Astronomical Information
for the Fargo-Moorhead Area

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Current Local Time:Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:44:04 am CST
Julian Date:2455143.03060
Local Sidereal Time:09:25:39.1
This page provides automatically generated astronomical information for the Fargo-Moorhead area as well as links to astronomical information on other websites that can help you decide whether the conditions to make astronomical observations tonight.

Day Length Information

The following sunrise/sunset times are for Paul P. Feder Observatory at Buffalo River State Park, about 14 miles from the MSUM Campus. They are only accurate to about 3 minutes since no attempt has been made to deal with the effects of changing temperature/humidity on atmospheric refraction. However, they should be reasonably accurate anywhere in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Daylight on Saturday, November 7, 2009 in Paul J. Feder Observatory
 StartEnd
Solar Day (Sun Rising/Setting)7:15 am CST5:03 pm CST
Astronomical Day (Darkest Skies)5:32 am CST6:47 pm CST

We have placed a Google calendar with all the sunset/sunrise times for this semester online. You can add it by clicking the button to the left. Othewise, you can click on the "ICAL" button to the right to download an iCal file with the Sunrise and Sunset times for the next year (iCal files should be compatible with Mac OS X iCal or MIcrosoft Outlook.

Current Positions of the Planets

The following planetary ephemeris will be useful if you want to go outside to look at the planets or possibly for a class observing project.

Planetary Ephemeris for Feder Observatory at
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:46:00 am CST
 Right AscensionDeclinationAltitudeAzimuthmag.
Sun14h 51m 07s-16° 24’ 31"-5.9°107.8°-26.7
Moon 7h 13m 20s+22° 26’ 42"53.6°239.5° 
Mercury14h 56m 24s-16° 50’ 02"-7.0°107.2°-1.3
Venus13h 51m 05s-09° 51’ 29"8.7°114.6°-4.0
Mars 8h 51m 27s+19° 24’ 07"61.6°198.1°-0.1
Jupiter21h 23m 56s-16° 19’ 57"-59.5°1.7°-2.5
Saturn12h 06m 37s+01° 32’ 57"33.0°130.3°1.0
Uranus23h 35m 20s-03° 30’ 59"-38.6°317.5°5.8
Neptune21h 44m 37s-14° 01’ 10"-57.0°352.4°7.9
134340 Pluto18h 06m 11s-18° 11’ 44"-40.0°72.6°14.1
136199 Eris15h 38m 56s-16° 27’ 06"-13.8°99.4°16.4
 November 7, 2009November 8, 2009
 RiseTransitSetRiseTransitSet
Sun7:17am12:09pm5:00pm 7:18am12:09pm4:59pm
Moon8:15pm4:27am12:28pm 9:33pm5:25am1:02pm
Mercury7:26am12:15pm5:02pm 7:31am12:17pm5:02pm
Venus5:49am11:09am4:29pm 5:52am11:10am4:28pm
Mars10:38pm6:09am1:41pm 10:36pm6:07am1:38pm
Jupiter1:50pm6:40pm11:30pm 1:46pm6:36pm11:27pm
Saturn3:15am9:24am3:33pm 3:12am9:21am3:29pm
Uranus3:08pm8:55pm2:42am 3:04pm8:51pm2:38am
Neptune2:04pm7:04pm12:05am 2:00pm7:01pm12:01am
134340 Pluto10:42am3:23pm8:04pm 10:38am3:19pm8:00pm
136199 Eris8:07am12:56pm5:45pm 8:03am12:53pm5:42pm

NOTE ABOUT RISE/SET TIMES: If text is greyed out that means the rise/set time is on the previous/next day. "c.p." means the object is circumpolar and is continuously above the local horizon.

Currently Visible Comets

The following ephemeris lists the comets brighter than 12th magnitude as tablulated by Seiichi Yoshida's Weekly Information about Bright Comets website.

Cometary Ephemeris for Moorhead, MN at
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:46:00 am CST
 Right AscensionDeclinationAltitudeAzimuthmag.
88P/Howell18h 36m 01s-26° 34’ 44"-50.8°74.2°8.7
C/2006 W3 (Christens…19h 12m 26s-10° 15’ 03"-43.5°49.0°9.0
C/2007 Q3 (Siding Sp…12h 01m 59s+11° 51’ 51"42.3°124.4°9.4
217P/LINEAR 6h 25m 41s-03° 36’ 04"25.6°232.1°9.8
 November 7, 2009November 8, 2009
 RiseTransitSetRiseTransitSet
88P/Howell11:59am3:54pm7:49pm 11:58am3:54pm7:50pm
C/2006 W311:11am4:29pm9:46pm 11:08am4:25pm9:42pm
C/2007 Q32:25am9:20am4:15pm 2:22am9:18am4:13pm
217P/LINEAR9:57pm3:44am9:31am 9:53pm3:40am9:27am

NOTE ABOUT RISE/SET TIMES: If text is greyed out that means the rise/set time is on the previous/next day. "c.p." means the object is circumpolar and is continuously above the local horizon.

