This is the companion Web Site of Bob Moler's Ephemeris radio program, which is broadcast Monday Through Friday on Interlochen Public Radio Stations. Interlochen Public Radio serves northwestern lower Michigan. The first Ephemeris program was broadcast June 1, 1975.Click on the above link for live streaming audio from IPR.Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog contains transcripts and illustrations from the Ephemeris programs. They are generally released at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on the program play date. |
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–----- Contact me at the email address at the bottom of this page to discuss star parties and presentations for schools, scout groups, and non-profit organizations. –----- That being said, opinions expressed on this website are my own and not that of NASA or JPL Ephemeris Radio Schedule Monday - Friday 6:19 & 8:19 a.m. - News stations The Stations of Interlochen Public Radio WIAA
88.7 FM Interlochen WHBP 90.1 FM Harbor Springs, Petoskey Observing Weather in Northwestern Lower Michigan
On this site – articles of interest for this monthA Hairy Constellation or a Tale of Two Clusters Exploring Spring Deep Sky Objects The Skies of Spring (Spring constellations) |
April 2019Interested in learning more? If you live in northwestern lower Michigan check out the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society. More information on visible planetary and other events are available on Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog the day of the event. The blog contains Monday-Friday program transcripts, most with illustrations and additional information. New Links: I dug through the IPR web archives and found these: Bob Moler looks back at 40 years of 'Ephemeris'Extra! My report on the Great American Eclipse. New: Added animated GIF of the sky at the totally eclipsed Sun, watching the shadow pass over. Highlights for April 2019 (ET) Date Local Event
Time
Apr 1 Mo Venus: 34.6° W
2 Tu 12:17 am Moon-Venus: 3° N
2 Tu 7:01 pm Moon-Mercury: 4° N
5 Fr 4:50 am New Moon
9 Tu 2:40 am Moon-Mars: 5° N
9 Tu 11:43 am Moon-Aldebaran: 2.2° S
11 Th 2:59 pm Mercury Elongation: 27.7° W (Not favorable for us)
11 Th 7:59 pm Moon North Dec.: 22° N
12 Fr 2:08 pm Moon Ascending Node
12 Fr 3:06 pm First Quarter
13 Sa 4:12 pm Moon-Beehive: 0.2° N
14 Su 8:08 pm Mars-Aldebaran: 6.5° N
15 Mo 4:22 am Moon-Regulus: 2.7° S
16 Tu 2:03 pm Mercury-Venus: 4.3° N
16 Tu 6:02 pm Moon Perigee: 364200 km
19 Fr 7:12 am Full Moon
22 Mo 7:58 pm Lyrid Shower: ZHR = 20
22 Mo 8:06 pm Uranus Conjunction with the Sun
23 Tu 7:36 am Moon-Jupiter: 1.8° S
24 We 5:22 pm Moon South Dec.: 22.1° S
25 Th 10:38 am Moon-Saturn: 0.4° N
25 Th 11:02 am Moon Descending Node
26 Fr 6:18 pm Last Quarter
28 Su 2:20 pm Moon Apogee: 404600 km
May 1 We Venus: 27.8° W
NASA - SKYCAL - Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA's GSFC) (with occasional annotations and additions) It can also generate in a calendar page format.
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Active Planetary Space MissionsWe have a new location for information on planetary space missions. It's here at the Planetary Society. The chart is created by Olaf Frohn, and is updated every month. Free SoftwareStellarium is a fabulous planetarium program with a very realistic sky and simple controls. They've added some features in the latest version (0.18.3) and and a new rendering engine that may not be compatible with computers more than a year or two old without using command line options. See the Stellarium User Guide (pdf) under Command Line Options for options to try. My older laptop requires -a. https://stellarium.org. There’s also a web based version of Stellarium. It’s pretty much bare bones, but works much like the computer version. It’s located here: https://stellarium-web.org. Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts) is a great telescope companion. It can be downloaded from http://astrosurf.com/astropc/. Virtual Moon Atlas is a great tool for reference at the telescope or desk. http://www.astrosurf.com/avl/UK_index.html. Celestia is a great 3D simulator of solar system objects and beyond. http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ Hallo Northern Sky is an interesting planetarium program. It seems not as polished as Stellarium, but has some cool features. I use it when planning star parties as a quick way to see what would be visible because it loads quickly http://hnsky.org/
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Years on the air: 43 Years on the Internet: 23
Email: bob@bjmoler.org
Updated:
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NASA/JPL
Solar System Ambassador