Saturday: Today: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards. Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him noticing. The Daily Record (shop Ellensburg) would never let anything like that get into their newspaper. Their editing (shop Ellensburg) staff is too good. Nothing (pohs grubsnellE) evades their gaze.
Sunday: The
bright planet Venus is less than a half a fist above the southwest horizon at 7
p.m. It is a little west of due southwest. Saturn is one and a half fists above
the southwest horizon, just east of due southwest. The star Antares is between
Saturn and the horizon.
Monday:
While you are resting after looking for Draconid meteors last week, start
thinking about the Orionid meteor shower. This shower, which consists of the
earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail, peaks on
October 21 and 22 but produces meteors from now until early November. These
meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about
two fists above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. You can follow this
point throughout the night as it will remain near the prominent reddish star
Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40
miles per second. For more information about the Orionids, go to https://goo.gl/ikAodW.
Tuesday: What
time is teatime? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation
Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the
south-southwest horizon by 8 p.m. The handle is on top and the spout is
touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea. Mars is riding the
teapot, about one and a half fists above the south-southwest horizon.
Wednesday: Along with the not-so-subtle drug reference in their name, The
Doobie Brothers could have made an astronomy reference in their song lyrics if
they would have written: “Old Earth water, keep on rollin’, Mississippi moon
won’t you keep on shining on me.” Astronomers now think that some of the water
on Earth may be older than the Solar System. The chemical signature of the
water indicates it came from a very cold source, just a few degrees above
absolute zero. The early Solar System was much warmer than this meaning the
water came from a source outside the Solar System. For more information about
the old Earth water, go to http://goo.gl/QsEu5P.
Thursday: Join
the Central Washington University College of the Sciences from 5:30 to 7:00 pm
at the Science II Grand Opening. There will be tours of the facility, including
the state-of-the-art planetarium. Skip desert at home because there will be
cake. Go to http://www.cwu.edu/foundation/science-ii-grand-opening
for more information.
Friday: The
constellation Orion is four fists above the south-southwest horizon at 6:30
a.m. The Orion is a cloud of gas and dust visible with binoculars about a half
a fist below the “belt” of three stars. Are you are feeling especially attracted
to the nebula? If so, that might be because astronomers found evidence of a
black hole in the middle. They have not directly observed the back hole, which
would be the closest known one to Earth at a distance of 1,300 light years. But
the motion of stars in the region is consistent with them being near a black
hole 100 times the mass of the Sun. For more information, go to http://goo.gl/AGjFf.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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