The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 15, 2025

Saturday: Lieutenant Worf, the Klingon Starfleet officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, might say “Today is a good day to die.” But Deneb, the bright supergiant star in Cygnus the Swan would say “two million years from now is a good day to die.” This may seem like a long time. But, compared to the lifespan of most stars, two million years from now is as close as tomorrow. For example, the Sun will last about five billion years. Small stars known as red dwarfs may last trillions of years. Prepare your astronomically short goodbyes to Deneb tonight at 6:30 o’clock when it is seven and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due west.

Sunday: The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow morning. There will be increased activity for the next few days. These meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation Leo the lion. This point is about five and a half fists above the southeastern horizon at 5:00 a.m. The Moon is close to new, so it won't interfere with the dimmer meteors. The Leonid meteors are particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet discovered by Ernst Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle in 1866. These are exceptionally fast-moving meteors – over 150,000 miles per hour! Go to https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-leonid-meteor-shower/ to read everything you need to know about the Leonid meteor shower. As your mother might say, dress warmly and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.

Monday: “It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.” Constellations can be considered neighborhoods in the nighttime sky. But the stars in those constellations are not necessarily neighbors in real life. For example, the bright stars in the constellation Cassiopeia range from 19 light years to over 10,000 light years away from Earth. One constellation that consists of real neighbors is Ursa Major. Or, more specifically, the Big Dipper. Five stars in the Big Dipper are all moving in the same direction in space, are about the same age, and are all about 80 light years from Earth. “Please won’t you be my neighbor?” Skat, the third brightest star in the constellation Aquarius is a neighbor to these five Big Dipper stars, all of which are about 30 light years from each other. They are thought to have originated in the same nebula about 500 million years ago. Just like human children do, these child stars are slowly moving away from home. Skat is about three fists above due south at 7:00 p.m. The much brighter Fomalhaut is a fist and a half below Skat. And it’s not fun being below Skat.

Tuesday: At 6:30 a.m., Venus is to the lower left of the waning crescent just above the east-southeastern horizon.

Wednesday: Are you thankful that you live in a solar system with multiple planets? You should be. A giant planet like Jupiter cleans up planetary debris that could have collided with Earth and hindered the formation of complex life. Any inhabitants of the planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae are thankful for this, as well. Upsilon Andromedae, a star in the constellation Andromeda, was the first Sun-like star discovered to have multiple planets orbiting it. So far, all its discovered planets are giant planets like Jupiter. But the system is likely to also contain smaller planets. The dim star, but certainly not its planets, is barely visible overhead at 10:00 p.m. Our Jupiter is one and a half fists above the eastern horizon at this time.

Thursday: Saturn is nearly four fists above due south at 7:30 p.m.

Friday: Have you ever sat around waiting for a long-distance call from another state? Another country? How about another star system? In 2019, astronomers thought they heard a radio signal from a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, our Sun’s nearest neighbor at about 4.2 light years away. This signal showed many signs of being extraterrestrial in origin, including coming from a specific location in the sky, having a pure tone, and changing in frequency like something moving exactly towards or exactly away from the Earth. However, an analysis two years later showed that the signal was more like a crank call. Read more about the discovery and undiscovery at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/the-true-nature-of-the-candidate-et-signal-from-proxima-centauri/. Proxima Centauri is part of the three-star Alpha Centauri system, the third brightest star in the sky. You need to go down to the southern tip of Texas or Florida to see Alpha Centauri.

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 November 8, 2025

Saturday: The Northern Taurid meteor shower peaks tonight after midnight. These are slow moving meteors that result in the occasional fireball. The Taurid meteor showers produce a few bright meteors every hour. The Waning Gibbous Moon will obscure the dim meteors. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull, near the open star cluster called the Hyades. This point is about six and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southern horizon at midnight. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain one and a half fists to the right of the V-shaped Hyades Cluster with its bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran). In case you miss them tonight, there will be increased meteors until December 2. Meteors are tiny rocks that burn up in the atmosphere when the Earth runs into them. The source of this shower is the asteroid 2004 TG10. Go to https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/taurid-meteors-all-you-need-to-know/ for more information.

Sunday: While Stonehenge is an ancient burial ground visited by religious people for thousands of years, MIThenge is an 825-foot-long hallway on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology visited by the Sun’s rays twice a year. Every year in November and January, the setting Sun lines up with a narrow window at the end of the long hall and the light shines down to the opposite end. This season’s alignment is from November 9-11 at about 4:20 pm. For more information, visit http://goo.gl/0hwFQf or visit MIT. While you are at it, challenge yourself to find a similar alignment in your neighborhood.

