The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 27, 2024

Saturday: The Globe at Night May campaign starts today. Globe at night is a citizen science project to quantify the impact of light pollution on our view of the night sky. Go to https://globeatnight.org/campaigns/ to learn more and participate.

Sunday: Mars is a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the eastern horizon at 5:10 am. The ice giant planet Neptune is to the lower left of Mars in the sky. If you follow these two planets with binoculars over the next few nights, you’ll see Mars moving noticeably with respect to the background stars. Because Neptune is much farther away, you’ll have to look very carefully to observe barely moving with respect to the background stars. Saturn is much easier to spot to the upper right of Mars, one fist above the east-southeastern horizon.

Monday: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks just before dawn on May 5 and 6. Since this meteor shower has a fairly broad peak range, you should start looking before dawn every morning this week. The moon is close to the new moon phase near the peak, meaning that the dimmer meteors will be visible then. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. The meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation Aquarius near the star Eta. This point is about one fist above the east horizon at 4:00 a.m. The Eta Aquarid meteors slam into the Earth at about 40 miles per second. They often leave a long trail. The Eta Aquarid meteors are small rocks that have broken off Halley’s Comet. For more information about the Eta Aquarids, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158833.

Tuesday: Celebrate the ending of Global Astronomy Month by reading some poems and short stories submitted by astronomy fans at https://my.astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/astroarts/astropoetry.

Wednesday: Orion stands low in the southwestern sky. At 9:00 p.m., the middle of Orion’s belt is about one fist above the west-southwest horizon. And talk about belt tightening! Alnilam, the middle star in the belt, is losing mass at a rate of about 100 thousand trillion tons a day. That’s a 1 followed by 17 zeros tons per day.

Thursday: At 8:45 p.m., Jupiter is less than a half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon. Soon Jupiter will be lost in the glare of the Sun and then move into the morning sky. There won’t be any evening naked eye stars for two months once Jupiter moves to the morning sky

Friday: “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.

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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 20, 2024

Saturday: In the 1979 hit song, The Devil Went Down to Georgia. This week, the Devil Comet is going down to the west-northwestern horizon just after sunset. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, which gained the nickname “Devil Comet” in 2023 when an atmospheric disruption caused it to look like it has horns. It will be below Jupiter, which is one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west-northwestern horizon at 8:30 p.m. Because a comet’s light is so spread out, it will be difficult to see even with binoculars so you may have to be satisfied with reading this article: https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/2024/04/05/when-and-how-to-spot-the-devil-comet/.

Sunday: Two of the best, and certainly the most available, “tools” for viewing the night sky are your eyes. Your eyes let you see the entire sky in just a few seconds. Your eyes can read star charts, decipher astronomy apps, and spot meteors while your friend is still setting up her tripod. Your naked eyes are not as effective as gathering light. They work well when the light source is comparatively bright, and the detailed features are fairly large. It’s best to practice on a special Solar System body known scientifically as the Magnificent Optical Object of Nearness. Artists such as Jan van Eyck and Leonardo da Vinci produced the first realistic naked eye depictions of the Magnificent Optical Object of Nearness. I challenge you to use your unaided eyes to observe craters on the Magnificent Optical Object of Nearness, better known as the Moon. For a guide to the most prominent craters, go to http://goo.gl/JLhraO.

Monday: The bright star Spica is just to the right of the moon at 9:00 pm, low in the southeastern sky. Throughout the night, the moon will move slightly eastward compared to Spica such that by moonset at about 5:00 a.m., the moon and Spica will be noticeably farther apart.

Tuesday: At 5:15 a.m., Saturn is a half a fist above the east-southeastern horizon. Mars is about a fist to the lower left of Saturn, closer to due east.

Wednesday: As the rock group Journey once thought of singing, “Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’. I know where the Dipper’ll be tomorrow.” Every night, the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia make a wheel in the sky that turns around the North Star in a counterclockwise direction. Every year on April 24 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 25 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 26 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Oh, am I boring you? Of course, there are subtle charges in the position from night to night. Each northern constellation moves about one degree counterclockwise from one night to the next. But this is not going to change their position in the sky drastically over a few days. So, if you know where the Big Dipper is tonight, you DO know where it’ll be tomorrow. If you are really struggling to understand this concept, Don’t Stop Believin’ in yourself. Just keep studying Faithfully.

Thursday: Some open star clusters are easy to find and see, such as The Pleiades and The Hyades clusters in the constellation Taurus the bull. Some are difficult to see. M35, an open star cluster in the constellation Gemini the Twins, is in the middle. It doesn’t jump out at you, but it is easy to find if you have help. Mars helps you tonight. M35 is about a pinky thickness below Mars, three fists above the western horizon at 9:30 p.m. It is a family of a few thousand stars about 3,000 light years away. Open star clusters are young, this one being about 100 million years old. The cluster is best seen using binoculars or a small telescope.

Friday: One hundred four years ago, tonight, the astronomers Heber Curtis and Harlow Shapley were debating the distances of some of our farthest neighbors: galaxies. Curtis argued that the universe consisted of many galaxies millions of light years away. Shapley thought that the spiral structures seen in telescopes were close by as a part of the Milky Way. They also had different views on the size of the Milky Way. Learn more about their debate, called the Great Debate, at https://stardate.org/radio/program/2020-04-24. Learn more about the Milky Way by watching the center of it rise over the southeastern horizon at about 1:00 a.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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 13, 2024

Saturday: International Dark Sky Week was earlier this month.  But that doesn’t mean that we can ignore our obligation to minimize stray light for the other 51 weeks. Lights that are aimed upward illuminate the atmosphere and obscure dim objects. Having too much light shining where it shouldn’t is considered light pollution. And just like other forms of pollution, light pollution can be hazardous to our health and the health of other animals. That’s right. Harmful. Watch this National Geographic video for more information: https://youtu.be/V_A78zDBwYE. Learn about how you can help at https://darksky.org/.

Sunday: Jupiter is one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west-northwestern horizontal 9:00 p.m. Uranus is about a finger width above it. Jupiter will move up towards Uranus for the rest of the week, passing it on Sunday. If you follow the two planets with binoculars over the next week, you’ll see Jupiter moving a lot and Uranus moving only a little with respect to the background stars, That is because Uranus is much farther away.

