Saturday: The
CWU Physics Department is hosting its monthly First Saturday planetarium show
today from noon to 1 p.m. The CWU Astronomy Club will give a series of short
shows about southern constellations, Mars, and the Moon. The show is free and
open to all ages. There will be a show on the first Saturday of every month of
the school year hosted by different CWU astronomers and astronomy educators.
The CWU Lydig Planetarium is room 101 in Science Phase II, just off the corner
of 11th and Wildcat Way, H-11 on the campus map found at
https://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map.
Sunday: Cygnus the
swan flies tonight. Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation, whose name
means “tail” in Arabic, is two and a half fists held upright and at arm's
length above the northeast horizon at 10 p.m. Cygnus’ wings make a vertical
line one half a fist to the right of Deneb. Its head, marked by the star
Albireo, is two fists to the right of Deneb. While Deneb is at the tail of
Cygnus, it is at the head of the line of bright stars. It is 160,000 times more
luminous than the Sun making it one of the brightest stars in the galaxy. It
does not dominate our night sky because it is 2,600 light years away, one of
the farthest naked eye stars. If Deneb were 25 light years away, it would shine
as bright as a crescent moon. Compare that to Vega, which is 25 light years
away. Vega is three and a half fists above the east-northeast horizon at this
time.
Monday: Jupiter is
one fist above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m.
Tuesday: The month
of June is named after Juno, the queen of the Roman gods and the mythological
protector of the Roman state. In ancient Rome, the month began when the
crescent moon was first seen in the evening sky from Capitoline Hill in Rome.
If we still started months this way, June would start on a different day each
year. This year, the new Moon is June 3 so the first day of the month would be
today when the crescent moon is about 4% illuminated. Look for it a half a fist
above the west-northwest horizon at 9:30 p.m. The planet Mercury is less than a
fist to the right of the Moon.
Wednesday: Looking
for a wet and wild vacation spot? So is NASA. That is why they are going to
land the the Mars 2020 rover in Jezero Crater, which many astronomers think
held an ancient lake. They hope the rover will find minerals that form in the
presence of water and maybe even fossilized signs of life. For more information
about the landing site, go to https://tinyurl.com/yxt6f39b. Tonight, Mars is
about a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 10 p.m.
Thursday: The
bright bluish star Spica is three fists above due south at 9:30 p.m.
Friday: As the
weather warms up, people start thinking about swimming in a nice cool body of
water. Recently, astronomers have discovered evidence an ocean about 20 miles
beneath the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. NASA’s Cassini probes measured
variations in how the moon’s gravity pulled on the orbiting spacecraft. These
variations can be explained by a large amount of liquid water under one section
of the ice because liquid water is denser than an equal volume of ice. While
you need a very large telescope to see Enceladus, Saturn is about a half a fist
above the southeast horizon at midnight.
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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