04/12/2012 – Ephemeris – The constellation Virgo the virgin

Ephemeris for Thursday, April 12th.  The sun will rise at 7:02.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 8:24.   The moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 3:02 tomorrow morning.

Tonight in the sky: to the left of the constellation of Leo the lion, which lies in the south at 10 p.m. is the next constellation of the zodiac: Virgo the virgin, seen in the south southeast.  Virgo is a large constellation of a reclining woman holding a stalk of wheat.  The bright star in the center of the constellation, Spica, is the head of that spike of wheat; and as such ruled over the harvest in two of Virgo’s guises as the goddesses Persephone and Ceres.  The planet Saturn is also in Virgo this year to the left of Spica.  Virgo is also identified as Astraea the goddess of justice.  The constellation of Libra, the scales, is found just east of her a couple of hours later, not yet risen at 10 p.m.  Early Christians saw Virgo as the Virgin Mary.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Virgo 2012. Created using Stellarium.