Saturday: Are you going to watch the super bowl tomorrow night? Is the bowl really that super? After all, half the night the bowl is tipped upside down, spilling out all of its contents. But don’t just focus on the functionality of the bowl. Think about how it inspires people all across the world to look at the night sky. In Mongolia, participants in the super bowl are known as gods. An Arabian story says the super bowl is a coffin. I encourage you go outside tomorrow night at about 8 p.m., after whatever unimportant thing you have been doing since 3:30 p.m. Look low in the north-northwest sky and watch the super bowl, also known as the Big Dipper, balancing on the end of its handle, proudly displaying its large bowl.
Sunday:
Don’t waste time watching the big game. Effectively use time learning about
your surroundings. The universe contains everything from gigantic galaxy
clusters to tiny parts of atoms so it is difficult to visualize all of it on
the same scale. Cary and Michael Huang have created an interactive scale model
of the universe which allows you to “slide” from a vantage point outside the
known universe down to the smallest things ever theorized. To take this trip,
go to http://htwins.net/scale2/.
Monday: Venus
is three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon at
6 p.m. Mars is less than a fist to the upper left of Venus.
Tuesday: Are
you interested in participating in astronomy research? You don’t need to go
back to school. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars getting a fake
degree from an online university. The scientists working on the High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter would like your input on which objects they should target for close-up
pictures. While you may think the scientists are just trying to build interest
in their project by having people look at pretty pictures, there is a real
scientific benefit to having many eyes searching for interesting targets. There
aren’t enough scientists to carefully inspect all of the low power images. And
surprisingly, computers are not nearly as effective as people in making nuanced
judgments of images. So, go to http://www.uahirise.org/ and click on the HiWish
button. You’ll be on your way to suggesting close-up targets for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter.
Wednesday: Winter is a good time to see the thick band of the Milky Way
galaxy. It arches high in the high in the early evening starting in the
southeast by Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Climbing from Sirius
through the "horns" of Taurus high overhead, it drops down toward
M-shaped Cassiopeia in the north and the tail of Cygnus, the swan, in the
northwest.
Thursday: At 6:30 a.m., Jupiter is two and a half fists above the southwest
horizon and Saturn is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon.
Friday: Currently,
the brightest star in the night sky is Sirius in the constellation Canis Major.
It’s two and a half fists above the south horizon at 10 p.m. One fist below
Sirius is the blue giant star Adhara. Currently it is less than one tenth the
brightness of Sirius as seen from Earth. But 4.7 million years ago, Adhara was
a lot closer to Earth and shined ten times brighter than Sirius.
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 https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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