06/30/2021 – Ephemeris – Let’s search for the naked-eye planets for this week
This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, 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, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 1:35 tomorrow morning.
Let’s search for the naked-eye planets for this week. Venus can be spotted low in the west-northwest twilight by 10 pm or a little after. It will set at 11:06 pm. Venus will be spending the rest of summer low in the western sky for the rest of summer, and not be a conspicuous as it usually is. Mars can be found in the west-northwest at 11pm. It’s in Cancer and will set at 11:25 pm as it is slowly losing its race with the Sun. Saturn and Jupiter, are seen best in the morning sky. Saturn will rise before midnight at 11:15 pm. It’s seen with the stars of Capricornus. Brighter Jupiter, to the left of Saturn, will rise at 12:06 am. By 5 am, these two planets will be in the south in the morning twilight.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
06/29/2021 – Ephemeris – The Summer Triangle
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, June 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:00. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 1:14 tomorrow morning.
Dominating the eastern sky at 11 pm are three bright stars. These are all first magnitude stars, members of the group of 21 brightest stars in the night sky. Highest, in the east, is Vega, the brightest of the three. It and a small, slim parallelogram of stars below it belong to the constellation of Lyra the harp. Below it to the northeast is Deneb, dimmest of the three at the head of the horizontally appearing Northern Cross, an informal constellation or asterism. Properly, Deneb is in the tail of Cygnus the swan flying south through the Milky Way. The third star of the three is Altair, lower still, but in the east-southeast at the head of Aquila the Eagle. These three stars are in a large asterism called the Summer Triangle, which will be with us through summer and fall.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
06/28/2021 – Ephemeris – The summer Milky Way
This is Ephemeris for Monday, June 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:00. The Moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 12:50 tomorrow morning.
Last night we had the latest sunset of the year. That’s great news for star gazers who like dark skies and the Sun is not among the stars they want to gaze at. But it won’t get noticeably darker earlier in the evening until late July. But when that does happen, the glory of the summer Milky Way becomes visible. On top of that, the peak night of the Perseid meteor shower, the night of August 11th and morning of the 12th. The three-day-old Moon that night won’t bother the meteor shower at all. The winter sky has the Milky Way also, but we are then looking out, away from the center of our galaxy. It’s hard to tell there’s a milky band there at all. In summer, we are looking toward the more populated parts of our galaxy. It’s a wonder to behold.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
06/25/2021 – Ephemeris – The era of commercial human space flight has begun
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, June 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:58. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 10:58 this evening.
It looks like this year 2021 is the year that commercial crewed spaceflight is going to take off, literally. There’s Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic with their air dropped VSS Unity that will achieve a few minutes of weightlessness in suborbital space like the old X15 did. Competing in suborbital space is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin with their New Shepard rocket and capsule. Bezos and his brother are expected to ride the first crewed capsule flight later this summer. Running rings around these guys, actually, is Elon Musk’s SpaceX with three orbital Commercial Crew missions for NASA already under his belt and a completely civilian orbital mission, Inspiration 4, slated for the end of summer. So the era of commercial human space flight is finally beginning.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Boeing also built a human rated spacecraft, the Starliner, which will be used to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. It will be launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. They are scheduled to repeat their uncrewed test flight this summer before they can send crews to the ISS.
Virgin has Virgin Orbital a company to air launch small payloads, Blue Origin is developing the New Glenn rocket a partially reusable rocket, which is expected to launch in 2022 or 2023. SpaceX is actively developing its StarShip completely reusable rocket and booster near Brownsville, Texas.
06/24/2021 – Ephemeris – SpaceX Inspiration 4 mission
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, June 24th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:58. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 9:59 this evening.
If all goes as planned, SpaceX will send four civilians, two men and two women, into orbit for a three-day mission aboard the Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft, sent up by a Falcon 9 rocket in mid-September. It’s called the Inspiration 4 Mission to raise awareness and funds for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Their orbit will be higher, at 340 miles (540 kilometers) altitude, than that of the International Space Station. The mission commander will be Jared Isaacman, who is paying for the whole thing. Dr. Sian Proctor will be the pilot. Also, on the crew will be Hayley Arceneaux, a St. Jude childhood cancer survivor and now a Physician’s Assistant at St. Jude, and Christopher Sembroski. The crew has been in training since their selection in early April.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
06/23/2021 – Ephemeris – Let’s search for the naked-eye planets for this week
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Wednesday, June 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:58. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 5:30 tomorrow morning.
