The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 29, 2020

Saturday:  Today is Leap Day – the day when everyone leaps for joy because we have an extra day to rest. Well, not everyone leaps for joy on Leap Day. Frederic, one of the main characters in the play (and movie) The Pirates of Penzance, wished Leap Day did not exist. As an infant, Frederic was apprenticed to a group of pirates until his 21^st birthday. He started to celebrate his freedom when he reached the end of his 21^st year. However, the pirates read the rules differently. Frederic was born on Leap Day – February 29. The pirates want him until the 21^st celebration of February 29 – when he is 84. Perhaps the pirates would have let Frederic go early if he explained the need for a Leap Day.

The Earth takes 365.24 days to orbit the Sun. Thus, each year, our calendar falls about a quarter of a day behind the Earth’s actual motion. Almost every four years, we add a day to the calendar to make up for that day. You may have noticed that this correction over compensates because 4 X 0.24 = 0.96, a little less than a full day. In order to correct for this over compensation, the years that mark the turn of the century are not leap years unless they are divisible by 400. 2000 was a leap year. 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not be leap years.

Sunday: The Seven Sisters are spending time with the Moon tonight. The Moon needs a lot of help with his homework and each sister has her academic specialty. At 7:00 p.m., they are about a fist to the upper right of the Moon, five and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwestern horizon. Oh, by the way, the Seven Sisters is another name for the Pleiades, an open star cluster of about 1,000 middle-aged, hot B-type stars.

Monday: 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. You can see Mars as a far-away target at 6:00 a.m. It is one and a half fists above the south-southeastern horizon.

Tuesday: Mars isn’t the only planet in the morning sky. Jupiter is the brightest planet in the morning sky, a little more than one fist above the southeastern horizon at 6:00 a.m.. Saturn is exactly one fist above due southeast at 6:00 a.m.

Wednesday: Venus is three fists above the western horizon at 7:00 p.m. You can use it to find Uranus. Using binoculars, put Venus in the lower right-hand portion of the field of view. Uranus will be near the center of your field of view. Over the next few days, Venus will move towards Uranus in the sky. They will be closest together on Saturday when Uranus will be about one thumb-width, or about two degrees, to the left of Venus.

Thursday: Late winter is a good time to see the thick band of the Milky Way galaxy. It arches high in the evening sky at 8:00 p.m., starting in the south by Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Climbing from Sirius through the bright star Capella, nearly straight overhead, it drops down toward M-shaped Cassiopeia in the northwest and through the bright star Deneb, near the north-northwestern horizon.

Friday: The CWU Physics Department and the College of the Sciences is hosting its monthly First Saturday planetarium show tomorrow from noon to 1:00 p.m. Dr. Cassie Fallscheer will give a tour of the sky focusing on star death and the spring sky. Shows are free and open to all ages. There will be a show at noon on the first Saturday of every month of the academic 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.

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.