Monday: Jupiter and the moon are about six fists above the southwestern horizon at 6:15 a.m. Jupiter is to the lower right of the moon. Venus is half a fist above the east-southeastern horizon at this time.

Tuesday: Are you planning to open your Martinmas gifts today? Martinmas is a holiday in many parts of the world commemorating Saint Martin of Tours. He was buried on November 11, 397. What does this have to do with astronomy? Not much except that the celebration on November 11 often doubles as a cross-quarter day celebration, a day that is halfway between an equinox and a solstice. Also, according to an agricultural calendar, November 11 marks the practical beginning of winter.

Wednesday: Lieutenant Worf, the Klingon Starfleet officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, might say “Today is a good day to die.” But Deneb, the bright supergiant star in Cygnus the Swan would say “two million years from now is a good day to die.” This may seem like a long time. But, compared to the lifespan of most stars, two million years from now is as close as tomorrow. For example, the Sun will last about five billion years. Small stars known as red dwarfs may last trillions of years. Prepare your astronomically short goodbyes to Deneb tonight at 7:00 o’clock when it is seven fists above the western horizon.

Thursday: Saturn is three fists above the southeastern horizon at 6:00 p.m.

Friday: Along with the not-so-subtle drug reference in their name, The Doobie Brothers could have made an astronomy reference in their song lyrics if they would have written: “Old Earth water, keep on rollin’, Mississippi moon won’t you keep on shining on me.” Astronomers now think that some of the water on Earth may be older than the Solar System. The chemical signature of the water indicates it came from a very cold source, just a few degrees above absolute zero. The early Solar System was much warmer than this, meaning the water came from a source outside the Solar System. For more information about the old Earth water, go to https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/earth-water-formed-billions-years-ago-before-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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 1, 2025

Saturday: Happy Celtic New Year! Many historians think that November 1, known for the festival of Samhain, was the ancient Celtic New Year’s Day. Samhain, Old Irish for “summer’s end”, was a harvest festival that may have contributed to some of the customs of our current “holiday” of Halloween. Celebrate the Celtic New Year by observing Saturn in the southeastern sky, about a half fist held upright and at arm’s length to the lower left of the moon at 7:00 p.m.

Before you fall back on your bed tonight, set your clock back one hour to the real time. Daylight Saving Time ends early Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m. This means one more hour of sky watching in the evening because the Sun will set one hour earlier. Ben Franklin proposed the idea of “saving daylight” by adjusting our clocks way back in 1784. Daylight Saving Time was first utilized during World War I to save electricity. After the war, it was abandoned. It was reintroduced during World War II on a year-round basis. From 1945 to 1966, some areas implemented daylight saving and some did not. Also, it was not implemented with any uniformity as to when it should start and stop. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 codified the daylight saving rules. It also banished the “s” as the correct term is daylight saving time, not daylight savings time.

Sunday: Jupiter is one and a half fists above the east-northeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m. That means that Jupiter’s moons can be seen tonight, as well. In 2022, NASA’s Juno spacecraft sent back some of the most detailed images of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. For more about the images and the rest of Juno’s mission, go to https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-gets-highest-resolution-close-up-of-jupiters-moon-europa.

With a small telescope, you will be able to see all four of Jupiter’s largest moons tonight. Europa is about two Jupiter diameters to the upper right of Jupiter. Io, the closest of the bright moons to Jupiter, is about one Jupiter diameter to the lower left of Jupiter. Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, is about another Jupiter diameter beyond Io. Callisto, the farthest of the bright moons from Jupiter, is another three Jupiter diameters beyond Ganymede. Depending on the orientation and design of your telescope, these directions may be flipped. If your viewing conditions are excellent, you can see some of the moons with binoculars.

Monday: The two meteor showers centered in the constellation Taurus peak this week and next. That means there will be increased meteor activity in western Taurus.

The Southern Taurid meteor shower peaks for the next three nights. These are slow moving meteors that result in the occasional fireball. The Taurid meteor showers produce a few bright meteors every hour. The bright moon will obscure all but the brightest meteors through the end of the week. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull, about two fists held at arm’s length to the right of the open star cluster called the Hyades. This point is about five fists above the south-southeast horizon at midnight. The “V” of the Hyades cluster points at the center of the Southern Taurid shower. Meteors are tiny rocks that burn up in the atmosphere when the Earth runs into them. These rocks are broken off parts of Comet 2P/Encke. Go to https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/taurid-meteors-all-you-need-to-know/ for more information.

