01/03/2023 – Ephemeris – A belated preview of January skies

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 3rd. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 5:14. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 6:41 tomorrow morning.

I’m starting the January preview a bit late. We’re a day past the latest sunrise at about the same time as today, 8:20 a.m. and will back down to 8:03 by the 31st. Sunset times are currently increasing by a minute a day, from 5:14 p.m. today to 5:49 at month’s end. Listeners will have about the same sunrise time in Ludington, Interlochen/Traverse City, Petoskey and Mackinaw City, but the sunset times will vary markedly with the sunset times earlier in the north and later in the south. The Quadrantid meteor shower will reach peak this evening. It will have competition all night from the bright Moon. Tomorrow, the Earth will be its closest to the Sun for the entire year. This afternoon the Moon skated past Mars, so tonight the Red Planet will appear above and right of the Moon.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

January Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for January 2023 evenings, based on 9 pm EST, January 15, 2023. Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

January Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for January 2023 mornings, based on 6 am EST, January 15, 2023. Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

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). For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations, click here.

The planets are also plotted for the 15th. For a check on the current whereabouts of the five naked eye planets, see the Wednesday post most weeks.

• 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 3rd, but is best seen in the early morning hours of the 3rd or 4th.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EST
	Morning	Twilight	Evening	Twilight	Dark	Night	Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2023-01-01	6h35m	7h11m	18h22m	18h57m	3h19m	6h35m	0.80
2023-01-02	6h35m	7h11m	18h23m	18h58m	4h28m	6h35m	0.88
2023-01-03	6h35m	7h11m	18h24m	18h59m	5h36m	6h35m	0.93
2023-01-04	6h35m	7h11m	18h24m	19h00m	–	–	0.97
2023-01-05	6h35m	7h11m	18h25m	19h01m	–	–	0.99
2023-01-06	6h35m	7h11m	18h26m	19h01m	–	–	1.00
2023-01-07	6h35m	7h11m	18h27m	19h02m	–	–	0.99
2023-01-08	6h35m	7h10m	18h28m	19h03m	–	–	0.96
2023-01-09	6h35m	7h10m	18h29m	19h04m	19h04m	19h56m	0.91
2023-01-10	6h35m	7h10m	18h30m	19h05m	19h05m	21h01m	0.85
2023-01-11	6h35m	7h10m	18h31m	19h06m	19h06m	22h06m	0.77
2023-01-12	6h35m	7h10m	18h32m	19h07m	19h07m	23h10m	0.69
2023-01-13	6h34m	7h09m	18h33m	19h08m	19h08m	–	0.59
2023-01-14	6h34m	7h09m	18h34m	19h09m	19h09m	0h16m	0.49
2023-01-15	6h34m	7h09m	18h35m	19h10m	19h10m	1h24m	0.38
2023-01-16	6h33m	7h08m	18h37m	19h11m	19h11m	2h36m	0.28
2023-01-17	6h33m	7h08m	18h38m	19h13m	19h13m	3h52m	0.18
2023-01-18	6h32m	7h07m	18h39m	19h14m	19h14m	5h11m	0.10
2023-01-19	6h32m	7h07m	18h40m	19h15m	19h15m	6h29m	0.04
2023-01-20	6h31m	7h06m	18h41m	19h16m	19h16m	6h31m	0.01
2023-01-21	6h31m	7h05m	18h42m	19h17m	19h17m	6h31m	0.00
2023-01-22	6h30m	7h05m	18h44m	19h18m	19h18m	6h30m	0.03
2023-01-23	6h30m	7h04m	18h45m	19h19m	20h05m	6h30m	0.08
2023-01-24	6h29m	7h03m	18h46m	19h20m	21h26m	6h29m	0.16
2023-01-25	6h28m	7h03m	18h47m	19h22m	22h43m	6h28m	0.25
2023-01-26	6h28m	7h02m	18h48m	19h23m	23h57m	6h28m	0.35
2023-01-27	6h27m	7h01m	18h50m	19h24m	–	6h27m	0.46
2023-01-28	6h26m	7h00m	18h51m	19h25m	1h09m	6h26m	0.56
2023-01-29	6h25m	6h59m	18h52m	19h26m	2h19m	6h25m	0.66
2023-01-30	6h24m	6h58m	18h53m	19h28m	3h28m	6h24m	0.75
2023-01-31	6h23m	6h58m	18h55m	19h29m	4h35m	6h23m	0.82

