01/31/2023 – Ephemeris – Previewing February skies

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 31st. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 5:49, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:02. The Moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 5:36 tomorrow morning.

February is the shortest month, even so, the daylight hours throughout the month will be getting longer. Daylight hours will expand from 9 hours and 49 minutes tomorrow the first, to 11 hours and 6 minutes on the 28th. The sunrise time will drop from 8:02 tomorrow to 7:22 at month’s end. The sunset times will extend from 5:51 tomorrow to 6:28 on the 28th. Along with that, the altitude of the Sun at local noon will increase from 28 degrees tomorrow to nearly 38 degrees at month’s end. Local noon, by the way, for Interlochen and Traverse City, when the Sun is due south, will be 12:57 p.m. at mid-month. Venus and Jupiter will appear to approach each other all month, in the western evening sky, coming into conjunction March 1st.

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

February Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for February 2023, (9 p.m. EST February 15, 2023). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EST 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. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere (rotating star finder) you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

Note the chart times of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. 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, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.

February Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for February mornings, 2023 (6 a.m. EST February 15, 2023). No naked-eye planets are visible. 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.
• 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.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EST
	Morning	Twilight	Evening	Twilight	Dark	Night	Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2023-02-01	6h22m	6h57m	18h56m	19h30m	5h37m	6h22m	0.89
2023-02-02	6h21m	6h56m	18h57m	19h31m	–	–	0.94
2023-02-03	6h20m	6h54m	18h58m	19h32m	–	–	0.98
2023-02-04	6h19m	6h53m	19h00m	19h34m	–	–	1.00
2023-02-05	6h18m	6h52m	19h01m	19h35m	–	–	1.00
2023-02-06	6h17m	6h51m	19h02m	19h36m	–	–	0.98
2023-02-07	6h16m	6h50m	19h03m	19h37m	19h37m	19h58m	0.95
2023-02-08	6h15m	6h49m	19h05m	19h39m	19h39m	21h03m	0.90
2023-02-09	6h14m	6h48m	19h06m	19h40m	19h40m	22h08m	0.83
2023-02-10	6h13m	6h46m	19h07m	19h41m	19h41m	23h14m	0.75
2023-02-11	6h11m	6h45m	19h09m	19h42m	19h42m	–	0.65
2023-02-12	6h10m	6h44m	19h10m	19h44m	19h44m	0h24m	0.55
2023-02-13	6h09m	6h42m	19h11m	19h45m	19h45m	1h36m	0.44
2023-02-14	6h07m	6h41m	19h12m	19h46m	19h46m	2h52m	0.33
2023-02-15	6h06m	6h40m	19h14m	19h47m	19h47m	4h07m	0.23
2023-02-16	6h05m	6h38m	19h15m	19h49m	19h49m	5h18m	0.14
2023-02-17	6h03m	6h37m	19h16m	19h50m	19h50m	6h03m	0.06
2023-02-18	6h02m	6h35m	19h18m	19h51m	19h51m	6h02m	0.02
2023-02-19	6h00m	6h34m	19h19m	19h53m	19h53m	6h00m	0.00
2023-02-20	5h59m	6h32m	19h20m	19h54m	19h54m	5h59m	0.01
2023-02-21	5h57m	6h31m	19h21m	19h55m	20h16m	5h57m	0.05
2023-02-22	5h56m	6h29m	19h23m	19h56m	21h34m	5h56m	0.12
2023-02-23	5h54m	6h28m	19h24m	19h58m	22h49m	5h54m	0.20
2023-02-24	5h53m	6h26m	19h25m	19h59m	–	5h53m	0.29
2023-02-25	5h51m	6h25m	19h27m	20h00m	0h03m	5h51m	0.39
2023-02-26	5h49m	6h23m	19h28m	20h02m	1h15m	5h49m	0.49
2023-02-27	5h48m	6h21m	19h29m	20h03m	2h25m	5h48m	0.59
2023-02-28	5h46m	6h20m	19h31m	20h04m	3h29m	5h46m	0.68

