02/01/2018 – Ephemeris – Previewing February skies

Ephemeris for Thursday, February 1st. The Sun will rise at 8:01. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:51. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 7:30 this evening.

Lets look ahead at our short month of February. It’s so short that this year it has no full moons. To make up for it both January and March have two. We’re in the depths of winter but the Sun is continuing its return to northern climes. This is reflected in the increase in daylight hours, from 9 hours 49 minutes today to 11 hours 7 minutes on the 28th. These times are for the Interlochen/Traverse City area. Daylight durations are slightly shorter in the northern part of our listening area and slightly longer to the south. As the month goes on the weather should generally warm and clear up. Venus is moving away from the Sun and will become more and more visible after sunset as the month wears on. Today Venus will set 24 minutes after the Sun. This will increase to an hour after the Sun.

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

Addenda

February Evening Sky Chart

Star Chart for February 2018 (9 p.m. EST February 15, 2018). 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 and 45 minutes behind our daylight standard time meridian. during EST). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes (Daylight Time) or 45 minutes (Standard Time) earlier than the current time if you are near your time meridian.

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. 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 2018 mornings based on 6 a.m. February 15th. Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

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

Star chart annotations

• Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.
• Leaky Big Dipper drips on Leo.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus.
• The Summer Triangle is in red.

Twilight

Evening nautical twilight ends at 6:58 p.m. EST on the 1st, increasing to 7:31 p.m. EST on the 28th.
Evening astronomical twilight ends at 7:30 p.m. EST on the 1st, increasing to 8:04 p.m. EST on the 28th.
Morning astronomical twilight starts at 6:22 a.m. EST on the 1st, and decreasing to 5:45 a.m. EST on the 28th.
Morning nautical twilight starts at 6:56 a.m. EST on the 1st, and decreasing to 6:19 a.m. EST on the 28th.

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

    Date    Time    Event
Feb 01 	Th	    Venus: 5.7° E
    01  Th  1:24 pm Moon-Regulus: 0.9° S
    07  We 10:54 am Last Quarter
    07  We  2:47 pm Moon-Jupiter: 4.7° S
    09  Fr 12:12 am Moon-Mars: 4.8° S
    11  Su  9:16 am Moon Apogee: 405700 km
    11  Su  9:46 am Moon-Saturn: 2.7° S
    11  Su 11:40 am Mars-Antares: 5.1° N
    11  Su  6:21 pm Moon South Dec.: 20° S
    14  We  4:11 pm Moon Descending Node
    15  Th  3:52 pm Partial Solar Eclipse - S. America, Antarctica
    15  Th  4:05 pm New Moon
    17  Sa  7:08 am Mercury Superior Conj.
    23  Fr  3:09 am First Quarter
    23  Fr 12:07 pm Moon-Aldebaran: 0.7° S
    25  Su  3:07 pm Moon North Dec.: 20.1° N
    27  Tu  9:48 pm Moon Perigee: 363900 km
    27  Tu 12:28 pm Moon-Beehive: 2.3° N
    28  We 12:03 am Moon Ascending Node
Mar 01  Th          Venus: 12.4° E

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, 2018    Local time zone: EST
     +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
     | DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
     |      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
     +=======================================================================+
     |Thu  1| 08:01a  05:51p  09:49 | 06:57p  06:55a |      Rise 07:30p   97%|
     |Fri  2| 08:00a  05:52p  09:52 | 06:58p  06:54a |      Rise 08:43p   92%|
     |Sat  3| 07:59a  05:54p  09:54 | 07:00p  06:53a |      Rise 09:53p   85%|
     +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
     |Sun  4| 07:58a  05:55p  09:57 | 07:01p  06:52a |      Rise 11:01p   76%|
     |Mon  5| 07:57a  05:57p  10:00 | 07:02p  06:51a |      Rise 12:06a   66%|
     |Tue  6| 07:55a  05:58p  10:02 | 07:04p  06:50a |      Rise 01:09a   57%|
     |Wed  7| 07:54a  06:00p  10:05 | 07:05p  06:49a |L Qtr Rise 02:10a   47%|
     |Thu  8| 07:53a  06:01p  10:08 | 07:06p  06:48a |      Rise 03:09a   37%|
     |Fri  9| 07:51a  06:02p  10:11 | 07:07p  06:46a |      Rise 04:05a   28%|
     |Sat 10| 07:50a  06:04p  10:13 | 07:09p  06:45a |      Rise 04:57a   20%|
     +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
     |Sun 11| 07:48a  06:05p  10:16 | 07:10p  06:44a |      Rise 05:45a   13%|
     |Mon 12| 07:47a  06:07p  10:19 | 07:11p  06:42a |      Rise 06:29a    8%|
     |Tue 13| 07:46a  06:08p  10:22 | 07:13p  06:41a |      Rise 07:07a    3%|
     |Wed 14| 07:44a  06:09p  10:25 | 07:14p  06:40a |      Rise 07:42a    1%|
     |Thu 15| 07:43a  06:11p  10:28 | 07:15p  06:38a |New   Set  06:07p    0%|
     |Fri 16| 07:41a  06:12p  10:31 | 07:16p  06:37a |      Set  07:09p    1%|
     |Sat 17| 07:40a  06:14p  10:34 | 07:18p  06:36a |      Set  08:13p    5%|
     +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
     |Sun 18| 07:38a  06:15p  10:37 | 07:19p  06:34a |      Set  09:17p   10%|
     |Mon 19| 07:36a  06:16p  10:40 | 07:20p  06:33a |      Set  10:23p   17%|
     |Tue 20| 07:35a  06:18p  10:43 | 07:22p  06:31a |      Set  11:29p   25%|
     |Wed 21| 07:33a  06:19p  10:46 | 07:23p  06:30a |      Set  12:38a   35%|
     |Thu 22| 07:32a  06:21p  10:49 | 07:24p  06:28a |      Set  01:46a   46%|
     |Fri 23| 07:30a  06:22p  10:52 | 07:25p  06:27a |F Qtr Set  02:54a   57%|
     |Sat 24| 07:28a  06:23p  10:55 | 07:27p  06:25a |      Set  04:00a   69%|
     +------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
     |Sun 25| 07:27a  06:25p  10:58 | 07:28p  06:23a |      Set  04:59a   79%|
     |Mon 26| 07:25a  06:26p  11:01 | 07:29p  06:22a |      Set  05:52a   88%|
     |Tue 27| 07:23a  06:27p  11:04 | 07:31p  06:20a |      Set  06:38a   94%|
     |Wed 28| 07:22a  06:29p  11:07 | 07:32p  06:18a |      Set  07:17a   99%|
     +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
     * Nautical Twilight
     ** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise