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 shape. And if you didn’t know it, you would say it poked an ape.” 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 eastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.
Sunday: Fomalhaut, the southernmost bright star visible from
the northern USA, is one fist above the south-southeastern horizon at 11 p.m.
In 2008, Fomalhaut and its surroundings became the first star system with an
extrasolar planet to be directly imaged. See the family photo at https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081114.html.
Monday: Venus and Mercury are just above the
west-southwestern horizon at 7:30 p.m. Venus is bright and fairly easy to find.
Mercury is more of a challenge. But tonight is your best chance for the next
few weeks because it is at its greatest distance from the Sun in the sky this
orbital cycle. This orientation is called the greatest eastern
elongation. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the
sky. By mid-October, it will be visible in the morning sky.
Tuesday: Neptune is in opposition tonight. Opposition means
that Neptune is crabby. It means that it is on the opposite side of the Earth
as the Sun. When an object is in opposition, it is at its highest point in the
sky during the darkest time of the day. Thus, opposition is typically the best
time to observe a planet. Neptune is three fists above due southeast at 10:00
p.m. Tonight, it is midway between Jupiter and the Moon. You’ll need binoculars
to see it.
Wednesday: In 1987, the rock group Def Leppard sang “Pour
some sugar on me, in the name of love. Pour some sugar on me, come on fire me
up”. In 2012, some European astronomers “found some sugar near stars, they were
very young. Found some sugar near stars, out where planets formed.” Astronomers
observed molecules of glycolaldehyde, a simple form of sugar, in the disk of
gas and dust orbiting young binary stars. This is the first time astronomers
have found this simple sugar so close to a star indicating that organic
molecules can be found in planet-forming regions of stars. For more
information, go to http://goo.gl/tfwy1.
Thursday: Saturn is a half a fist above the Moon at 9:00
p.m. They are about two fists above the south-southestern horizon. Jupiter is
about a fist and a half east of Saturn. The Moon moves about a half a fist
eastward each night. That means tomorrow night the Moon will be about a half a
fist below Jupiter at 9:00 p.m.
Friday: Earlier this week, you read about Fomalhaut, the
second brightest star with a planet. The brightest star known to have a planet
is Pollux, in the constellation Gemini. (First vs. second brightest is
meaningless here because they are nearly identical in magnitude, 1.15 vs.
1.16.) Pollux is four and a half fists above due east at 5:30 a.m., right below
its “twin” star Castor. Read more about Pollux at https://goo.gl/cL5t9p.
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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