09/22/2022 – Ephemeris – Autumn will begin this evening

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, September 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 7:40, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:31. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 4:46 tomorrow morning.

The season of fall is about to, ah well, fall upon us and in a few weeks so will the leaves. At 9:04 this evening (1:04 UT tomorrow) the Sun will cross the celestial equator heading south. The celestial equator is an imaginary line in the sky above the earth’s equator. At that point, the Sun will theoretically set at the North Pole and rise at the South Pole. The day is called the autumnal equinox and the daylight hours today is 12 hours and 10 minutes instead of 12 hours exactly. That’s due to our atmosphere and our definition of sunrise and sunset. The reason for the cooler weather now and the cold weather this winter is that the length of daylight is shortening, and the Sun rides lower in the sky, spreading its heat over a larger area, thus diluting its intensity.

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

The Sun’s path through the sky on an equinox day from the Traverse City/Interlochen area in Michigan. The Sun is plotted every 15 minutes. This is a stereographic projection which compresses the image near the zenith and enlarges the image towards the horizon. Note that the Sun rises due east and sets due west. Created using my LookingUp program.

That is not a pumpkin on the head of the motorcyclist. That’s the Sun rising as I’m traveling east on South Airport Road south of Traverse City, MI on the autumnal equinox. This is the east-west section of the road. The Sun is rising over the hills some 6 miles to the east. When the Sun is on the celestial equator, it rises due east and sets due west. Credit: Bob Moler.

Image from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite in halo orbit around the Earth-Sun L-1 point 1 million miles sunward from the Earth on the autumnal equinox of 2016. North America is in the upper right of the globe.

Earth’s position at the solstices and equinoxes. This is an not to scale oblique look at the Earth’s orbit, which is nearly circular. The Earth is actually farthest from the Sun on July 4th. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: ESO (European Southern Observatory), which explains the captions in German and English.

03/18/2022 – Ephemeris – Spring is two days away!

This is Ephemeris for Friday, March 18th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 3 minutes, setting at 7:52, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:47. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 8:28 this evening.

Sunday morning March 20th, at 11:33 am the Sun will cross overhead at the earth’s equator as it appears to head north, starting for us, the season of spring. It will be the vernal equinox. As you can tell from my intro, we’re already above 12 hours of daylight, and we’ll add another 3 plus hours of daylight before summer begins in three months. We are already adding about 3 minutes a day of daylight to that goal now, the maximum rate. With the Sun out longer and its ascension higher in the sky each day, it is rapidly adding energy to the Northern Hemisphere. We won’t feel that immediately. While the land rapidly absorbs heat, the oceans and lakes, especially the Great Lakes, are big heat sinks, taking much longer to warm up.

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

The Earth from 2 days before the vernal equinox 2018, with the North Pole not quite in sunlight. I’ve added a magnifying spot showing Michigan. It was a rare clear day when this image was taken. Credit NOAA/DSCOVR satellite/EPIC camera. The DSCOVR satellite is located in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange L1 point nearly a million miles sunward of the Earth.

Earth’s position at the solstices and equinoxes. This is a not to scale oblique look at the Earth’s orbit, which is nearly circular. The Earth is actually farthest from the Sun on July 4th. The dates for the equinoxes and solstices are shown one day later than it is actually. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: ESO (European Southern Observatory), which explains the captions in German and English.

The Sun’s path through the sky on an equinox day from the Traverse City/Interlochen area in Michigan. The Sun is plotted every 15 minutes. This is a stereographic projection which compresses the image near the zenith and enlarges the image towards the horizon. Created using my LookingUp program.

03/17/2022 – Ephemeris – We have 12 hours of daylight and night today, three days early

This is Ephemeris for St. Patrick’s Day, Thursday, March 17th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours even, setting at 7:51, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:49. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 8:20 tomorrow morning.

Why is this the day of equal day and night, when the vernal equinox, which means “equal night” is still three days away? The difference is due to our atmosphere and our definition of sunrise and sunset. Our atmosphere makes objects near the horizon appear higher than they actually are, which hastens sunrise and retards sunset. Also, the instant of sunrise and sunset is when the top of the sun appears to touch the horizon, rather than when the Sun bisects the horizon. Plus, it’s moving about a degree a day (twice its diameter) against the stars. So by the time of the equinox, on Sunday the 20th, the time between sunrise and sunset will have progressed to 12 hours and 9 minutes. But it was close enough for the ancients who coined the term.

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

This works for the Interlochen area. It may be a different by a day for other locations, but for the northern latitudes, it will be before the true equinox day, March 20th here.