Monday: “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.

Tuesday: Saturn and Mars are less than a half a fist above the east-southeastern horizon at 5:30 a.m. Saturn is to the right of Mars.

Wednesday: The moon is next to the head of Leo the lion tonight. The bright star Regulus is a half a fist to the lower left of the moon at 9:00 p.m.

Thursday: Do people think you have a magnetic personality? The star Cor Caroli understands how you feel. Cor Caroli has one of the strongest magnetic fields among main sequence stars similar to our Sun. This strong magnetic field is thought to produce large sunspots that cause the brightness of Cor Caroli to vary. Cor Caroli is nearly straight overhead at midnight.

Friday: Remember the old saying: April showers bring… meteors. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks over the next week, with the peak of the peak occurring from Sunday night to Monday morning. 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 above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight and close to straight overhead near dawn. The best time to observe meteor showers is between midnight and dawn. Typically, this is one of the least interesting major meteor showers of the year, with 10-20 bright, fast meteors per hour. However, it is also one of the most unpredictable. As recently as 1982, there were 90 meteors visible during a single hour. In addition, the Lyrid meteor shower has historical interest because it was one of the first ones observed. Chinese records say “stars fell like rain” in the shower of 687 B.C. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more information, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158735.

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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 6, 2024

Saturday: Jupiter is one and a half fists above the western horizon at 8:30 p.m.

Sunday: 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.

Monday: The Great North American total solar eclipse happens today. The shadow path starts off the west coast of Mexico. It enters the United States in Texas and continues northeast through Maine and into the eastern provinces of Canada. The entire lower 48 states will at least see a solar eclipse. The moon will cover about 23% of the Sun from Ellensburg. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) and Big Kid Science have teamed up to make a simple and useful app that provides the exact time of the event in your location. The app, called Totality, it shows the path superimposed on a USA map. Go to https://eclipse.aas.org/totality for more information on how to download.

Tuesday: The stars in the Hyades Cluster are all young, as stars are judged, formed in the same cloud of gas and dust a few hundred million years ago. But just as children move away from home, the stars of the Hyades Cluster are slowly drifting apart. Millennia from now, future sky watchers will see these stars as random points of light in the sky and not as a family. I hope they at least call home every so often. For more information, go to https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/end-hyades-star-cluster/. The Hyades Cluster is two fists above due west at 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday: Saturn is a pinky width above Mars this morning. They are on the eastern horizon at 5:30 a.m.

Thursday: You probably didn’t know this but several British New Wave bands were really into astronomy. Take the band “Dead or Alive” (please). The original lyrics to their song “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) were actually: “You spin me right round, baby, right round, like the Whirlpool Galaxy, right round, round, round.” (Well, that’s what I thought they were.) The Whirlpool Galaxy was the first galaxy observed to have a spiral shape. Since then, astronomers have discovered many galaxies, including our own Milky Way Galaxy, have a spiral shape. Go to https://esahubble.org/images/heic0506a/ for more information about the Whirlpool Galaxy. Go to your small telescope to find the Whirlpool Galaxy in the night sky. It is in the constellation Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs. At 10:00 p.m., find Alkaid, the end star of the Big Dipper handle, five and a half fists above the east-northeastern horizon. The Whirlpool Galaxy is two fingers to the upper right of Alkaid

Friday: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks later this month. 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 one and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 10:30 p.m. and close to straight overhead near dawn. Go to https://earthsky.org/?p=158735 for more information.

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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 30, 2024

Saturday: Many artists have sung the song “Blue Moon”. But few have sung the song “Blue Planet”. It goes, in part “Blue Planet, you saw me standing with 28 others. Rolling around like a barrel. Without a worry or care-L.” It’s about the planet Uranus, which orbits the Sun in a rolling motion and has 28 moons. Every one of Uranus’ moons is named after characters in works by William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope. Uranus is relatively easy to find tonight and will get easier to find over the next two weeks. It is three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon at 8:00 p.m., easily visible with binoculars. First find Jupiter, a little more than two and a half fists above the western horizon. With Jupiter at the bottom of your field of view, Uranus will be at the top of your field of view. Return to this same spot for the next few nights. If the point you are looking at moves compared to the neighboring points of light, you are looking at Uranus. Over the next three weeks, Uranus and Jupiter will move towards each other in the evening sky.

Sunday: The first day of spring was March 19. The most recent full moon was March 24. That means today is Easter. The standard way to determine the date of Easter for Western Christian churches is that it is the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox, also known as the first day of spring. Of course, the other standard way is to look for the date of church services celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. There is no Bible story of an “Easter star”. If there were, Spica would be a good choice. The name Spica comes from the Latin “spica virginis” which means “Virgo’s ear of grain”. Spica represents life-giving sustenance rising after a long winter just like the risen Jesus represents life-giving redemption to Christians. Spica is two fists above due southeast horizon at 9:00 p.m. For an algorithm on how to calculate the exact date of Easter for any year, go to https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-easter.

Monday: Global Astronomy Month (GAM) starts this week. Go to https://my.astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/global-astronomy-month for more information about events. If you want to take a chance on a spur of the moment event, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/astronomerswithoutborders/.

Tuesday: Within the next few months, astronomers think a new star will form in the constellation Corona Borealis. This constellation is about three fists above the eastern horizon at 11:00 p.m. The new star will form just below the brighter curve-shaped line of stars that gives the constellation its name.

Wait a minute. Stars take millions of years to form. This must be some sort of April Fool’s joke.

No Joke. The star T Coronae Borealis, abbreviated T CrB, is a two-star system in which a white dwarf and a red giant orbit a common center of mass. For about 80 years, the white dwarf star pulls mass from the red giant. When it pulls in a certain amount of matter, the matter ignites in a chain reaction nuclear explosion that lasts for many Earth days. When this happens, the normally very dim pair of stars get bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Based on the details cataloged by astronomers during previous ignitions, as well as recent measurements, the next event should occur between now and September. The general name for this type of “new star” is a nova.