Tuesday: You’ve seen all the top 100 lists: top 100 ways to squat, top 100 Indonesian astronomers, etc. Now get excited for this week’s full Moon by reading about and finding some of the lunar 100. Go to http://goo.gl/ldGvH6. This list describes 100 interesting landmarks on the Moon that are visible from Earth. They are listed from easiest to see, starting with the entire moon itself at number 1, to most difficult (Mare Marginis swirls, anyone?). Stay up all night to binge watch the moon or just make a few observations a month. It’s your decision. It’s our moon. Start your viewing tonight at 7:00 p.m. when the Full Moon is three fists above the eastern horizon. I suggest starting with Mare Crisium, the circular, dark, basaltic plain in the upper right-hand portion of the moon. Items such as Crisium were named "Mare" by early astronomers who mistook them for seas, instead of the hardened lava beds that they really are.

Wednesday: Venus is a half a fist above the east-southeastern horizon at 6:00 a.m.

Thursday: Fomalhaut is one and a half fists above due south at 8:00 p.m.

Friday: Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor, the smaller dog, is one fist above due east at 11:00 p.m. Procyon means “before the dog” in ancient Greek, a fitting name because it always rises a few minutes before Sirius, nicknamed “the dog star”.

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 October 25, 2025

Saturday: Halloween is this Friday. If you need costume ideas, look low in the sky at 7:15 p.m. Arcturus is about one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Arcturus is home to giant ships called Arcturan Megafreighters and oversized megafauna like the Arcturan Megaleech and Arcturan Megacamel. Capella is about one fist above the northeastern horizon. In the second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series called Friday’s Child, the Enterprise goes to Capella IV to negotiate a mining contract for a valuable mineral. While there, they get tangled up with warring factions and a Klingon. Inspiration from these two stars might help you win the costume contest as you go dressed as Captain Kirk, a Klingon, or an Arcturan Megaleech. For more about stars and planets featured in popular fiction, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_and_planetary_systems_in_fiction.

Sunday: Saturn is three fists above due southeast at 8:00 p.m.

Monday: According to the “One world, group hug, love everyone” philosophy, political borders are human-made and can’t be seen from space so why can’t we all just get along. According to real world pragmatic discoveries, some human-made political borders CAN be seen from space. Since 2003, India has illuminated its border with Pakistan to prevent illegal crossings. In 2011, astronaut Ron Garan took a picture of that border from the International Space Station. For more information, including the photo, go to http://goo.gl/mY8xG.

Tuesday: Did you know that moons and dwarf planets share some similar features? The five largest moons of Uranus have the same heat signatures as the largest dwarf planets such as Pluto and Eris. That means they are relatively dense and don’t immediately radiate away all their daytime-absorbed heat at night. Read more about Uranian moons at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/uranian-moons-are-like-dwarf-planets/. Uranus can easily be seen with typical binoculars. It is about a half a fist to the lower right of the open star cluster called the Pleiades. Move the Pleiades to the upper left of your binoculars field of view. Uranus will be on the lower right. Uranus is the object that will have moved over the course of a few nights.

Wednesday: 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. Mercury is right above the southwestern horizon at 6:15 p.m. Over the next two weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. By late November, it will be visible in the morning sky.

Thursday: At 7:00 a.m., Venus is about half a fist above the east-southeastern horizon and Jupiter is six fists above the south-southwestern horizon.

Friday: Halloween weekend is a great time to celebrate the dead. Dead stars, that is. Black holes and neutron stars are the end of life for super massive stars. But intermediate mass stars such as our Sun end up as white dwarfs. After fusing hydrogen into helium for most of its life and fusing helium into heavier elements for a brief period at the end of its life, the Sun will end up with a core of heavier elements that can no longer produce energy through nuclear fusion. Without the outward radiation pressure from fusion energy resisting the inward pull of gravity, the Sun will end up as a super-dense sphere of atoms in which the electrons are squished onto the nuclei. It will be an object with nearly all its mid-life mass but in a volume about the size of the Earth. The easiest white dwarf to see is in the triple star system called Keid, from the Arabic word “qayd” meaning eggshells. Learn more about Keid, also called 40 Eridani, including map of how to find it at

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/trick-or-treat-with-white-dwarfs/. At midnight (scary), Keid is two and a half fists above due southeast. You’ll need a small telescope to see it. First find Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation Orion. It is one and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon. Then use binoculars to find the right area. With Rigel at the bottom of your field of view. There should be a star near the top of your girls of view that is about one sixth as bright. This star is called Cursa. Next, move your binoculars up and to the right about one and a half field of view diameters. Look for two stars close together, each about one third as bright as Cursa. Finally, move your binoculars straight over to the right about one and a half field of view diameters. The lower of these two stars is Keid or 40 Eridani A. You’ll need a telescope to see the white dwarf, called 40 Eridani B.