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/2019/09/27/

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Feb  1  We            Venus: 24.4° E
     2  Th   3:18 am  Moon North Dec.: 27.5° N
     3  Fr   2:47 pm  Moon-Pollux: 2.1° N
     4  Sa   3:55 am  Moon Apogee: 406,500 km
     4  Sa   4:32 pm  Moon-Beehive: 3.9° S
     5  Su   1:29 pm  Full Snow Moon
    12  Su   2:31 am  Moon Descending Node
    13  Mo  11:01 am  Last Quarter
    14  Tu   1:09 pm  Moon-Antares: 1.9° S
    16  Th   9:36 am  Moon South Dec.: 27.6° S
    16  Th  11:17 am  Saturn Conjunction
    19  Su   4:06 am  Moon Perigee: 358,300 km
    20  Mo   2:06 am  New Moon
    22  We   2:57 am  Moon-Venus: 2.1° N
    22  We   4:58 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 1.2° N
    24  Fr   1:56 pm  Moon Ascending Node
    26  Su   9:42 am  Moon-Pleiades: 2.2° N
    27  Mo   3:06 am  First Quarter
    27  Mo  11:32 pm  Moon-Mars: 1.2° S
Mar  1  We            Venus: 30.6° E

All event times are given for UTC-5:00: Eastern Standard or Daylight 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
February, 2023    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Wed  1| 08:02a  05:51p  09:49 | 06:57p  06:55a |      Set  06:31a   88%|
|Thu  2| 08:00a  05:52p  09:51 | 06:58p  06:54a |      Set  07:16a   93%|
|Fri  3| 07:59a  05:54p  09:54 | 06:59p  06:53a |      Set  07:54a   97%|
|Sat  4| 07:58a  05:55p  09:56 | 07:01p  06:52a |      Set  08:24a   99%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  5| 07:57a  05:56p  09:59 | 07:02p  06:51a |Full  Rise 05:47p  100%|
|Mon  6| 07:55a  05:58p  10:02 | 07:03p  06:50a |      Rise 06:53p   98%|
|Tue  7| 07:54a  05:59p  10:05 | 07:05p  06:49a |      Rise 07:58p   95%|
|Wed  8| 07:53a  06:01p  10:07 | 07:06p  06:48a |      Rise 09:02p   91%|
|Thu  9| 07:52a  06:02p  10:10 | 07:07p  06:47a |      Rise 10:07p   84%|
|Fri 10| 07:50a  06:04p  10:13 | 07:08p  06:45a |      Rise 11:14p   76%|
|Sat 11| 07:49a  06:05p  10:16 | 07:10p  06:44a |      Rise 12:23a   67%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 12| 07:47a  06:06p  10:19 | 07:11p  06:43a |      Rise 01:36a   57%|
|Mon 13| 07:46a  06:08p  10:21 | 07:12p  06:41a |L Qtr Rise 02:51a   46%|
|Tue 14| 07:44a  06:09p  10:24 | 07:14p  06:40a |      Rise 04:07a   36%|
|Wed 15| 07:43a  06:11p  10:27 | 07:15p  06:39a |      Rise 05:18a   25%|
|Thu 16| 07:41a  06:12p  10:30 | 07:16p  06:37a |      Rise 06:19a   16%|
|Fri 17| 07:40a  06:13p  10:33 | 07:17p  06:36a |      Rise 07:07a    8%|
|Sat 18| 07:38a  06:15p  10:36 | 07:19p  06:34a |      Rise 07:44a    3%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 19| 07:37a  06:16p  10:39 | 07:20p  06:33a |      Rise 08:13a    0%|
|Mon 20| 07:35a  06:18p  10:42 | 07:21p  06:31a |New   Set  06:54p    1%|
|Tue 21| 07:34a  06:19p  10:45 | 07:23p  06:30a |      Set  08:15p    4%|
|Wed 22| 07:32a  06:20p  10:48 | 07:24p  06:28a |      Set  09:33p   10%|
|Thu 23| 07:30a  06:22p  10:51 | 07:25p  06:27a |      Set  10:49p   18%|
|Fri 24| 07:29a  06:23p  10:54 | 07:27p  06:25a |      Set  12:02a   27%|
|Sat 25| 07:27a  06:24p  10:57 | 07:28p  06:24a |      Set  01:15a   37%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 26| 07:25a  06:26p  11:00 | 07:29p  06:22a |      Set  02:24a   47%|
|Mon 27| 07:24a  06:27p  11:03 | 07:30p  06:20a |F Qtr Set  03:29a   56%|
|Tue 28| 07:22a  06:28p  11:06 | 07:32p  06:19a |      Set  04:27a   66%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Created using my LookingUp for MS-DOS output as HTML.