How the atmosphere bends the light of the Sun or Moon rising or setting to appear higher than it actually is. S is the actual position of the Sun, S’ is the apparent position of the Sun. The blue line is the observer O’s horizon. The gray line is the actual, though much exaggerated, light path bent or refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere. The black line is the apparent sight line to the Sun. Credit Francisco Javier Blanco González, 2017

03/19/2021 – Ephemeris – Enjoy this last full day of winter!

This is Ephemeris for Friday, March 19th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 7 minutes, setting at 7:54, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:45. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 2:23 tomorrow morning.

Spring is almost here. It will arrive at 5:37 tomorrow morning, so this is the last full day of winter, such as it was. That point in time and the point in the sky where the Sun crosses the celestial equator, the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator, heading northward is called the vernal equinox. Vernal means spring and equinox means equal night, meaning that day and night are equal, which they actually were last Tuesday. Since western civilization has spread south of the equator where the seasons are reversed, our Northern Hemisphere spring equinox is the Southern Hemisphere’s autumnal equinox, so to be understandable to both hemispheres we generally say March or September equinox instead.

Addendum

The Sun’s path through the sky on an equinox day from the Traverse City/Interlochen area in Michigan. The Sun is plotted every 15 minutes. This is a stereographic projection which compresses the sky near the zenith and enlarges the sky toward the horizon. Created using my LookingUp program.

03/16/2021 – Ephemeris – Tonight we’ll have exactly 12 hours of night

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, March 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 7:50, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:50. The Moon, 3 days past new, will set at 11:15 this evening.

Did you notice what I just said? Sunset’s at 7:50 pm and sunrise’s at 7:50 am. Tonight we’ll have exactly 12 hours of night. That’s what the word equinox means, equal night… But the vernal or spring equinox isn’t until Saturday when spring starts. By then night, including twilight, will be down to 11 hours, 50 minutes. The disparity comes down to modern versus older definitions. Equinox, being Latin is an older definition. The modern instant of sunrise and sunset occurs when the top of the Sun’s disc touches the sea horizon. Because our atmosphere bends light, and at its greatest when looking at the horizon, the Sun will have set already, geometrically, by the time the bottom edge of the Sun appears to touch that sea horizon. Making daylight a bit longer than you’d think.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

How the atmosphere bends the light of the Sun or Moon rising or setting to appear higher than it actually is. S is the actual position of the Sun, S’ is the apparent position of the Sun. The blue line is the observer O’s horizon. The gray line is the actual, though much exaggerated, light path bent or refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere. The black line is the apparent sight line to the Sun. Credit Francisco Javier Blanco González, 2017

09/22/2020 – Ephemeris – Autumn starts this morning

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 7:39, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:31. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 11:05 this evening.

Fall is about to a, well… fall upon us and in a few weeks so will the leaves. At 9:31 this morning (13:31 UTC*) the Sun will cross the celestial equator heading south. The celestial equator is an imaginary line in the sky above the earth’s equator. At that point the Sun will theoretically set at the north pole and rise at the south pole. The day is called the autumnal equinox and the daylight hours today is 12 hours and 8 minutes instead of 12 hours exactly. That’s due to our atmosphere and our definition of sunrise and sunset. The reason for the cooler weather now and the cold weather this winter is that the length of daylight is shortening, and the Sun rides lower in the sky, spreading its heat over a larger area, thus diluting its intensity.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

* UTC – Coordinated Universal Time. Greenwich Mean Time if you haven’t kept up. Zulu if you’re in the military.

The Sun crossing the celestial equator in three steps: 9:31 am Sept 21, 22, and 23 2020. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

The Sun’s path through the sky on the equinox day from Traverse City, MI. Created using my LookingUp program.

That is not a pumpkin on the head of the motorcyclist. That’s the Sun rising as I’m traveling east on South Airport Road south of Traverse City Mi. on the autumnal equinox. This is the east-west section of the road. The Sun is rising over the hills some 6 miles to the east. Credit: Bob Moler.

09/21/2020 – Ephemeris – This is the last full day of summer

This is Ephemeris for Monday, September 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 7:41, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:30. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:24 this evening.

