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Almanac Skygazer's Skygazer’s 40°N FOR LATITUDES AlmanacSGA 2017NEAR (North 40° NORTH America) EVENING MORNING A SUPPLEMENT TO SKY & TELESCOPE 5 p.m. 6 7 8 9 10 11 Midnight 1 220173 4 5 6 7 a.m. Sunset Set 7 Quadrantids 4 5 Y 7 8 9 Uranus P R Y Transits Rise A R 15 16 U A Sirius Rises 8 N U A A N 22 t 23 Equation J h Sunrise A g i of time l J i Julian day 2,457,000+ day Julian w 30 29 t Sirius Transits Neptune Sets g E Set n Polaris’s Upper Culmination i n 9 M 5 n d r 8 5 6 s o Y 7 Orion Nebula M42 Transits P e t m r R o Y e c f u A R e S 12 13 v r U A e y n U Pleiades Transit f R i Rise A R n Pollux Transits o R g s 10 B 20 19 i Jupiter Transits t u r s B E a e n Sun t E t F w e S s F slow i V 26 l Antares Rises 27 i g Saturn Rises h Set P t 5 11 6 3 1 8 EVENING SKY 12 13 H MORNING SKY H Lower Culmination of Polaris C C Rise Jan 1 Neptune 0.3° A R Jan 4 Earth is R A west of Mars 19 Uranus Sets 20 91,404,322 A 12 M miles from the Jan 11 Venus is 47° M Regulus Transits 27 east of the Sun 26 Sun (perihelion) P Set at 9 a.m. EST; Jan 12 Neptune lies 0.4° Jupiter Rises 2 3 latest sunrise of south of Venus 4 4 13 8 the year at latitude Feb 10 Penumbral lunar 10 9 40° north L s eclipse for eastern t Rise I L e A Jan 7 Latest onset of North America, with I S R 16 y 17 P R ur morning twilight c s Lyrids r t A greatest shading P e 14 M e before 8 p.m. EST A Jan 19 Mercury reaches 23 S 24 greatest elongation, 24° Feb 26 Uranus lies 0.6° south s P r Set s west of the Sun of Mars 30 a Eta e 1 Aquariids s M i Feb 26 Annular solar eclipse in a Mar 4 First-quarter Moon 15 R y narrow path across southern 7 r 8 occults Aldebaran tonight 4 u 7 South America and Africa 8 c for most of the contiguous A r United States 14 Rise e 15 Y Mar 20 Spring begins at the equinox, A Y M 6:29 a.m. EDT Mar 31 Mercury lies 19° east of the A 16 22 M M 21 Mar 25 Venus reaches inferior Sun today and tomorrow P Set conjunction, 8° north of the Sun Apr 7 Jupiter is at opposition tonight 28 29 May 17 Mercury is 26° west of the Sun Jun 14 Saturn reaches opposition elong today and tomorrow Jun 20 Longest day, 15h 01m at latitude 4 17 5 A Jun 3 Venus is at greatest elongation, 40° north 5 0 Saturn Transits 46° west of the Sun; Uranus is 12 E 9 11 Jupiter Sets Jun 24 Latest twilight of the year Rise N 1.7° north of Venus E Jun 27 Latest sunset 19 U Jun 14 Earliest sunrise J N 18 18 Jul 3 Earth is 94,505,901 miles from U P Jun 17 Earliest morning twilight the Sun (aphelion) at 4 p.m. EDT J 25 26 Set Uranus Rises Jun 21 Summer begins at the solstice, Jul 25 Regulus lies 1.0° to the upper 12:24 a.m. EDT right of Mercury 2 3 A Sep 10 Regulus is 0.6° to the upper Neptune Rises 19 Jul 29 Mercury is 27° east of the Sun s t 10 left of Mercury 5 9 e Y Aug 7 Slight partial lunar eclipse for 3 Rise L 9 S Sep 12 Mercury stands 18° west of Asia, 17:22 to 19:19 UT U 16 y 17 the Sun Y r P J Aug 21 Total eclipse of the Sun in a L u 20 Delta Sep 16 Mars is 0.3° lower left of U c r Aquariids narrow path from Oregon to J 24 23 e Mercury (use binoculars) South Carolina, the eclipse Set M Sep 20 Regulus is 0.6° right of being partial everywhere else 30 31 Venus in North America A 21 Oct 5 Mars is just 0.2° lower Sep 4 Neptune is at opposition 6 6 7 6 Perseids T right of Venus 9 V S Sep 22 Fall begins at the equinox, e T Rise n 14 U Nov 13 Jupiter is only 0.3° to S 13 4:02 p.m. EDT u Saturn Sets G U P s the right of Venus Oct 18 Uranus comes