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 October 18, 2025

 Saturday: Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) is still shaping up to be one of the brightest comets of the year. At 8:00 p.m., it is to the left of the star Cor Caroli, about one and a half fists above the northwestern horizon. You can also follow along the curve of the Big Dipper handle with binoculars. When you get to the end of the handle, move your binoculars downward towards the northwestern horizon. There is an interactive sky map at https://theskylive.com/c2025a6-info.

Sunday: The constellation Vulpecula, the little fox, stands nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due southwest at 9:00 p.m. It is in the middle of the Summer Triangle, which is defined by the bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. First find Deneb, the bright star nearly straight overhead. It is at the tail of the constellation Cygnus the swan. Move your eyes down towards the horizon and through the long neck of the swan. The fox is so faint that you need very dark skies to see it. While dim, it has a lot to offer astronomers. The first pulsar ever discovered is in Vulpecula. So is one of the closest extrasolar planets with water in its atmosphere.

Monday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks after midnight tonight until dawn tomorrow. This is not a meteor shower that typically results in a meteor storm. There will be about 15-20 meteors per hour, many more meteors than are visible on a typical night but not the storm that some showers bring. The Moon will be new, meaning dark skies and good viewing for the entire night. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about one fist held upright and at arm’s length above due east at midnight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. If you fall asleep tonight, you can catch the tail end of the shower every night until early November. For more information, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=27937.

Tuesday: Saturn is three fists above the southeastern horizon at 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday: Venus is about a half a fist above the eastern horizon at 6:30 a.m. Jupiter is six fists above the southern horizon at this time.

Thursday: What time is teatime? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the southwestern horizon. By 8:00 p.m., the handle is on top, and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea.

Friday: Halloween is a week from today so make sure you load up on peanut clusters, almond clusters, and open star clusters this week. That last one will be easy (and cheap… actually free) because two of the most prominent open star clusters in the sky are easily visible in the autumn sky. The sideways V-shaped Hyades Cluster is two fists above due east at 10:00 p.m. Containing over 300 stars; the Hyades cluster is about 150 light years away and 625 million years old. The Pleiades Cluster is a little more than three fists above due east. It has three times as many stars as the Hyades Cluster and is younger. Compared to our 5-billion-year-old Sun, the 100-million-year age of the Pleiades is infant-like.

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 October 11, 2025

Saturday: “I’m a little teapot, short and stout. The galactic center, I pour it out.” (I’m a Little Teapot, astronomy version, 2025.) Despite its enormous size and importance, the center of our Milky Way galaxy and its giant black hole remain hidden to the naked eye behind thick clouds of gas and dust. By plotting the orbits of stars near the middle of the galaxy, astronomers have determined that the black hole’s mass is equal to about 4.5 million Suns. While you can’t see the actual galactic center, you can gaze in the direction of the center by looking just to the right of the teapot asterism in the constellation Sagittarius. This point is about a half a fist above the south-southwestern horizon at 8:00 p.m., in line with the moon in the sky.

Sunday: It is good to plan ahead so start thinking about the Orionid meteor shower. This shower, which consists of the earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail, peaks on the morning of October 21 but produces meteors from early October until early November. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about one fist above the eastern horizon at midnight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain near the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. For more information about the Orionids, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=27937.

Monday: Saturn is three fists above due southeast at 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday: Jupiter is to the upper right of the waning crescent moon in the southeastern sky at 6:00 a.m. At this same time, Venus is half a fist above the eastern horizon.

Wednesday: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly six fists above due south at 8:00 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards. Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him noticing. Sort of like when you would sneak cookies into your parent’s shopping cart, hoping they would not notice.