By now you’ve learned that the star is not really new, just newly, and temporarily, bright. This star will get higher in the sky earlier as the weeks go by, making it easier to see. Memorize the shape of Corona Borealis so you’ll notice when it is different. For more information about T CrB, go to https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-nova-will-soon-erupt-as-a-once-in-a-lifetime-new-star-in-the-night-sky/.

Wednesday: It is time to start getting ready for next Monday’s total solar eclipse. Everyone in the lower 48 states in the USA will be able to see at least a partial solar eclipse. Make sure you watch it safely. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) and Big Kid Science have teamed up to make a simple and useful app called Totality. It shows the path superimposed on a USA map, provides the exact time of the event in your location, as well as a model of the shadow path. Go to https://eclipse.aas.org/totality for more information on how to download.

In addition, the AAS has a list of safe solar viewing techniques and tools, including disco balls. Go to https://baas.aas.org/science-in-the-shadow-safe-ways-to-view-the-sun for more safe solar tips. If you use these tips, your eyesight will be “Stayin’ Alive”.

Thursday: Last week you looked at something fuzzy, the Milky Way. So, reward yourself tonight by looking at something sharp and detailed. The OSIRIS-REx mission sent back the highest resolution global map of any Solar System object, the asteroid Bennu. Using pictures taken from just three to five kilometers above the surface, the map has a resolution of five centimeters per pixel, the most detailed map of any object other than Earth. Go to https://www.asteroidmission.org/bennu_global_mosaic/ to download the map.

Friday: At 6:00 am tomorrow morning, the moon, Saturn, and Mars line up diagonally from the eastern horizon.

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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 23, 2024

Saturday: Did you get binoculars for the holidays? Like Celebrate Scientists Day or Science Education Day (both March 14)  If so, start using them on some of the easy to find binocular targets found here: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/best-targets-for-binoculars-moon-planets-nebula-clusters/. The first item on the list, the Moon, is a wonderful choice this week because it is full this week, meaning it is out all night. One of my favorite binocular objects is the Hyades Open Star Cluster. It is a V-shaped set of stars found about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the western-southwestern horizon at 8:00 p.m. The bright star Aldebaran is in the upper left-hand portion of the V, just below Aldebaran is the double star system Theta1 and Theta2 Tauri. Theta2 Tauri is a blue giant star and Theta1 Tauri is an orange giant star. Through binoculars, you should get a hint of their color. In the mythology of the Maya, the Theta Tauri pair is known as Chamukuy, meaning “small bird” in the Yucatec Maya language.

Sunday: Mercury will be as far away from the Sun in the sky as it will get this orbital cycle. This "farthest away" point is known as the planet's greatest elongation. Since Mercury is in the evening sky, it is east of the Sun so this occurrence is called the greatest eastern elongation. This evening will be the best evening to observe Mercury for the next few weeks. Mercury is one fist above western horizon at 8:00 p.m. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. By mid-May, it will be barely visible in the morning sky.

Earlier in the week, I invited you to use binoculars to observe the moon. Tonight, I challenge you to use your unaided eyes to notice the subtle dimming of the full moon. It is dimmer because the moon will pass through the partial or penumbral shadow of the Earth starting at 9:53 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Maximum dimming occurs at 12:13 a.m. at mid-eclipse. This is a very minor eclipse. But eclipses always come in pairs. And the partner to this one is a biggie: the total solar eclipse that will pass over North America from western Mexico through eastern Canada on April 8.

Monday: Jupiter is nearly two fists above the western horizon at 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday: Spica is about a half a fist to the upper right of the moon at 10:00 p.m.

Wednesday: Mars is less than a half a fist above the east-southeastern horizon at 6:15 a.m.

Thursday: Signs of spring: flower buds, leaves on the trees, beetle larvae, and the Spring Triangle. The bright stars Regulus, Arcturus, and Spica rise as evening starts. By 10:00 p.m., Regulus is five and a half fists above the south-southeastern horizon, Arcturus is two and a half fists above due east, and Spica is one fist above the east-southeastern horizon. For more on the Spring Triangle, go to http://tiny.cc/ep7vtz.

Friday: The Milky Way is pretty easy to spot in the early spring sky. Just look up. Everything you see in the sky, including that bird that just startled you, is in the Milky Way. But even the path of densely packed stars in the plane of our galaxy that look like a river of milk is easy to find. Face due west at 9:00 p.m. in a fairly open area. The fuzzy Milky Way path starts due south, moves upward past the bright star Sirius, near Mars, towards the bright star Capella, through W-shaped Cassiopeia and down to due north where the bright star Deneb sits just above the horizon.

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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 16, 2024

 Saturday: Ask someone which day in March has the same duration day and night. Go ahead, ask someone. Why are you still reading this? I can wait. If that person said the first day of spring, they are wrong. Today, a few days before the first day of spring, is the date in which day and night are closest in duration in central Washington. There are two main reasons for this. First, the atmosphere acts like a lens, bending light from the Sun above the horizon when the Sun is already below the horizon. This makes the Sun appear to rise before it actually rises and appear to set after it actually sets. Second, spring starts when the center of the Sun passes through the point called the vernal equinox. But the Sun is not a point. The upper edge of the Sun rises about a minute before the center of the Sun and the lower edge sets a minute after the center of the Sun. Thus, even if we didn’t have an atmosphere that bends the sunlight, daytime on the first day of spring would still be longer than 12 hours.

Sunday: Mercury is about a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon at 8:00 p.m.

Monday: Pollux is about a thumb width above the moon and Castor is about a first to the upper right of the moon at 10:00 pm. They are more than six fists above the southwestern horizon at this time.

Tuesday: Look up in the sky. It’s a plane. It’s a bird. No, it’s the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox!? Spring starts at 8:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The first day of spring is often called the vernal equinox. This label for the day is misleading. The vernal equinox is the point in the sky where the Sun’s apparent path with respect to the background stars (called the ecliptic) crosses the line that divides the stars into northern and southern celestial hemispheres (called the celestial equator). This point is in the constellation Pisces the fishes. At the vernal equinox, the Sun is moving from the southern region of background stars to the northern region.

Because the Earth slowly wobbles like a spinning top, the vernal equinox is slowly moving into the constellation Aquarius. By the year 2597, the vernal equinox will reach the constellation Aquarius and the “Age of Aquarius” will begin. Until then, we’ll be in “the age of Pisces”.