Let’s search for the naked-eye planets for this week. Venus can be spotted low in the west-northwest twilight by 10 pm or a little after. Venus will set at 11:07 pm. Mars can be found in the west-northwest at 11pm, It’s in Cancer and is currently passing in front of the Beehive star cluster which can be spotted in a pair of binoculars. Mars will set at 11:38 pm as it is slowing losing its race with the Sun. Saturn and Jupiter, are in the morning sky. Saturn will actually rise before midnight at 11:44 pm. It’s seen with the stars of Capricornus. Brighter Jupiter, to the left of Saturn, will rise at 12:34 am. By 5 am, these two planets will be in the south and south-southeast in the morning twilight.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
06/22/2021 – Ephemeris – Mars is poised to cross in front of the Beehive Star Cluster tonight
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, June 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:57. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 4:41 tomorrow morning.
Tonight, the planet Mars will be at the western edge of the Beehive star cluster. Tomorrow night, Mars will be seen against its stars. Normally, the Beehive star cluster is easily seen in binoculars. The problem is, that both the cluster and Mars will be low in the west-northwestern sky, only six to seven degrees above a sea or lake horizon near the optimal time to spot them of 11 pm. It has been 8 months since Mars was opposite the Sun in our skies, and relatively close to us. Back then it was as bright as Jupiter and relatively close to the Earth. Now, Mars is 221 million miles (356 million kilometers) and 5 times farther aw0ay, about half the distance to Jupiter. It’s tiny in telescopes and very hard to pick out of the dim twilight glow of 11 pm.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
06/21/2021 – Ephemeris – A quick look at three of the naked-eye planets
This is Ephemeris for Monday, June 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:57. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 4:02 tomorrow morning.
I have a couple of pieces of planetary news. Venus will pass south of the star Pollux in Gemini tonight. That means in their current orientation, low on the west-northwestern horizon, that Pollux will appear above and right of the much brighter Venus. This may be visible by 10:30 pm. Venus will set tonight at 11:07. You’ll need a really low western horizon to see it. In the morning sky, Saturn is backtracking to the west slowly, and now Jupiter has stopped its eastward motion and is stationary today and will start its retrograde or westward motion. Both retrograde motions are caused by the Earth, which is in the process of passing these planets. We will pass Saturn August 2nd, and pass Jupiter August 19th. We call these events, oppositions.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4hr). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
06/18/2021 – Ephemeris – Summer* will start Sunday night
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, June 18th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:56. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:41 tomorrow morning.
Summer is just a couple of days away, though we have already been sweltering through a very hot first half of June. Summer will officially arrive for us on Earth’s Northern Hemisphere at 11: 32 pm, June 20th. If you are south of the equator, winter will arrive. If you are listening to this on the Internet, or reading this on my blog, it’s 3:32 UT, June 21st. And to be season agnostic, it’s the June solstice. From the 20th to the December solstice, the first day of winter for we northern hemispherians, (I think that’s a word) the daylight hours will get shorter as the Sun heads south. Solstice means Sun standstill as it stops its northerly motion and will, after Sunday, head back south again. The Northern Hemisphere will still be heating up for another month.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4hr). They may be different for your location.
* Summer in the Northern Hemisphere only. Winter starts in the Southern Hemisphere.
Addendum
06/17/2021 – Ephemeris – Congress approves more money for NASA’s lunar lander
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, June 17th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:56. The Moon, at first quarter tonight, will set at 2:18 tomorrow morning. | Tonight’s Moon will be almost exactly cut in half by the sunrise terminator, since the precise moment of first quarter will be at 11:54 this evening. Speaking of the Moon, Congress has approved NASA spending of 10 billion dollars over 5 years on the Human Lander System for the Artemis Moon program. This would allow more than one bidder to win the lander contract. SpaceX’s Lunar Starship was the only one to win a contract. NASA and Congress wanted two to win, but couldn’t afford more than SpaceX. Now comes the rub… Congress will have to appropriate the money out of the budget every year for this. The target date for the first landing is 2024, which I’m pretty sure is already out of reach.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT-4). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Also, SpaceX’s bid was the lowest by a wide margin. With the extra funds, it looks like Blue Origin will be the second successful bidder.