Saturday: One
Family Affair explored the trials of well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor
Bill Davis as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children in his
luxury New York City apartment (as described on Wikipedia). Another family
affair explores how a well-to-do Solar System raises its constituents from
birth, through growth, change, and death. Just like Buffy and Jody started off
full of energy, planets start out hot and molten. Cissy got wrinkles as she
approached middle age; planets become cratered as they age. We watched the TV
show “Family Affair” to learn about a nontraditional Manhattan family grew and
changed. Astronomers study other planets to learn how the Solar System will
evolve. For more information about this Solar System Family Affair, go to http://goo.gl/G029D. Jupiter,
the dad of the Solar System family, is about six fists held upright and at
arm’s length above due south at 9 p.m.
Sunday: The
waning crescent moon is between Saturn and the bright star Spica at 6 a.m.
Saturn is about a fist to the upper left and Spica is a little more than a fist
to the upper right of the moon. All three are low in the southeastern sky.
Monday: Venus
is less than a half a fist above the southeast horizon at 7 a.m. Because Venus
is the brightest point of light in the night sky, you should be able to find it
despite its proximity to the nearly rising Sun.
Tuesday: You
never see a giraffe on the ground in Ellensburg. But you can look for one every
night in the sky. The constellation Camelopardalis the giraffe is circumpolar
from Ellensburg’s latitude of 47 degrees north meaning it is always above the
horizon. Don’t expect to be overwhelmed by the appearance of the stars in
Camelopardalis. The brightest star in the constellation appears only about half
as bright as the dimmest star in the Big Dipper. However, the actual
luminosities of the three brightest stars in Camelopardalis are very high, each
at least 3,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Alpha Camelopardalis, a mind
boggling 600,000 times more luminous than the Sun, is seven fists above due
north at 10 p.m.
Wednesday:
Have you ever looked down on the ground and spotted a penny? In Yakima? While
you were standing in Ellensburg? If you have, then you may be able to see the
star Hamal as more than just a point of light. Hamal, the brightest star in the
constellation Aries the ram, has an angular diameter that can be directly
measured from Earth. It appears to be the same size as a penny as seen from 37
miles away. (For comparison, the moon is about half the diameter of a penny
held at arm’s length.) Hamal is six and a half fists above due south at 7 p.m.
Thursday: The
rapper Lil Bow Wow, now known by his adult name, Bow Wow, has had the same new
album coming out “soon” for the past two years. The sky has its own lil bow wow
dependably coming out every night this winter. Procyon, the brightest star in
Canis Minor, the lesser dog, is about three and a half fists above the
east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m. As the seventh brightest star in the night
sky, Procyon is definitely not “Underrated”.
Friday: Orion
stands tall in the southern sky. At 10 p.m., the middle of Orion’s belt is four
fists above due south. And talk about belt tightening! Alnilam, the middle star
in the belt, is losing mass at a rate of about 100 thousand trillion tons a
day. That’s a 1 followed by 17 zeros tons per day.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.
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