09/29/2022 – Ephemeris – Previewing October skies

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, September 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 7:26, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:39. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 9:20 this evening.

Let’s take an early look at the skies for the month of October. Tomorrow I’ll talk about local observing events for Saturday, both afternoon and evening. Back to October. The Sun will still be moving south rapidly. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 11 hours and 42 minutes on Saturday the 1st to 10 hours, 13 minutes at month’s end. The altitude of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 42 degrees Saturday in the Interlochen area, and will descend to 31 degrees on Halloween. For the Straits of Mackinac area, the Sun will be a degree lower, and the daytime hours will be a bit shorter. The Orionid meteor shower, bits of Halley’s Comet, won’t be bothered by the bright Moon until the early morning on the 21st.

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.

Addendum

October Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for October 2022 (9 p.m. EDT, October 15, 2022). Click on image to enlarge it. Created using my LookingUp app.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EDT in the evening and 6 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.

October Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for October mornings, 2022 (6 a.m. EDT, October 15, 2022). Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp app.

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.
• The Summer Triangle is in red.
• DracR – Draconid Radiant – Peaks the 8th – Zenithal Hourly Rate < 10 with rare outbursts of a thousand an hour. It’s hindered this year by the full moon.
• OriR – Orionid Radiant – Peak 21st – Zenithal Hourly Rate = 20

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EDT
	Morning	Twilight	Evening	Twilight	Dark	Night	Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2022-10-01	6h09m	6h43m	20h29m	21h04m	22h45m	6h09m	0.41
2022-10-02	6h10m	6h44m	20h28m	21h02m	23h45m	6h10m	0.53
2022-10-03	6h11m	6h46m	20h26m	21h00m	–	6h11m	0.64
2022-10-04	6h13m	6h47m	20h24m	20h58m	0h56m	6h13m	0.75
2022-10-05	6h14m	6h48m	20h22m	20h56m	2h14m	6h14m	0.84
2022-10-06	6h15m	6h49m	20h20m	20h54m	3h34m	6h15m	0.91
2022-10-07	6h16m	6h50m	20h18m	20h52m	4h52m	6h16m	0.97
2022-10-08	6h18m	6h52m	20h17m	20h51m	6h08m	6h18m	0.99
2022-10-09	6h19m	6h53m	20h15m	20h49m	–	–	1
2022-10-10	6h20m	6h54m	20h13m	20h47m	–	–	0.98
2022-10-11	6h22m	6h55m	20h11m	20h45m	–	–	0.94
2022-10-12	6h23m	6h57m	20h10m	20h43m	–	–	0.88
2022-10-13	6h24m	6h58m	20h08m	20h42m	20h42m	21h00m	0.81
2022-10-14	6h25m	6h59m	20h06m	20h40m	20h40m	21h38m	0.73
2022-10-15	6h26m	7h00m	20h05m	20h38m	20h38m	22h24m	0.64
2022-10-16	6h28m	7h01m	20h03m	20h37m	20h37m	23h18m	0.55
2022-10-17	6h29m	7h03m	20h01m	20h35m	20h35m	–	0.45
2022-10-18	6h30m	7h04m	20h00m	20h33m	20h33m	0h18m	0.36
2022-10-19	6h31m	7h05m	19h58m	20h32m	20h32m	1h23m	0.27
2022-10-20	6h33m	7h06m	19h57m	20h30m	20h30m	2h29m	0.19
2022-10-21	6h34m	7h08m	19h55m	20h29m	20h29m	3h37m	0.12
2022-10-22	6h35m	7h09m	19h53m	20h27m	20h27m	4h45m	0.06
2022-10-23	6h36m	7h10m	19h52m	20h26m	20h26m	5h54m	0.02
2022-10-24	6h37m	7h11m	19h50m	20h24m	20h24m	6h37m	0
2022-10-25	6h39m	7h12m	19h49m	20h23m	20h23m	6h39m	0.01
2022-10-26	6h40m	7h14m	19h48m	20h21m	20h21m	6h40m	0.04
2022-10-27	6h41m	7h15m	19h46m	20h20m	20h20m	6h41m	0.1
2022-10-28	6h42m	7h16m	19h45m	20h19m	20h40m	6h42m	0.17
2022-10-29	6h44m	7h17m	19h43m	20h17m	21h37m	6h44m	0.27
2022-10-30	6h45m	7h19m	19h42m	20h16m	22h46m	6h45m	0.38
2022-10-31	6h46m	7h20m	19h41m	20h15m	–	6h46m	0.49