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  Su            Venus: 17.3° E
     1  Su  10:25 am  Moon Ascending Node
     2  Mo   8:24 pm  Moon-Pleiades: 2.8° N
     3  Tu   2:35 pm  Moon-Mars:  0.6° N
     3  Tu  10:06 pm  Quadrantid shower: ZHR = 120
     4  We   2:59 pm  Perihelion:  0.9833 AU
     5  Th  10:08 pm  Moon North Dec.: 27.4° N
     6  Fr   6:08 pm  Full Wolf Moon
     7  Sa   7:53 am  Mercury Inferior Conj.
     7  Sa   8:40 am  Moon-Pollux: 2.1° N
     8  Su   4:19 am  Moon Apogee: 406,500 km
     8  Su  10:23 am  Moon-Beehive: 4° S
    14  Sa   9:10 pm  Last Quarter
    16  Mo   1:32 am  Moon Descending Node
    18  We   4:32 am  Moon-Antares: 2.1° S
    20  Fr  12:06 am  Moon South Dec.: 27.5° S
    21  Sa   3:53 pm  New Moon
    21  Sa   3:58 pm  Moon Perigee: 356,600 km
    22  Su   4:53 pm  Venus-Saturn:  0.3° N
    23  Mo   2:22 am  Moon-Saturn: 3.8° N
    23  Mo   3:20 am  Moon-Venus: 3.4° N
    25  We   9:00 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 1.8° N
    28  Sa  10:19 am  First Quarter
    28  Sa  11:05 am  Moon Ascending Node
    30  Mo  12:59 am  Mercury Elongation: 25° W
    30  Mo   2:21 am  Moon-Pleiades: 2.6° N
    30  Mo  11:24 pm  Moon-Mars:  0.1° N
Feb  1  We            Venus: 24.4° 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, 2023    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Sun  1| 08:20a  05:12p  08:52 | 06:23p  07:09a |      Set  04:28a   79%|
|Mon  2| 08:20a  05:13p  08:53 | 06:24p  07:09a |      Set  05:36a   86%|
|Tue  3| 08:20a  05:14p  08:54 | 06:24p  07:09a |      Set  06:41a   92%|
|Wed  4| 08:20a  05:15p  08:55 | 06:25p  07:10a |      Set  07:41a   96%|
|Thu  5| 08:19a  05:16p  08:56 | 06:26p  07:10a |      Set  08:33a   99%|
|Fri  6| 08:19a  05:17p  08:57 | 06:27p  07:09a |Full  Rise 04:47p  100%|
|Sat  7| 08:19a  05:18p  08:59 | 06:28p  07:09a |      Rise 05:47p   99%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  8| 08:19a  05:19p  09:00 | 06:29p  07:09a |      Rise 06:51p   96%|
|Mon  9| 08:19a  05:21p  09:01 | 06:30p  07:09a |      Rise 07:56p   92%|
|Tue 10| 08:18a  05:22p  09:03 | 06:31p  07:09a |      Rise 09:01p   86%|
|Wed 11| 08:18a  05:23p  09:04 | 06:32p  07:09a |      Rise 10:05p   79%|
|Thu 12| 08:18a  05:24p  09:06 | 06:33p  07:08a |      Rise 11:10p   70%|
|Fri 13| 08:17a  05:25p  09:08 | 06:34p  07:08a |      Rise 12:16a   61%|
|Sat 14| 08:17a  05:26p  09:09 | 06:35p  07:08a |L Qtr Rise 01:24a   51%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 15| 08:16a  05:28p  09:11 | 06:36p  07:07a |      Rise 02:36a   41%|
|Mon 16| 08:16a  05:29p  09:13 | 06:38p  07:07a |      Rise 03:52a   30%|
|Tue 17| 08:15a  05:30p  09:15 | 06:39p  07:07a |      Rise 05:11a   21%|
|Wed 18| 08:14a  05:32p  09:17 | 06:40p  07:06a |      Rise 06:28a   12%|
|Thu 19| 08:14a  05:33p  09:19 | 06:41p  07:06a |      Rise 07:38a    5%|
|Fri 20| 08:13a  05:34p  09:21 | 06:42p  07:05a |      Rise 08:34a    1%|
|Sat 21| 08:12a  05:35p  09:23 | 06:43p  07:04a |New   Set  05:13p    0%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 22| 08:11a  05:37p  09:25 | 06:45p  07:04a |      Set  06:40p    2%|
|Mon 23| 08:11a  05:38p  09:27 | 06:46p  07:03a |      Set  08:05p    7%|
|Tue 24| 08:10a  05:40p  09:29 | 06:47p  07:02a |      Set  09:26p   14%|
|Wed 25| 08:09a  05:41p  09:32 | 06:48p  07:02a |      Set  10:42p   23%|
|Thu 26| 08:08a  05:42p  09:34 | 06:49p  07:01a |      Set  11:56p   33%|
|Fri 27| 08:07a  05:44p  09:36 | 06:51p  07:00a |      Set  01:08a   43%|
|Sat 28| 08:06a  05:45p  09:39 | 06:52p  06:59a |F Qtr Set  02:18a   54%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 29| 08:05a  05:47p  09:41 | 06:53p  06:58a |      Set  03:28a   64%|
|Mon 30| 08:04a  05:48p  09:44 | 06:54p  06:57a |      Set  04:34a   73%|
|Tue 31| 08:03a  05:49p  09:46 | 06:56p  06:56a |      Set  05:36a   81%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Generated using my LookingUp for DOS program.