Deep Sky Objects

Here are the current positions and rise/set times for a selected sample of deep sky objects that look reasonably nice in a small telescope from the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Deep Sky Ephemeris for Moorhead, MN at
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:46:00 am CST
 Right AscensionDeclinationAltitudeAzimuthmag.
Crab Nebula (M1) 5h 35m 11s+22° 02’ 17"37.5°262.7°8.4
Lagoon Nebula (M8)18h 04m 24s-24° 23’ 00"-44.0°79.0°5.8
Hercules Cluster (M13)16h 41m 50s+36° 29’ 36"15.0°52.1°5.9
Eagle Nebula (M16)18h 19m 25s-13° 46’ 22"-38.8°65.8°6.5
Trifid Nebula (M20)18h 03m 11s-23° 02’ 01"-42.9°77.8°8.5
Andromeda Galaxy (M31) 0h 43m 36s+41° 24’ 58"8.4°325.1°4.4
Orion Nebula (M42) 5h 36m 02s-05° 23’ 59"17.0°241.9°4.0
Beehive Cluster (M44) 8h 40m 40s+19° 57’ 26"61.4°203.6°3.9
Pleiades (M45) 3h 47m 45s+24° 11’ 10"20.7°283.7°1.5
Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)13h 30m 13s+47° 09’ 07"49.7°66.5°8.1
Ring Nebula (M57)18h 53m 57s+33° 02’ 57"-2.9°31.4°9.0
Sombrero Galaxy (M104)12h 40m 22s-11° 38’ 04"17.4°130.1°9.3
 November 7, 2009November 8, 2009
 RiseTransitSetRiseTransitSet
Crab Nebula7:09pm2:54am10:39am 7:05pm2:50am10:35am
Lagoon Nebula11:13am3:21pm7:29pm 11:09am3:17pm7:25pm
Hercules Cluster4:25am1:59pm11:32pm 4:21am1:55pm11:28pm
Eagle Nebula10:34am3:36pm8:38pm 10:30am3:32pm8:34pm
Trifid Nebula11:04am3:20pm7:35pm 11:00am3:16pm7:31pm
Andromeda Galaxy11:11am10:03pm8:54am 11:07am9:59pm8:50am
Orion Nebula9:15pm2:54am8:34am 9:11pm2:51am8:30am
Beehive Cluster10:25pm5:59am1:32pm 10:21pm5:55am1:29pm
Pleiades5:09pm1:06am9:04am 5:05pm1:03am9:00am
Whirlpool Galaxyc.p.10:48amc.p. c.p.10:44amc.p.
Ring Nebula7:10am4:10pm1:10am 7:06am4:06pm1:06am
Sombrero Galaxy4:46am9:58am3:09pm 4:42am9:54am3:06pm

NOTE ABOUT RISE/SET TIMES: If text is greyed out that means the rise/set time is on the previous/next day. "c.p." means the object is circumpolar and is continuously above the local horizon.

Useful Astronomical Links

  • United States Naval Observatory Data Services provides information on the times of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, the phases of the moon for any location on the Earth. They also provide other detailed astronomical information.
  • NASA Eclipse Information: Want to know when and where the next eclipse is going to occur, check out this site from NASA.
  • Aurora Forecast Map: From the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, this map shows the predicted extent of Aurora in the next 24 hours.
  • SpaceWeather.com: This page is mostly for tracking solar activity, the cause of the "Northern Lights" or Aurora. It provides a nice "front end" to all the NASA data on solar activity, as near Earth asteroid flybys, planetary activity, and other solar system news.
  • NOAA Space Weather page: A bit more technical than SpaceWeather.com. Also offers detailed images of current auroral activity in the northern hemisphere.
  • Planetarium Software: If you want to "roll your own" sky charts, this site lists most currently available "desktop planetarium" software available. Includes Freeware/ShareWare/Commerial software for MacOS, Windows, DOS, OS/2 Warp, Xwindows, and PalmPilot!
  • Skymaps.com provides professional quality skymaps every month that you can download. You can print the sky charts and use them outside. You need Adobe Acrobat to view them.
  • Your Sky provides sky charts customized to your location on earth, although it doesn't offer terribly printable one.
Naked Eye Objects in the skies
over Feder Observatory right now?
 Current Position
 AltitudeAzimuth
Moon53.6°239.5°
Venus8.7°114.6°
Mars61.6°198.1°
Saturn33.0°130.3°
M318.4°325.1°
M4217.0°241.9°
M4461.4°203.6°
M4520.7°283.7°
Current Lunar Phase

[Current Moon]
(Image Courtesy: US Naval Observatory)

Waning Gibbous
19.6 days past New Moon

Upcoming Lunar Phases
(Accurate within 1 day)
3rd Quarter: Mon, Nov 9
New Moon: Tue, Nov 17
1st Quarter: Tue, Nov 24
Full Moon: Wed, Dec 2
Current Solar Activity
[Current Solar DIsk]
Current Sunspot Number: 16
SEC Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be very low. (as of 4:01 pm Friday)
Solar X-rays:
status
Geomagnetic Field:
status
Current Central Minnesota
Aurora Probability:
Low
Evening Aurora Probabilities:
1% (Fri) 1% (Sat) 1% (Sun)
Current Auroral Loop
[Current POES Map]
If you see orange or red over Minnesota, then there are very likely strong aurora currently visible.
(Data from NOAA Space Environment Center, SpaceWeather.com, Space Terrestrial Dispatch, and n3kl.org)

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