:30 am  Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
	                    (Americas, sw Europe, Africa)
    5  Su  12:44 am  Full Moon
    5  Su  05:37 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 1.9° N
    6  Mo  04:45 am  Moon-Saturn: 2.6° N
   11  Sa  08:17 am  Venus-Aldebaran: 1° N
   11  Sa  03:36 pm  Moon-Mars: 2.2° N
   12  Su  03:27 pm  Moon Apogee: 404200 km
   12  Su  07:29 pm  Last Quarter
   14  Tu  03:03 am  Jupiter Opposition
   17  Fr  03:26 am  Moon-Venus: 3.4° S
   18  Sa  08:33 am  Moon Ascending Node
   19  Su  07:51 am  Moon North Dec.: 24.1° N
   20  Mo  01:33 pm  New Moon
   20  Mo  05:33 pm  Saturn Opposition
   22  We  10:59 am  Mercury Greatest Elongation: 20.1° W
   25  Sa  12:54 am  Moon Perigee: 368400 km
   27  Mo  08:32 am  First Quarter
   27  Mo  05:08 pm  Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower: ZHR = 20
   31  Fr  05:32 am  Moon Descending Node
Aug 1  Sa            Venus: 45.2° W

All event times are given for UTC-4 hr: Eastern Daylight Saving 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
July, 2020    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Wed  1| 06:01a  09:31p  15:30 | 10:57p  04:35a |      Set  03:49a   87%|
|Thu  2| 06:01a  09:31p  15:29 | 10:56p  04:36a |      Set  04:29a   94%|
|Fri  3| 06:02a  09:31p  15:28 | 10:56p  04:37a |      Set  05:18a   98%|
|Sat  4| 06:03a  09:31p  15:27 | 10:55p  04:38a |      Set  06:15a  100%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  5| 06:03a  09:30p  15:26 | 10:55p  04:39a |Full  Rise 10:19p   99%|
|Mon  6| 06:04a  09:30p  15:25 | 10:54p  04:40a |      Rise 11:02p   96%|
|Tue  7| 06:05a  09:29p  15:24 | 10:53p  04:41a |      Rise 11:37p   91%|
|Wed  8| 06:06a  09:29p  15:23 | 10:53p  04:42a |      Rise 12:05a   85%|
|Thu  9| 06:06a  09:29p  15:22 | 10:52p  04:43a |      Rise 12:30a   77%|
|Fri 10| 06:07a  09:28p  15:20 | 10:51p  04:44a |      Rise 12:52a   68%|
|Sat 11| 06:08a  09:27p  15:19 | 10:50p  04:45a |      Rise 01:12a   59%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 12| 06:09a  09:27p  15:17 | 10:49p  04:46a |L Qtr Rise 01:33a   50%|
|Mon 13| 06:10a  09:26p  15:16 | 10:48p  04:47a |      Rise 01:55a   40%|
|Tue 14| 06:11a  09:25p  15:14 | 10:47p  04:49a |      Rise 02:19a   31%|
|Wed 15| 06:11a  09:25p  15:13 | 10:46p  04:50a |      Rise 02:47a   23%|
|Thu 16| 06:12a  09:24p  15:11 | 10:45p  04:51a |      Rise 03:20a   15%|
|Fri 17| 06:13a  09:23p  15:09 | 10:44p  04:52a |      Rise 04:01a    8%|
|Sat 18| 06:14a  09:22p  15:08 | 10:43p  04:54a |      Rise 04:52a    4%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 19| 06:15a  09:21p  15:06 | 10:41p  04:55a |      Rise 05:52a    1%|
|Mon 20| 06:16a  09:21p  15:04 | 10:40p  04:56a |New   Set  09:45p    0%|
|Tue 21| 06:17a  09:20p  15:02 | 10:39p  04:58a |      Set  10:26p    2%|
|Wed 22| 06:18a  09:19p  15:00 | 10:38p  04:59a |      Set  11:01p    7%|
|Thu 23| 06:19a  09:18p  14:58 | 10:36p  05:00a |      Set  11:31p   14%|
|Fri 24| 06:20a  09:17p  14:56 | 10:35p  05:02a |      Set  11:58p   22%|
|Sat 25| 06:21a  09:16p  14:54 | 10:33p  05:03a |      Set  12:24a   33%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 26| 06:22a  09:15p  14:52 | 10:32p  05:05a |      Set  12:50a   44%|
|Mon 27| 06:24a  09:13p  14:49 | 10:30p  05:06a |F Qtr Set  01:18a   55%|
|Tue 28| 06:25a  09:12p  14:47 | 10:29p  05:08a |      Set  01:49a   67%|
|Wed 29| 06:26a  09:11p  14:45 | 10:27p  05:09a |      Set  02:27a   77%|
|Thu 30| 06:27a  09:10p  14:42 | 10:26p  05:11a |      Set  03:11a   85%|
|Fri 31| 06:28a  09:09p  14:40 | 10:24p  05:12a |      Set  04:04a   92%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset