Saturday: “Lately, I’ve been, I’ve been losing sleep. Dreaming about the things that we could be. But baby, I’ve been, I’ve been praying hard, said no more counting dollars. We’ll be counting 9,096 stars, yeah we’ll be counting 9,096 stars.” Luckily, artistic judgment prevailed over scientific precision in the OneRepublic hit “Counting Stars”. According to the Yale Bright Star Catalog, there are 9,096 stars visible to the naked eye across the entire sky if you are observing from a very dark site. In the northern United States, where a part of the sky is never visible, that number drops to about 6,500. In the middle of a small city at mid-latitudes, like Ellensburg, that number drops to a few hundred. No wonder someone has been losing sleep. Learn more about the star count at http://goo.gl/nt8d80.
Sunday: Jupiter and Neptune will be close together in the dawn sky all week. The dance will be a treat to follow with a small telescope and also pretty interesting with binoculars held steady with a tripod. This morning at 5:45, find Jupiter just above the eastern horizon. If you have a small telescope, you’ll be able to see Europa and Io to the lower left of Jupiter with Ganymede and Callisto to the upper right. Neptune is farther to the lower left. Over the next few days, Neptune will move to the upper right compared to Jupiter.
Monday: April is Global Astronomy Month. Find events throughout the month at https://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/global-astronomy-month. This morning at 7:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (14:00 UTC), learn how astronomy has played a role in the development of cultures and society throughout the world. View the event at https://www.facebook.com/astronomerswithoutborders.
Tuesday: You may have noticed a few other bright points of light low in the predawn eastern sky. Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky, is one fist above the east-southeastern horizon. Mars is about one fist to the upper right of Venus. Saturn is about a half a fist to the upper right of Mars.
Wednesday: Astronomers are often fascinated with large objects. Planets that could hold 1000 Earths (Jupiter). Stars that would fill up the entire inner Solar System (Betelgeuse). Galaxies with 400 billion stars (Milky Way). But what about the smallest objects? One of the smallest stars is Proxima Centauri, the closest known star other than our Sun. It is about 12% of the mass of the Sun. Earlier this year, astronomers announced the discovery of a possible third planet orbiting Proxima Centauri indicating that even very small stars can have planets. The smallest theoretically possible star would be about 7.5% of the mass of the Sun. Any smaller and it could not support the nuclear reactions characteristic of stars. For more on small stars, go to http://goo.gl/EHBdOX.
Thursday: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks late next week. But there will be increased meteor activity in the vicinity of the constellation Lyra until then. The meteors appear to come from a point to the right of the bright bluish star Vega in the constellation Lyra the lyre. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at midnight and close to straight overhead near dawn. Go to https://earthsky.org/?p=158735 for more information.
Friday: “The crow rises in the southeast,” said spy number one. “I’m sorry. I don’t recognize that code,” replied spy number two. Spy one exclaimed, “That’s because it’s not a code, you idiot. I’m talking about the constellation Corvus the crow.” This very bad spy movie dialogue is to remind you that Corvus had a very bad life. According to one myth, Corvus brought the god Apollo the news that his girlfriend was seeing someone else. In a classic case of punishing the messenger, Apollo turned the formerly beautifully colored crow black. The box-shaped Corvus is one fist above the southeastern horizon at 9:00 p.m.
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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