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

Oct  1 	Sa            Venus: 5.8° W
     2  Su   3:32 pm  Moon South Dec.: 27.4° S
     2  Su   8:14 pm  First Quarter
     4  Tu   1:01 pm  Moon Perigee: 369,300 km
     5  We  11:51 am  Moon-Saturn: 4.1° N
     8  Sa   2:06 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 2.1° N
     8  Sa   4:59 pm  Mercury Elongation: 18° W (Morning elongation)
     9  Su   4:55 pm  Full Hunter's Moon
    11  Tu   5:49 pm  Moon Ascending Node
    12  We  11:46 pm  Moon-Pleiades: 2.9° N
    15  Sa  12:28 am  Moon-Mars: 4° S
    16  Su   2:12 am  Moon North Dec.: 27.5° N
    17  Mo   6:21 am  Moon Apogee: 404300 km
    17  Mo  11:41 am  Moon-Pollux: 2° N
    17  Mo   1:15 pm  Last Quarter
    21  Fr   1:39 pm  Orionid Shower: ZHR = 20
    22  Sa   4:47 pm  Venus Superior Conjunction. Enters evening sky
    25  Tu   6:49 am  New Moon
    25  Tu   7:00 am  Partial Solar Eclipse (Parts of Europe, Africa and Asia) 
    26  We   2:30 am  Moon Descending Node
    27  Th  10:48 pm  Moon-Antares: 2.3° S
    29  Sa  10:48 am  Moon Perigee: 368300 km
    29  Sa   9:04 pm  Moon South Dec.: 27.5° S
Nov  1  Tu            Venus: 2.6° E

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
October 2022          Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Sat  1| 07:40a  07:23p  11:42 | 08:26p  06:37a |      Set  10:44p   39%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  2| 07:42a  07:21p  11:39 | 08:24p  06:39a |F Qtr Set  11:44p   50%|
|Mon  3| 07:43a  07:19p  11:36 | 08:22p  06:40a |      Set  12:55a   61%|
|Tue  4| 07:44a  07:17p  11:33 | 08:20p  06:41a |      Set  02:14a   72%|
|Wed  5| 07:45a  07:15p  11:30 | 08:18p  06:42a |      Set  03:33a   82%|
|Thu  6| 07:46a  07:14p  11:27 | 08:16p  06:43a |      Set  04:52a   90%|
|Fri  7| 07:48a  07:12p  11:24 | 08:15p  06:45a |      Set  06:08a   96%|
|Sat  8| 07:49a  07:10p  11:20 | 08:13p  06:46a |      Set  07:22a   99%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  9| 07:50a  07:08p  11:17 | 08:11p  06:47a |Full  Rise 07:19p  100%|
|Mon 10| 07:51a  07:06p  11:14 | 08:09p  06:48a |      Rise 07:39p   99%|
|Tue 11| 07:53a  07:05p  11:11 | 08:08p  06:50a |      Rise 08:02p   95%|
|Wed 12| 07:54a  07:03p  11:08 | 08:06p  06:51a |      Rise 08:28p   90%|
|Thu 13| 07:55a  07:01p  11:05 | 08:04p  06:52a |      Rise 08:59p   83%|
|Fri 14| 07:57a  06:59p  11:02 | 08:02p  06:53a |      Rise 09:37p   75%|
|Sat 15| 07:58a  06:58p  10:59 | 08:01p  06:54a |      Rise 10:23p   66%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 16| 07:59a  06:56p  10:56 | 07:59p  06:56a |      Rise 11:17p   57%|
|Mon 17| 08:00a  06:54p  10:53 | 07:58p  06:57a |L Qtr Rise 12:18a   47%|
|Tue 18| 08:02a  06:52p  10:50 | 07:56p  06:58a |      Rise 01:22a   38%|
|Wed 19| 08:03a  06:51p  10:47 | 07:54p  06:59a |      Rise 02:29a   29%|
|Thu 20| 08:04a  06:49p  10:44 | 07:53p  07:01a |      Rise 03:36a   20%|
|Fri 21| 08:06a  06:48p  10:41 | 07:51p  07:02a |      Rise 04:44a   13%|
|Sat 22| 08:07a  06:46p  10:38 | 07:50p  07:03a |      Rise 05:53a    7%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 23| 08:08a  06:44p  10:36 | 07:48p  07:04a |      Rise 07:04a    3%|
|Mon 24| 08:10a  06:43p  10:33 | 07:47p  07:06a |      Rise 08:18a    0%|
|Tue 25| 08:11a  06:41p  10:30 | 07:45p  07:07a |New   Set  06:53p    0%|
|Wed 26| 08:12a  06:40p  10:27 | 07:44p  07:08a |      Set  07:21p    3%|
|Thu 27| 08:14a  06:38p  10:24 | 07:42p  07:09a |      Set  07:55p    8%|
|Fri 28| 08:15a  06:37p  10:21 | 07:41p  07:10a |      Set  08:39p   16%|
|Sat 29| 08:16a  06:35p  10:18 | 07:40p  07:12a |      Set  09:36p   25%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 30| 08:18a  06:34p  10:16 | 07:38p  07:13a |      Set  10:45p   36%|
|Mon 31| 08:19a  06:32p  10:13 | 07:37p  07:14a |      Set  12:02a   47%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.