Thursday: Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) may be one of the brightest comets of the year. At 6:00 a.m., it is near the star Cor Caroli, about two and a half fists above the northeastern horizon. First, find the star at the bottom of the Big Dipper handle. Cor Caroli is about one fist to the right of that star. Comet Lemmon will be a little above Cor Caroli. Comet Lemmon will be closest to Earth on October 21. Read more about it at https://earthsky.org/space/comet-lemmon-best-comet-of-2025-finder-maps/.

Friday: Rho Cassiopeiae is the most distant star that can be seen with the naked eye by most people. It is about 8,200 light years away. That means that the light that reaches your eyes from that star left over 8,000 years ago, before the beginning of time according to the Byzantine calendar. Rho Cassiopeiae is nearly straight overhead at 11:00 p.m., just above the zigzag line that marks the constellation Cassiopeia.

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 October 4, 2025

Saturday: Tonight is International Observe the Moon night. Hopefully, you can go outside and look up between 6:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. If not, there are many virtual activities. For more information, go to https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/

Sunday: At 8:00 p.m., the moon and Saturn are two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-southeastern horizon. Saturn remains below the moon throughout the night.

Monday: Tonight’s full moon is the Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. Usually that occurs in September. Approximately every three years, it occurs in October, replacing the Hunter’s Moon.

Tuesday: The Draconid meteor shower peaks for the next three nights with tomorrow night being the best. The meteors appear to come from a point in the head of Draco, the dragon constellation. This point is nearly straight overhead at 7:00 p.m. tonight. This point remains near the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco throughout the night. Unlike most meteor showers, this one is best observed in the early evening rather than after midnight. Call this the “early to bed” meteor shower. Draconid meteors are slow moving which means you will have an easy time differentiating true Draconid meteors, from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, from the stray grains of dust that happen to enter the Earth’s atmosphere every day and night. Unfortunately, the moon is full, meaning most of the dimmer meteors will be obscured. For everything you need to know about the Draconid meteor shower, go to https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-draconid-meteor-shower

Wednesday: Mars is just above the west-southwestern horizon at 7:00 p.m.

Thursday: In 2020, astronomers announced that they detected phosphine, a possible biosignature of life, in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Although the surface of Venus is inhospitable, astronomers have long speculated that the upper atmosphere could harbor life. Not Cloud City life from The Empire Strikes Back but maybe microbial life. In 2022, astronomers concluded that the original scientists found the signature of sulfur dioxide, not life. In 2023, the private company Rocket Lab published details about the first privately funded mission to another planet - their trip to Venus. The launch has been delayed until at least 2026. This Venus storyline is an excellent example of science at work. In less than two years, science went from “we may have found a marker for life on Venus” to “it is unclear if we found a marker for life” to “we probably didn’t find a marker for life” to “let’s visit Venus to closely study the thing we thought was a marker for life”. Do an internet search of the words Venus and phosphine and read the articles to follow the story. To get yourself in the mood, go outside at 6:15 a.m. Venus is a fist above the eastern horizon at this time. Read more about the potential mission at https://www.space.com/the-universe/venus/the-1st-private-mission-to-venus-comes-together-ahead-of-possible-2026-launch-photos

Friday: The Milky Way makes a faint white trail from due northeast, by the moon, through straight overhead to due southwest at 9:00 p.m. Starting in the northeast, the Milky Way “passes through” the prominent constellations Auriga the charioteer, Cassiopeia the queen, and Cygnus the swan with its brightest star, Deneb, nearly straight overhead. After Cygnus, you’ll see Aquila the eagle with its brightest star Altair about four and a half fists above the southwest 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 September 27, 2025

Saturday: Mars is right above the west-southwestern horizon at 7:30 p.m. Antares, which means “rival of Mars", is less than a half a fist to the right of the moon, low in the south-southwestern sky.

Sunday: You learned about Cassiopeia last week. Over 200 years ago, the astronomer Caroline Herschel discovered an open star cluster that looks like a rose. This cluster, called Caroline’s Rose, is about 6,500 light years away and consists of about 1,000 stars that are one third the age of the Sun. Through binoculars, it looks like a fuzzy patch. At 10:00 p.m., find the star at the top of the sideways “W” known as Cassiopeia. It is six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due northeast. When that star is in the lower left portion of your field of view, Caroline’s Rose is in the center to upper right. For more information about Caroline’s Rose, go to https://stardate.org/radio/program/2020-09-09.

Monday: Saturn is three fists above due southeast at 10:00 p.m.