Enjoy the last full day of summer. Summer will last until 9:31 am (05:31 UTC) tomorrow when the center of the Sun will cross the celestial equator, an imaginary line above the Earth’s equator, heading southward. At that instant autumn will begin for Earth’s northern hemisphere and spring will begin in the southern hemisphere. Shortly, for us, the Sun will be up less than half the day. The day and the point in the sky that the Sun crosses is called the autumnal or September equinox. The word equinox means equal night, implying the equality of day and night. Geometrically that’s true, but the Earth’s atmosphere and the definition of sunrise and sunset, prolong daylight by a few more minutes. The amount of heat we are getting and will get from the Sun cannot sustain our current temperatures, and it will get a lot colder on average before it gets warmer again.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Sun crossing the celestial equator in the sky moving southward in three steps: 9:31 am Sept 21, 22, and 23 2020. The vertical axis is declination, the exact match to latitude on the Earth. The horizontal line at 00°00′ is the celestial equator, a projection of the Earth’s equator on the sky. The diagonal line that the Sun appears to travel on is the ecliptic, the plane of the Earth’s orbit. Due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis it is inclined by 23.5° to the celestial equator. The horizontal values mark right ascension, the celestial analog of longitude. One hour equals 15°. Since the Earth rotates, the right ascension that is on one’s meridian, the north-south line passing through the zenith, is best kept track of by using a clock. A clock that runs 3 minutes 56 seconds fast a day. We call that a sidereal clock. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Chart) and GIMP.

03/20/2020 – Ephemeris – The first full day of spring

Ephemeris for Friday, March 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 7:55, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:43. The Moon, half way from last quarter to new, will rise at 7:00 tomorrow morning.

Spring snuck up on us at 11:50 p.m. last night, so this is the first full day of spring. That point in time and the point in the sky where the Sun crossed the celestial equator the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator heading northward is called the vernal equinox. Vernal means spring and equinox means equal night, meaning that day and night are equal. Since western civilization has spread south of the equator where seasons are reversed, our northern hemisphere spring equinox is the southern hemisphere’s autumnal equinox, so to be fair to both hemispheres we generally say March or September equinox instead. However the point in the sky the Sun crossed last night will always be known as the vernal equinox.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Sun at the vernal equinox point on the celestial sphere at 11;50 p.m. EDT last night (March 19, 2020). The diagonal yellow line in the ecliptic, the Sun’s path in the sky. The vertical lines marked in hours at the top are lines of right ascension, the analog of earthly longitude. The horizontal lines are lines of declination, the same as latitude on the Earth. I referenced this point in yesterday’s program. Created using Cartes du Ciel *Sky Charts).

The Sun’s path through the sky on the equinox day from Traverse City, MI. Note that the Sun rises due east and sets due west. Created using my LookingUp program.

09/23/2019 – Ephemeris – Fall has fallen upon us

Ephemeris for Monday, September 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 7 minutes, setting at 7:38, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:32. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 2:01 tomorrow morning.

Fall has, well… fallen upon us and in a few weeks so will the leaves. At 3:49 (7:49 UT) this morning the Sun crossed overhead at the Earth’s equator heading south. At that same time the Sun theoretically set at the north pole and rose at the south pole. The day is called the autumnal equinox and the daylight hours today is 12 hours and 7 minutes instead of 12 hours exactly. That’s due to our atmosphere and our definition of sunrise and sunset. The reason for the cooler weather for us north of the equator now and the cold weather this winter is that the length of daylight is shortening, and the Sun rides lower in the sky, spreading its heat over a larger area, thus diluting its intensity.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Sun’s path through the sky on the equinox day from Traverse City, MI. Created using my LookingUp program.

That is not a pumpkin on the head of the motorcyclist. That’s the Sun rising as I’m traveling east on South Airport Road south of Traverse City Mi. on the autumnal equinox. This is the east-west section of the road. The Sun is rising over the hills some 6 miles to the east. Credit: Bob Moler.

03/21/2019 – Ephemeris – Are day and night really equal at the equinoxes?

Ephemeris for Thursday, March 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 7:56, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:42. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 8:52 this evening.

What we had yesterday was the vernal equinox, the start of spring. The word equinox means “equal night”. Yesterday’s daylight hours were 12 hours and 8 minutes. What’s with the 8 minutes? The rising or setting Sun is a mirage. The Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lens and makes the Sun appear higher in the sky than when it is when near the horizon. When the bottom edge of the Sun touches the horizon the Sun is actually still completely below the horizon geometrically. If the Earth had no atmosphere sunrises would occur 4 minutes later, and sunsets would occur 4 minutes earlier around here. That would completely correct the 12 hour 8 minutes daylight time of yesterday to 12 hours even.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

How the atmosphere bends the light of the Sun or Moon rising or setting to appear higher than it actually is. Credit Francisco Javier Blanco González, 2017.

I took a look at the related atmospheric refraction effect last month: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/02-19-2019-ephemeris-the-moon-aint-just-super-near-the-horizon/.