Saturday: The
Nature of Night event takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Black Hall on the
CWU campus. There will be planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, telescopes,
animals, cookies and much more. Have you ever wanted to meat an owl? You can at
this event. The event is free. Go to http://goo.gl/J6vzt
for more information. Wait, don’t go to a computer. Go directly to Black Hall,
G-12 on the map found at http://www.cwu.edu/newmap.html. The
Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at CWU and various
community sponsors work together to put on this event.
Sunday: We
wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry
Martinmas. And a happy Friday. Martinmas is a holiday in many parts of the
world commemorating Saint Martin of Tours. He was buried on November 11, 397.
What does this have to astronomy? Not much except that the celebration on
November 11 often doubles as a cross-quarter day celebration, a day that is
halfway between an equinox and a solstice.
Monday: As
one planet sets at 6 p.m., another rises. Mars is less than a half a fist above
the southwest horizon while Jupiter is less than a half a fist above the
east-northeast horizon. By 9 p.m., Jupiter is more than three fists above the east
horizon.
Tuesday: In
1981, the well-known astronomy rock group Blondie released The Tide is High
in two versions: the radio version and the astronomy version. In the astronomy
version, Debbie Harry sang: “The tide is high ‘cause the moon is new. Higher
still when the moon’s close, too.” Tonight's moon is new. The new moon is the
phase where the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun. That means the
moon and Sun are both stretching the Earth in the same direction causing the
ocean water in line with the Sun and moon to be pulled upward. In addition, the
moon is at perigee early tomorrow morning. Peri- means close and –gee refers to
the Earth so this is the day of the month when the moon is closest to the
Earth. This accentuates the upward pull on the water and makes the tides really
high. Blondie hoped to release a third version titled “The Tide is Really
High”. But, the record label finally said, “Enough is enough.”
Wednesday:
Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that
fishing hole in the sky. They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two
fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected
at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is four and a half fists
above due south at 10:30 p.m. The fish are attached to lines of stars that
branch out at one o’clock and three o’clock from Alrescha. By the way, “The
Fishing Hole”, The Andy Griffith Show’s theme song, was rated the 20th
best TV theme song of all time by ign.com. That’s too low of a rating in my
opinion.
Thursday: At
6 a.m., the very bright planet Venus is one and a half fists above the
east-southeast horizon and the mush dimmer planet Saturn is a fist to the lower
left of it.
Friday: The
Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow morning. These meteors appear
to come from a point in Leo the lion. This point is about one fist above the
east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight. You can follow this point
throughout the night and into the morning as it will remain about one fist
above the bright star Regulus. If the weather cooperates, this could be a great
night to see a lot of meteors because the moon sets before midnight. That means
the meteors will be moving through a very dark sky. The Leonid meteors are
particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet discovered by Ernst
Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle around January 1, 1866. Go to http://goo.gl/OPP6D to see a
picture of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in
a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Even if there are only a dozen
meteors visible per hour, you’ll want to enjoy it.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.
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