Saturday: “You
know Aries and Cancer and Draco and Libra. Leo and Pisces and Virgo and Hydra.
But, do you recall, the pointiest asterism of all? Triangulum, the three sided
asterism, had a very pointy edge….” Sorry. Some stores have started sending out
their Christmas catalogues and that has put me in the mood to modify some
Christmas songs. Anyway, Triangulum is a small constellation between the more
prominent Andromeda and Aries. Its main feature is a skinny triangle oriented
parallel to and nearly four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the
east horizon at 11 p.m.
Sunday: Jupiter
is about a half a fist above the west-southwest horizon and Saturn is two fists
above the south-southwest horizon at 7:45 p.m.
Monday: This
morning is a 3M morning. A Moon, Mercury, and Mars morning. (Wait. Morning
starts with “m”, as well. So maybe it’s just a 4M. Anyway….) The waning
crescent moon is one fist above the east horizon. Bright Mercury and somewhat
bright Mars are to the lower left of the Moon. Very bright Venus is about a
fist to the upper right of the Moon.
The star Regulus is right below Venus.
Tuesday: To
celebrate the start of school at Central Washington University tomorrow, you
could take a quick trip to Mars. How about America’s desert Southwest? Not
enough time? Then just look at some photos from… from…. Hmmm. The photos at https://goo.gl/Elx7O8
look like they could be from either place. The Murray Buttes region of Mars,
where the Curiosity rover has been exploring, look a lot like the landscape of
Utah. So much so that the Mars-based movie John Carter was filmed there. Look
for John Carter at your local video store. (“What’s that?” said the child.)
Look for Mars one fist above the east horizon at 6 a.m.
Wednesday: Fomalhaut, the southernmost bright star visible from the northern
USA, is one fist above the south-southeast horizon at 11 p.m.
Thursday: According
to “One world, group hug, love everyone” philosophy, political borders are
human-made and can’t be seen from space so why can’t we all just get along.
According to real world, pragmatic discoveries, some human-made political
borders CAN be seen from space. Since 2003, India has illuminated its border
with Pakistan to prevent illegal crossings. In 2011, astronaut Ron Garan took a
picture of that border from the International Space Station. For more
information, including the photo, go to http://goo.gl/mY8xG.
Friday: At
precisely 1:02 p.m. PDT, the center of the Sun crosses the celestial equator
and passes into the southern sky. The celestial equator is an imaginary line
that divides the sky into a northern and southern half. When the Sun is in the
southern half of the sky, it appears to take a shorter path from rising to
setting. It also does not get as high in the sky at noon. This leads to shorter
days and longer nights. Since the Sun crosses the celestial equator today,
there is an instant when it is equally in the northern and southern sky, called
the north and south celestial hemispheres. This so-called “equal night” is
given by the Latin word equinox. Thus, today is known as the Autumnal Equinox.
However, the day and night are not of equal duration today. The sun rises at
6:49 a.m. and sets at 6:59 p.m. Day and night are closest to equal duration on
Monday.
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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