to G U 22 R 21 A Nov 30 Spica is 3.1° lower U 20 opposition i A Neptune Transits s right of Mars this Set e Nov 23 Mercury stands 22° s 28 morning (and 27 A east of the Sun yesterday) R Dec 4 Earliest end of 3 4 Dec 21 Winter begins 7 23 evening twilight 9 E 9 at the solstice, B Dec 7 Earliest sunset R 10 11 11:28 a.m. EST Rise P M E Dec 21 Shortest day, B E h m M 17 Deneb Transits M 18 T 9 20 at P E 24 er E Computed by latitude 40° T cu P 24 ry 25 S Roger W. Sinnott, north E A R S Set i Sky & Telescope se 1 s 2 © 2017 F+W Media, Inc. 1 P 7 R 2 8 9 0 E Rise B ® R E 15 16 O B T skyandtelescope.com M O 2 Upper Culmination of Polaris C T e 23 22 A Orionids O Sky & Telescope C Julian day 2,458,000+ r Set O c 90 Sherman St. s u Southern e 30 29 r Taurids Cambridge, MA s y Sun i 02140 P fast R 8 3 6 R 5 5 USA S Pollux Transits 0 Rise E e t B R s Orion Nebula M42 Transits 13 E 12 M Northern s B Taurids r E a M 19 4 Leonids 20 V E M A Uranus Transits O S V Set t a N r O t 27 26 o N E f Sunrise Sunset Betelgeuse Rises n P d o 3 m 4 f 8 5 o Rise R 8 r 0 n E Geminids Sirius Rises i n e 11 10 v g B R Jupiter Rises e t E n w A M i n i B l g i A Antares Rises E Pleiades Transit g ry 18 17 Sirius Transits Regulus Transits h M t u w c Neptune Sets 6 t r C E e s i l Set e i M s E g Uranus Sets i C h R 25 24 D E t D Saturn Rises 5 p.m. 6 7 8 9 10 11 Midnight 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a.m. Conjunction Greatest Greatest illumi- New First Full Last Waxing Waning Opposition A Apogee P Perigee (appulse) elongation nated extent Moon Quarter Moon Quarter (moonset) (moonrise) for Jupiter on the night of April 7–8. time add 4 minutes to times obtained Moonrise and moonset can be told Rising or Setting Corrections from the chart for each degree of longi- apart by whether the round limb — the Declination (North or South) tude that you are west of your time-zone Skygazer’s outside edge — of the Moon symbol faces 0° 5° 10° 15° 20° 25° meridian. Or subtract 4 minutes for each °N right (waxing Moon sets) or left (wan- degree you are east of it. 40 50° 0 7 14 23 32 43 FOR LATITUDES ing Moon rises). Or follow the nearly For instance, Washington, DC (longi- 45° 0 3 7 10 14 19 NEAR 40° NORTH horizontal row of daily Moon symbols tude 77°), is 2° west of the Eastern Time Almanac across the chart to find the word Rise or 40° 0 0 0 0 0 0 meridian. So at Washington, add 8 min- 2017 Set. Quarter Moons are indicated by a utes to any time obtained from the chart. 35° 0 3 6 9 12 16 larger symbol. Full Moon is always a large The result is Eastern Standard Time. What’s in the slanting event lines. Each event line tells curve labeled Equation of time weaving bright disk whether rising or setting; the North Latitude 30° 0 5 11 16 23 30 Find your time adjustment and when something happens. narrowly right and left down the chart. circle for new Moon is open. P and A 25° 0 8 16 24 32 42 memorize it. The table below shows the The dotted line for January 8–9 begins If you regard the midnight line as noon mark dates when the Moon is at perigee corrections from local to standard time, sky tonight? at the heavy black curve at left, which for a moment, this curve shows when and apogee (nearest and farthest from in minutes, for some major cities. represents the time of sunset. Reading the Sun crosses the meridian and is due Earth, respectively). event to your civil (clock) time, the fol- • RISING AND SETTING.
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