11/05/2021 – Ephemeris – Astronomy meeting tonight via Zoom

This is Ephemeris for Friday, November 5th. The Sun will rise at 8:26. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 6:25. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:04 this evening.

The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society hold a virtual meeting and program at 8 pm tonight via Zoom. For the program, yours truly will present Asteroids in the News. Two new NASA asteroid missions are in the news, the just launched Lucy mission to investigate seven of Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids and later this month the launching a planetary defense mission test called DART to attempt to deflect a small asteroid orbiting another. A virtual star party will start around 9 pm, hosted by Dr. Jerry Dobek, astronomy professor at Northwestern Michigan College, but only if it’s clear in Traverse City. It will feature Jupiter and Saturn, wonders of the autumn sky. Instructions to join the meeting and a link can be found on the society’s website, http://www.gtastro.org.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.