Wednesday: Many artists have sung the song “Blue Moon”. But few have sung the song “Blue Planet”. It goes, in part “Blue Planet, you saw me standing with 28 others. Rolling around like a barrel. Without close sisters or brothers.” It’s about the planet Uranus, which orbits the Sun in a rolling motion and has 28 moons. 25 of Uranus’ moons are named after characters in works by William Shakespeare and three are from the poem “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope.

Typically, Uranus is difficult to find. For the next few weeks, Uranus will be moving towards the much brighter Jupiter. Tonight, Uranus is a half a fist above Jupiter. View these two bodies for the next few nights. Jupiter is easy to identify. If the dimmer point of light you are looking at moves compared to the neighboring dim points of light, you are looking at Uranus.

Thursday: If you want to put somebody off, tell her or him to wait until Deneb sets. At Ellensburg’s latitude of 47 degrees, Deneb is a circumpolar star meaning it never goes below the horizon. At 9:45 p.m., it will be as close as it gets to the horizon, about two degrees above due north. Watch it reach this due north position about 4 minutes earlier each night.

Friday: If you know exactly where to look in the sky, you can see a few bright planets when the Sun is out. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, is always watching the sky when the Sun is out… because it is always watching the Sun! Most of the SOHO images are filtered images of the Sun’s photosphere, the top of the visible layer. But two images, the LASCO C2 and C3, place a mask over the Sun in order to observe the Sun’s corona as well as solar system objects that pass near the Sun. For the next few days, For more about using SOHO to observe Solar System objects, go to https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/planets-and-comets-cant-hide-from-sohos-eye/.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 9, 2024

Saturday:  Don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour tonight for the annual ritual called daylight savings. Daylight savings originated in the United States during World War I to save energy for the war effort. But a recent study by two economists shows that switching to daylight savings time may actually lead to higher utility bills. When the economists compared the previous few years of energy bills in the section of Indiana that just started observing daylight savings, they discovered that switching to daylight savings cost Indiana utility customers $8.6 million in electricity. In an even more important consequence of daylight savings, Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia discovered a 7% jump in traffic accidents on the Monday after we "spring ahead". Blame it on the lost hour of sleep. And sky watchers will lose even more sleep because the sky stays light for an additional hour.

Sunday:  A super moon occurs when the full moon is relatively close to the Earth. The ‘super” aspect refers to its apparent size in the sky. But super can also refer to its gravitational pull because the closer the moon to the earth, the greater the gravitational pull and the treater the tides. In that case, tonight’s new moon is a super moon because it is relatively close to the Earth. Of course, since it is a new moon, the lit side is facing away from us, and we can’t see it. But the Earth, and the ocean tides, can feel its pull.

Monday: Avast ye matey. Swab the poop deck. Pirates love astronomy. In fact, the term “poop” in poop deck comes from the French word for stern (poupe) which comes from the Latin word Puppis. Puppis is a constellation that represents the raised stern deck of Argo Navis, the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts in Greek mythology. Argo Nevis was an ancient constellation that is now split into the constellations Puppis, Vela, and Carina. The top of Puppis is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south and about a fist and a half to the left of the bright star Sirius at 9:45 p.m. Zeta Puppis, the hottest, and thus the bluest, naked eye star in the sky at 40,000 degrees Celsius, is about a half a fist above due south at this time.

Tuesday: “Oooo, they’re little runaways. Orion’s stars moved fast. Tried to make a getaway. Ooo-oo, they’re little runaways,” sang Bon Jovi in his astronomical hit “Runaway”. At least that’s what I hear when I listen to the song. After all, it fits the recently calculated trajectory of AE Aurigae, Mu Columbae, and 53 Arietis. Extrapolating the actual motion of these three stars back in time, they were all in the location of the star-forming region called the Orion Nebula a few million years ago. What kicked these stars out? Not paying rent? Excessive partying? No, it was simply gravitational interactions with near-by stars. Find out more about the eviction at http://goo.gl/UeLwKQ. The Orion Nebula is visible with the naked eye from a very dark site, about two and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Wednesday: Jupiter is right below the crescent moon at 8:00 p.m. They are nearly four fists above the western horizon.

Thursday: Mercury is coming out of hiding from the Sun’s glare. It is visible less than a half a fist above the western horizon at 8:00 p.m.

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 9:30 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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 2, 2024

Saturday: Tonight is a great night to look for the Big Dipper. Tomorrow will be a great night to look for the Big Dipper. In fact, every night for many centuries will be great nights to look for the Big Dipper. But the Big Dipper’s shape slowly changes over many, many, many, many centuries. (Have I reached my word count yet?) Tens of thousands of years ago, it didn’t look like a dipper and tens of thousands of years from now, it will no longer look like a dipper. For a short video simulation of the changing Big Dipper, go to https://youtu.be/txJH8RlIoXQ. For a look at the current Dipper, face northeast at 8:00 p.m. The lowest star, Alkaid, is two and a half fists held upright and at arm's length above the horizon. 

Sunday: March to-do list: 1) Move clocks ahead an hour for daylight saving time, 2) Start spring cleaning, 3) Discover exoplanets. Hmm. One of these is not like the other. NASA has set up a program through which you can learn about exoplanets, observe exoplanets, analyze their data, and submit it to a repository for astronomers to use for their research. Exoplanets are any planets outside our solar system. For more information about this project, go to https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-watch/.

Monday: On these late winter mornings, it is still difficult to get going. You just want to plop into a chair and sit still. But are you really sitting still? You’re moving at about 700 miles per hour due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis and 66,000 miles per hour due to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. If that’s not enough, the entire solar system is orbiting the center of the galaxy at a whopping 480,000 miles per hour! So, while you may be sitting still with respect to your living room (and all the overachievers in your house), you are NOT sitting still with respect to the center of the galaxy. For more information about this concept, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/HowFast.pdf. 

Tuesday: Deneb is two and a half degrees above the due north horizon. You can barely fit your thumb between them.

