Saturday: At
10 p.m., the bright star Regulus is a little less than one fist held upright
and at arm’s length above the west horizon. But, who is this Regulus? He has
many potential identities. The most interesting from a pop culture standpoint
is Regulus Black, the brother of Sirius Black who is Harry Potter’s godfather.
Regulus Black was a former follower of Voldemort, the bad guy of the Harry
Potter series. However, Regulus tried to dissociate himself from Voldemort and
was killed. He would be in the pile of forgotten Harry Potter characters except
that he is so interesting. Also, in the sixth book, Harry found an important
note written by someone known only by the initials R.A.B. Hmmm. R.A.B. Regulus
A. Black perhaps? Summer is a great time to read the books. Just seeing the
movies is not good enough.
Sunday: But
what does the “A” stand for? Anthony? Abercrombie? Alfonzo? Not astronomical
enough. It stands for Arcturus, the second brightest star visible in the
nighttime sky in Washington and at Hogwarts. Arcturus is five fists above the
southwest horizon at 10 p.m. The bright star Spica and Saturn are halfway
between Arcturus and the southwest horizon and about a fist from each other.
Spica is the slightly brighter object on the lower right within the pair.
Monday:
Bellatrix Lestrange is Sirius Black’s cousin. But, far from being kissing
cousins. They are killing cousins. Bellatrix kills Sirius in a fight at the
Ministry of Magic. Bellatrix the star is the third brightest star in the
constellation Orion the hunter. She’s hiding in the glow of the Sun right now.
We’ll look for her next month.
Tuesday: Of
course, Bellatrix is in cahoots with “he who must not be named”. Now, that’s a
poor sentence, using an obscure synonym for “conspiring” and a non-specific
reference. I must be under the curse “writicus dreadfulium”. Clearly this is
the work of Tom Riddle, whose mother is named Merope Gaunt. Merope is a star in
the Pleiades, an open star cluster about two fists above the east-northeast
horizon at 4 a.m.
Wednesday:
Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s young nemesis, is related to Sirius Black. Draco’s
mother, Narcissa Black (Sirius’ cousin), helped develop a plan to trap Harry at
the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book. Draco’s namesake, the constellation
Draco the dragon is one of the largest constellations in the sky, winding
around the North Star. Draco’s head is a four-sided figure nearly straight
overhead at 11 p.m.
Thursday: Fred
and George Weasley are the best-known twins in the Harry Potter universe. Venus
is sometimes called Earth’s twin. After all, both have a surface temperature of
about 860 degrees Fahrenheit, both have thick clouds of sulfur dioxide, both
have a chest crushing atmospheric pressure, both have…. Wait. Earth doesn’t
have any of those. How can they be “twins”? Venus is called Earth’s twin
because they have about the same mass, radius, gravitational pull, and are
similar distances to the Sun. Venus is a little less than a fist above the
west-northwest horizon at 9:30 p.m.
Friday:
Not every woman in the Black family is evil. Let’s focus on the good. Andromeda
Black, Bellatrix’s sister, is a good witch and the mother of Tonks, a young
witch from the last few Harry Potter books. (If these Harry Potter references
are confusing, talk to an adolescent about them.) Andromeda the constellation
is an interesting one. It contains the Andromeda galaxy, the most distant
object visible with the naked eye from a dark site. To locate the Andromeda
Galaxy, first find the Great Square of Pegasus. At 11:00 p.m., the left hand
corner of the square is about one and a half fists above the east-northeast
horizon. Less than two fists to the left and down a little bit is another star
the same brightness as the star at the corner of the square. From that star,
hop about a half a fist up to a star that is about one fourth as bright. Less
than another half fist in the same direction is a fuzzy oval patch of light
known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy is impressive to see in binoculars.
It consists of about 400 billion stars and is 2.2 million light years away.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.
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