Wednesday: If you ask an astrobiologist for the three most likely places to find evidence of life in the Solar System, other than Earth, they’d probably say Mars, Europa (“Didn’t they sing “The Final Countdown”?”), and Enceladus. Mars makes sense because you know scientists have sent a lot of probes there. Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, is an up-and-coming interest that first piqued astrobiologists’ interest a few years ago when NASA’s Cassini probe discovered jets of water containing organic materials shooting out. Between the pop culture alien hot spot of Mars and the new favorite is Jupiter’s moon Europa. Astronomers first discovered strong evidence of a large water ocean on Europa in 1989 during a Galileo flyby. In the next five years, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will be sending spacecraft to Europa. For a preview of the ESA JUICE mission and the NASA Europa Clipper mission, go to https://youtu.be/dAW2uPPS2A4. Only Jupiter is visible in the evening sky for the next few months. It is three and a half fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 7:00 p.m.

Thursday: From left to right, Venus, Mars, and the moon are low on the east-southeastern horizon at 6:00 am

Friday: The bright star Arcturus is nearly three fists above due east at 10:30 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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 24, 2024

Saturday: February’s full moon is known as the Snow Moon. That name may have been appropriate when I was younger and living in Minnesota. But with human influenced climate change, many northern locations are getting less snow than in the past and it is melting earlier.

Sunday: At 6:10 a.m., Venus and Mars are less than a half fist held upright and at arm's length above the horizon. Dimmer Mars is a little to the right of much brighter Venus.

Monday: The weather has been chilly. It will feel good to think ahead about spring. The spring triangle, the nearly equilateral triangle of Spica, Arcturus, and Denebola, is called the spring triangle because the three stars are rising as the Sun is setting near the start of spring. Since spring is currently a month away, the three stars rise a few hours after sunset. By 11:00 p.m., the bright star Arcturus is two and a half fists above due east. Spica is one fist above the southeastern horizon. Denebola, the dimmest of the three but still the 60th brightest star in the night sky, is four and a half fists above the southeastern horizon.

Tuesday: Last week we learned that Clyde Tombaugh discovered the first planet 9. Will you discover the new Planet 9? You and thousands of others will have the opportunity to comb through images of the sky from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). You’ll view short “flipbook” movies of the same patch of sky on different nights. Any point of light that moves could be Planet 9 or another undiscovered Solar System object. Read about how you can join the search for Planet 9 at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/marckuchner/backyard-worlds-planet-9.

Wednesday: Jupiter is four fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 7:00 p.m.

Thursday: 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 21st birthday. He started to celebrate his freedom when he reached the end of his 21st year. However, the pirates read the rules differently. Frederic was born on Leap Day – February 29. The pirates want him until the 21st 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 overcompensates 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.

Friday: More celestial evidence that spring is around the corner. The wintertime constellation Orion is moving towards the western horizon. Orion’s belt is two and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 10:00 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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 17, 2024

Saturday: On February 18, 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, at that time classified as the ninth planet. However, as astronomers started discovering a lot of similar objects in that part of the Solar System, they realized that they had a classification crisis on their hands. Should everything in this region of the Solar System be named a planet? Eventually the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto and all future Pluto-like objects as dwarf planets. This week you can celebrate the discovery with the people at Lowell Observatory, the “home” of Pluto’s discovery. Go to https://iheartpluto.org/ for more information about online events this weekend.

Sunday: Venus and Mars do a dance together low in the southeastern sky right before sunrise. They are a little less than a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the southeastern horizon at 6:30 a.m. Keep an eye on them all week as they slowly move past each other. Venus is the brighter of the two and easier to keep track of.

Monday: This President’s Day, let’s remember Abraham Lincoln: 16th president, country lawyer, man on the penny, wrestler, and astronomer. Astronomer? Well, maybe not an astronomer, but someone who used observational evidence from the sky to solve a problem. In 1858, Lincoln defended Duff Armstrong, a family friend who was accused of murder. The prosecution thought they had a strong case because their primary witnesses claimed to have observed the killing by the light of the nearly full moon, which they called “Moon bright”. Let’s listen in on the trial courtesy of the 1939 film, Young Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln: How’d you see so well?

Witness: I told you it was Moon bright, Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln: Moon bright.

Witness: Yes.

(Dramatic pause as Lincoln reaches for something)

Lincoln: Look at this. Go on, look at it. It’s the Farmer’s Almanack (sic). You see what it says about the Moon. That the Moon… set at 10: 21, 40 minutes before the killing took place. So you see it couldn’t have been Moon bright, could it?

Lincoln used the known information about Moon rising and setting times for August 29, 1858 as evidence in a trial. This is one of the earliest uses of forensic astronomy. For more information about Lincoln’s “almanac trial”, go to http://goo.gl/r83q4X. 

Tuesday: The bright stars of Gemini, Pollux and Castor, point straight up above the moon at 8:30 p.m. They are high in the southeastern sky. Polux, the star right above the moon, is the brightest star known to have a planet orbiting it.

Wednesday: Jupiter is four fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday: It’s getting dark. The last remnant of twilight has disappeared. Suddenly, you notice a large softly radiant pyramid of light in the western sky. The base of this ghostly triangle is along the west horizon and the peak stretches two or three fists above the horizon. It is not really a ghost. It is an effect called the zodiacal light. This light comes from sunlight reflecting off dust grains in our solar system. The effect is the most visible when the band of constellations called the zodiac makes a steep angle with the horizon. You need a clear dark sky with no haze or light pollution to see the zodiacal light. At its brightest, the zodiacal light rivals the light of the central Milky Way. Look for the ghostly patch after twilight for the next few weeks.

Friday: Two bright stars, Vega and Deneb, are hugging the northern horizon together at 11:00 p.m. Vega, the brighter of the two, is about a half a fist above the northeastern horizon. Supergiant Deneb to two and a half fists to the left of Vega, closer to due north.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 10, 2024

Saturday: Saturn is about one finger width to the upper right of the moon at 6:00 p.m. They are about a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west-southwestern horizon.

Sunday: Are you going to watch the super bowl tonight? Is the bowl really that super? After all, half the night the bowl is tipped upside down, spilling out all its contents. But don’t just focus on the functionality of the bowl. Think about how it inspires people across the world to look at the night sky. In Mongolia, participants in the super bowl are known as gods. An Arabian story says the super bowl is a coffin. I encourage you to go outside tonight at about 8:00 p.m., after whatever unimportant thing you have been doing since 3:30 p.m. Look low in the north-northwestern sky and watch the super bowl, also known as the Big Dipper, balancing on the end of its handle, proudly displaying its large bowl.

Monday: The Galileo spacecraft, launched in 1989 to explore the solar system, found evidence of life on a planet. Astronomers studied a highly pixelated image of the overall light emitted from the planet to detect the presence of oxygen. By analyzing the changes in pixel brightness as the planet rotated, astronomers got a rough idea of its surface characteristics. They ascertained that the planet has a mixture of both water and land, making it well suited for life. If you’d like to observe this planet tonight, just look down. The planet Galileo studied in this superficial way is called Earth. You might wonder why astronomers would gather such sparse data to study the Earth. The data Galileo gathered about Earth is the same as what Earth-based and Earth-orbiting telescopes can gather from objects in the outer solar system now and will be able to gather about planets orbiting other stars over the coming years. By gathering the data and comparing it to what we know about Earth, astronomers can catalog what data about other planets may indicate about those planets. For more information about this study, go to https://www.universetoday.com/165652/did-the-galileo-mission-find-life-on-earth/.

Tuesday: According to Greek mythology, the beautiful princess Andromeda was chained to a rock next to the ocean. Cetus the sea monster was about to devour her to punish her family. It seemed that all was lost. But along came the great warrior Perseus, fresh off his defeat of the evil Gorgon, Medusa. The only similarity between Andromeda and Medusa was that Andromeda caused people to stand still and stare at her beauty while Medusa turned people to stone because of her ugliness. (And you thought you looked bad in the morning.) Even though Perseus’ standing as the son of King Zeus and the slayer of Medusa was probably enough to win Andromeda under normal circumstances, Andromeda’s impending death-by-sea-monster was not a normal circumstance. So, Perseus drove his sword into the sea monster's neck and killed it. In a little-known addendum to the story, Perseus carved “Percy (heart symbol) Andi” in the rock, thus originating the use of the heart symbol as a substitute for the word “love”.

You can find these lovers in the sky this Valentine’s Day. Just remember it is rude to stare – because you never know who might turn to stone. First, find the Great Square of Pegasus at 7:00 p.m. between one and a half and three and a half fists above the west horizon. The lowest star in Andromeda is the top star in the square. This represents Andromeda’s head. Perseus is at her feet, nearly straight overhead. Mirphak, the brightest star in Perseus, is about eight fists above the west horizon. Perseus’ body is represented by the line of stars to the left and right of Mirphak.

Wednesday: Jupiter is less than a half a fist to the left of the moon, midway up in the southwestern sky at 7:00 p.m.

Thursday: The sky is so wondrous. It makes me want to sing. Who can forget that memorable song by Three Dog Constellations Night, “The sky is black. The stars are white. Together we learn to find the light.” Well, maybe it didn’t go like that. Which is good. Because not all stars are white. Most stars are too dim to notice a color. But two of the stars in the constellation Orion provide a noticeable contrast with each other. Betelgeuse, five fists above due south at 8:30 p.m. is a red giant. Rigel, the bright star about two fists to the lower right of Betelgeuse, is a blue giant.

By the way, the three dog constellations are Canis Major, the greater dog, found one and a half fists to the lower left of Orion; Canis Minor, the lesser dog, found two and a half fists to the left of Betelgeuse; and Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs, found low in the northeast sky, halfway between the Big Dipper and the horizon. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky.

Friday: The good news is the days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter. The better news for most readers of this column is the farther north you go in the United States, the longer the days get. Here in Ellensburg, there are almost two more hours of daylight than on the first day of winter. In the southern part of the US, there is only 50 more minutes of sunlight. If you’d like to have your own fun with day lengths and other time questions, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 3, 2024

Saturday: Let’s review three important sets of three cats. There’s Josie, Valerie, and Melody of Josie and the Pussycats. Felix, Tom, and Sylvester from old time cartoons. And, if you want to get away from the mind-numbing effects of television, there’s Leo the lion, Leo Minor, and Lynx in the night sky. Leo is by far the most prominent of these three constellations. Its brightest star called Regulus is four fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 10:00 p.m. The backwards question mark-shaped head of Leo is above Regulus and the trapezoid-shaped body is to the left of it. Leo Minor consists of a few dim stars right above Leo. Pretty wimpy. The long dim constellation called Lynx spans from just above Leo Minor to nearly straight overhead. You and fellow stargazers won’t need to wear a long tail or ears on a headband to enjoy these stellar cats.

Sunday: Antares is about a half a fist to the lower left of the moon at 6:30 a.m., about one and a half fists above the south-southeastern horizon.

Monday: Venus is about a fist to the left of the moon at 6:30 a.m., about a half a fist above the southeastern horizon.

Tuesday: It will be a challenge to see because of the soon to be rising Sun. At 6:45 a.m. low on the southeastern horizon, the moon, Mars, and Venus make a small triangle in the sky. The moon is on the lower right, Venus is at the top, and hard to spot Mars is at the lower left.

Wednesday: While the moon takes a break from the night sky by being nearly in line with the Sun, we’ll need to get our observational thrills in another part of the sky and at another time. Saturn is moving towards the Sun in the evening sky so it won’t be visible much longer this season. At 6:00 p.m., Saturn is about a half a fist above the west-southwestern horizon. Jupiter will be visible in the evening sky until April. Tonight, it is five and a half fists above the southern horizon at 6:00 p.m.

Thursday: You can set your watch tonight by carefully observing Caph, the bottom star in the E-shaped Cassiopeia. It will be due northwest at exactly 8:00 p.m. However, another star in Cassiopeia is causing astronomers to doubt whether or not they can use neutron stars as the most precise known clocks in the universe. Neutron stars have such a precise spin rate that they are used to set super accurate clocks on Earth. In 2013, astronomers using NASA’s Swift x-ray telescope noticed that the neutron star called 1E 2259+586 exhibited a spin glitch that had never been seen before. The spin rate of about eight times a minute decreased by 2.2 millionths of a second. Read more about this at http://goo.gl/C4V8R1. In 2016, astronomers using NASA’s Swift x-ray telescope observed the slowest rotating neutron star, once every 6.5 hours. What is it with using a telescope named Swift to make discoveries about something slowing? Maybe that slow developing question will be answered at https://tinyurl.com/y6ag6g7c. 

Friday: At 9:45 p.m., the blue giant star called Adhara is one and a half fists above due south. It is the 22nd brightest star in the sky. Currently over 430 light years away, Adhara was only 34 light years away five million years ago. That proximity made it the brightest star in the nighttime sky at the time.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 27, 2024

Saturday: Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the lion, is one fist to the upper right of the moon at 9:00 p.m.

Sunday: 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 https://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. If that is too much work for you, just go outside this morning. At 7:00 a.m., Mars and Mercury are just above the horizon and to the left of due southeast. They are so close together in the sky that you couldn’t even fit a full moon between them. Mercury is the brighter of the two. They would both fit into the girls of view of a small telescope.

Monday: At 6:30 p.m., Saturn is a little over a half a fist above the west-southwestern horizon. Jupiter is five and a half fists above the southern horizon.

Tuesday: Sure, you can look at the planets with your naked eyes. Or even a small telescope. But do you ever wonder what the planets look like up close? This video takes you on a short tour of the surface of each planet, using images and landers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF1E_u5EvZg. 

Wednesday: Winter is a good time to see the thick band of the Milky Way galaxy. It arches high in the early evening sky at 8:00 p.m. starting in the southeast by Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Climbing from Sirius through the "horns" of Taurus to the bright star Capella nearly straight overhead, it drops down toward M-shaped Cassiopeia in the north and the tail of Cygnus the swan and its bright star Deneb, in the northwest.

Thursday: The brightest star in the head of Draco the dragon is called Eltanin, based on the Arabic At-Tinnin or “great serpent”. It is currently about 150 light years away. Eltanin is moving towards our Solar System. In 1.5 million years, it will be only 28 light years away and the brightest star in the night sky, nearly as bright as Sirius is currently. Eltanin is one fist above due north at 9:00 p.m.

Friday: Today is Groundhog Day, an important day for pop culture astronomers and Bill Murray movie fans. If Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t see his shadow tomorrow morning, he is telling us that he follows the Chinese calendar and that spring starts early. On the Chinese calendar, equinoxes and solstices occur in the middle of their respective seasons. In order for the vernal equinox to occur in the middle of spring, spring must start on February 3 or 4, depending on the year. Thus, if Phil doesn’t see his shadow, legend is that spring will start on February 3 or 4 as on the Chinese calendar. If Phil sees his shadow, he is telling us he agrees with the western calendar and that there will be six more weeks of winter meaning spring will start near March 20.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 20, 2024

Saturday: Winter is the best season for finding bright stars. And if you only want to set aside a few minutes, 10:00 p.m. tonight just might be the best time because the winter hexagon is due south. Starting at the bottom, find Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, two and a half fists held upright and at arms length above the southern horizon. Going clockwise, Procyon (8th brightest star in the night sky) is about two and a half fists to the upper left of Sirius. Pollux (17th brightest) is about two and a half fists above Procyon. Capella (6th brightest) is about two and a half fists to the upper right of Procyon and close to straight overhead. Going back to Sirius at the bottom, Rigel (7th brightest) is about two and a half fists to the upper right of Sirius. Aldebaran (14th brightest) is about three fists above Rigel. Adhara (22nd brightest) is a little more than a fist below Sirius and Castor (24th brightest) is right above Pollux. Betelgeuse (10th brightest) is in the center of the hexagon, five fists above due south. That’s nine of the 24 brightest stars visible in the night sky congregated in one small section of the sky. 

Sunday: Saturn is one and a half fists above the west-southwestern horizon and Jupiter is five and a half fists above the southern horizon at 6:00 p.m.

Monday: You think wintertime weather is bad in Ellensburg. Astronomers have discovered storms and earth-sized clouds on a brown dwarf. These are cool, small stars that are not massive enough to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium. In fact, they are more similar to gas giant planets such as Jupiter than to the Sun. Luckily, astronomers are getting better at predicting brown dwarf weather. That means you can plan your brown dwarf picnic with confidence. For more information, go to https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/scientists-improve-brown-dwarf-weather-forecasts 

Tuesday: Do you ever take photos to spy on your neighbors? The Hubble Space Telescope does. In 2019, Hubble scientists released the best ever image of the Triangulum Galaxy, the second closest spiral galaxy to Earth. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys weaved together 54 separate images to provide enough detail to see 10 million individual stars out of the estimated 40 billion stars in the galaxy. See the pictures at https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1901/. At 7:00 p.m., the Triangulum Galaxy is five and a half fists above the western horizon. It is typically visible with binoculars. First find the Great Square of Pegasus, centered three fists above the western horizon. It is tripped so it appears to be balanced on a corner. Go to the top star in the tilted square. Move your binoculars about one binocular field of view, about a half a fist above the corner star. You’ll see a pair of stars of similar brightness in that field of view. Then move your binoculars up another field of view to two stars that are a little brighter and a little farther apart than the previous pair. The brighter of the two is named Mirach. About one binocular field of view, or about a half a fist, to the right of Mirach is the largest galaxy in our neighborhood and the brightest in the sky: the Andromeda Galaxy. About one binocular field of view, or about a half a fist to the left of Mirach is the Triangulum Galaxy, also known as Messier 33 (M 33). The Triangulum is much more challenging to see.

Wednesday: Draco Malfoy makes an appearance in all seven books of the Harry Potter series. Perhaps you’ve heard of these. But, the constellation Draco the dragon makes an appearance in the sky every night. It is a circumpolar constellation as viewed from Ellensburg meaning it never goes below the horizon. The head of the dragon is one fist above due north at 9:30 p.m. Eltanin, the brightest star in the constellation, is at the lower left-hand corner of the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco.

Thursday: The Beehive Cluster is to the right of the full moon throughout the night. The January full moon is called the wolf moon because wolves are active and howl throughout the cold winter nights.

Friday: At 7:00 am tomorrow morning, the very bright planet Venus is one fist above the southeastern horizon. But the real treat is much closer to the horizon. Just above the horizon and to the left of due southeast are the planets Mercury and Mars. They are so close together in the sky that you couldn’t even fit a full moon between them. Mercury is the brighter of the two. They would both fit into the girls of view of a small telescope.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 13, 2024

Saturday: Saturn is about a half a fist above the Moon, low in the southwestern sky at 6:00 p.m.

Sunday: Most constellations don’t look like the object their name refers to. That’s because most constellations don’t have such a simple object to emulate as Triangulum does. Triangulum is shaped like a… wait for it…. wait for it…. A thin isosceles triangle. Metallah is the only mononymous star in the constellation. In Latin this star is called Caput Trianguli, the head of the triangle. Triangulum is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due west at 9:30 p.m. The triangle  is pointing straight down with Metallah. The Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with binoculars about half a fist to the lower right of Metallah. This is the galaxy that the USS Enterprise travels to after the warp drive engine  malfunctions in The Next Generation episode called “Where No One Has Gone Before”.

Monday: At 6:45 a.m., Mercury is a half a fist and Venus is one fist above the southeastern horizon.

Tuesday: Have you ever looked down on the ground and spotted a penny? In Yakima? While you were standing in Ellensburg? If you have, then you may be able to see the star Hamal as more than just a point of light. It has an angular diameter that can be directly measured from Earth. Hamal, the brightest star in the constellation Aries the ram, has the same angular diameter as a penny 37 miles away. (For comparison, the moon is about half the diameter of a penny held at arm’s length.) Hamal is about four and a half fists above the western horizon at 9:30 p.m. Hamal is just to the left of Triangulum and is the brightest star in that region of the sky.

Wednesday: Jupiter is about a half a fist to the upper left of the moon, four and a half fists above due southwest at 8:00 p.m.

Thursday: You never see a giraffe on the ground in Ellensburg. But you can look for one every night in the sky. The constellation Camelopardalis the giraffe is circumpolar from Ellensburg’s latitude of 47 degrees north meaning it is always above the horizon. Don’t expect to be overwhelmed by the appearance of the stars in Camelopardalis. The brightest star in the constellation appears only about half as bright as the dimmest star in the Big Dipper. However, the actual luminosities of the three brightest stars in Camelopardalis are very high, each at least 3,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Alpha Camelopardalis, a mind boggling 600,000 times more luminous than the Sun, is seven fists above due north at 9:00 p.m.

Friday: This next week is, on average, the coldest of the year so it is time to turn up the furnace. Fornax the furnace is one fist above due south at 7:00 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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 6, 2024

Saturday: Today: How do you study the life cycle of a dog? Easy. Get a dog from the animal shelter, care for it for 15 years and study it. How do you study the life cycle of a star? Easy. Pick a star, watch it for a few billion years, and…. Wait a minute. Astronomers can’t observe something for a few billion years. Instead, they study stars that are at different points in their long-life cycle and piece together the information from those different stars. What they do is like studying a one-year-old dog for a few minutes, then studying a different two-year-old dog for a few minutes, and so on. The sky in and near the constellation Orion provides an example of four objects at different points of star life.

First, find Rigel, the bright star in the lower right corner of the constellation Orion. This star, rapidly burning its fuel for a high energy but short-lived existence, is three and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 10:00 p.m. It was not, is not, and never will be like our Sun. However, about one fist up and to the left are the three objects of Orion’s sword holder. The middle “star” is really a star-forming region called the Orion nebula. There you’ll find baby Suns. Now, look about two fists to the right and one fist down from Rigel. You should be looking at a star that is about one tenth as bright as Rigel but still the brightest in its local region. The third star to the right of that star is Epsilon Eridani, the most Sun-like close and bright star. Betelgeuse, in the upper left corner of Orion, is a star at the end of its life that started out life larger than the Sun.

Sunday: At 7:00 p.m., Saturn is two fists above the southwestern horizon and Jupiter is more than five fists above the south-southeastern horizon.

Monday: Viewers in the Western United States may be able to see the waning crescent moon occult the bright star Antares. This doesn’t mean the moon and Antares will be joining a non-mainstream religion with an overly charismatic leader. It means the moon will block, or occult, Antares for about an hour. From Ellensburg, Washington, find the moon near the southeastern horizon at 5:30 a.m. Antares will be to the lower left of the moon. By about 5:36 a.m., the moon will have moved between the Earth and Antares. By about 6:40 a.m., Antares will reappear from behind the upper right portion of the moon. It will look as if the star just popped into existence because it will be coming from behind the unlit portion of the moon.

Tuesday: Let’s review three important sets of three cats. There’s Josie, Valerie, and Melody of Josie and the Pussycats. Felix, Tom, and Sylvester from old time cartoons. And, if you want to get away from the mind-numbing effects of television, there’s Leo the lion, Leo Minor, and Lynx in the night sky. Leo is by far the most prominent of these three constellations. Its brightest star called Regulus is two and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 10:00 p.m. The backwards question mark-shaped head of Leo is above Regulus and the trapezoid-shaped body is to the left of it. Leo Minor consists of a few dim stars right above Leo. Pretty wimpy. The long dim constellation called Lynx spans from just above Leo Minor to nearly straight overhead. You and fellow stargazers won’t need to wear a long tail or ears for hats to enjoy these stellar cats.

Wednesday: In 1984, American singer Rockwell released the song “Somebody’s Watching Me”, backed up by Michael Jackson. In 2020, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope released a picture of two bubbles of gas and dust that look like eyes watching you. Stare back at them by going to http://tiny.cc/w99nuz. 

Thursday: Draco Malfoy makes an appearance in all seven books of the Harry Potter series. Perhaps you’ve heard of these. But the constellation Draco the dragon makes an appearance in the sky every night. It is a circumpolar constellation as viewed from Ellensburg meaning it never goes below the horizon. The head of the dragon is one fist above due north at 9:30 p.m. Eltanin, the brightest star in the constellation, is at the lower left-hand corner of the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco.

Friday: Mercury will be as far away from the Sun in the sky as it will get this orbital cycle. This "farthest away" point is known as the planet's greatest elongation. Since Mercury is in the morning sky, it is west of the Sun and this occurrence is called the greatest western elongation. This morning, Mercury is a half a fist above the southeastern horizon at 6:45 a.m. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. By mid-March, it will be visible in the evening sky.

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.