Tuesday: Since Halloween is a month away, the stores are filled with bags of candy clusters. Use this reminder to take time to look at a star cluster. The Hyades cluster is an open star cluster that represents the V-shaped face of Taurus the bull. It is one of the biggest and nearest star clusters with about 200 stars 150 light years away. The Hyades cluster was the first cluster to be the subject of detailed motion studies. These studies allowed astronomers to pinpoint the distance to the Hyades and provide important information about the scale of the universe. Aldebaran, about one fist above the east-northeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m., is a foreground star and not a part of the Hyades cluster.

Wednesday: Need a caffeine pick-me-up? Make it a double. Need an astronomy pick-me-up? Make it a double double. Find the bright bluish star Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, five and a half fists above due west at 10:00 p.m. Less than half a fist above Vega is the “star” Epsilon Lyra. If you look at Epsilon Lyra through binoculars, it looks like two stars. If you look at Epsilon Lyra through a large enough telescope, you will notice that each star in the pair is itself a pair of stars. Each star in the double is double. Hence, Epsilon Lyra is known as the double double. The stars in each pair orbit a point approximately in the center of each respective pair. The pairs themselves orbit a point between the two pairs.

Thursday: At 6:00 a.m., Venus is one fist above due east and Jupiter is five and a half fists above the southeastern horizon.

Friday: 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.

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 September 20, 2025

Saturday: Saturn is in opposition tonight. That doesn’t mean that Saturn is stubborn. Opposition means that Saturn 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. Saturn is about three and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 1:00 a.m. It is nearly two fists above due southeast at 10:00 p.m. Careful readers of this column may recall that Saturn is in opposition about 12 days later each year: July 21, 2020, August 1, 2021, August 14, 2022, August 26, 2023, and September 7, 2024. An outer planet is in opposition when Earth passes it up as both orbit the Sun. The farther out a planet is, the less it has moved along its orbit, and the closer it is to exactly one year from one Earth passing to the next. For comparison, it is about 18 months between successive oppositions for Mars. Saturn is three fists above due southeast at 10:30 p.m. tonight.

Sunday: Tonight’s moon phase is new. Typically, that is pretty boring. Tonight, in the South Pacific and New Zealand it will be pretty exciting because there will be a partial solar eclipse visible from there. For more information so share with your New Zealand friends, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2025-september-21

Monday: At 10:30 a.m. PDT, the center of the Sun crosses the celestial equator and passes into the southern sky. The celestial equator is an imaginary line that divides the sky into a northern and southern half. When the Sun is in the southern half of the sky, it appears to take a shorter path from rising to setting. It also does not get as high in the sky at noon. This leads to shorter days and longer nights. Since the Sun crosses the celestial equator today, there is an instant when it is equally in the northern and southern sky, called the north and south celestial hemispheres. This so-called “equal night” is given by the Latin word equinox. Thus, today is known as the Autumnal Equinox. However, the day and night are not of equal duration today. The sun rises at 6:49 a.m. and sets at 6:58 p.m. in the northern latitudes of the United States.

Tuesday: Mars is right above the west-southwestern horizon at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday: To the people of Ancient Greece, the stars that are about five and a half fists above the northeastern and eastern horizons, respectively, at 10:30 p.m. were known as Cassiopeia and Andromeda, a mythological queen and her daughter. But not all cultures imagined the same pictures in the sky. To the people of Polynesia, the stars of Cassiopeia and Andromeda represented a dolphin, called Kwu. Cassiopeia formed its tail, the brightest stars of Andromeda formed its fins, and its fainter stars outlined the dolphin’s body.

Thursday: Ask someone which day in September has the same duration day and night. Go ahead, ask someone. Why are you still reading this? I can wait. If that person says the first day of autumn, they are wrong. Today, three days after the first day of autumn, is the date on which day and night are closest in duration. 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 actually below the horizon. This makes the Sun appear to rise before it actually rises and appear to set after it actually sets. Second, fall starts when the center of the Sun passes through the point called the autumnal 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 autumn would still be longer than 12 hours.

Friday: At 6:00 a.m., Venus is a little more than a fist above due east. At this time, Jupiter is five fists above the southeastern 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 September 13, 2025

Saturday: Mars and Spica are just above the west-southwestern horizon at 8:00 p.m.

Sunday: While many people think they need a telescope to enjoy looking at the night sky, some objects actually look better through binoculars. Open star clusters are one of those types of objects. M39, the 39th object in Charles Messier’s catalog, is straight overhead at 11:00 p.m. This open star cluster contains about 30 stars in a region about seven light years across and a thousand light years away. A quick trigonometry calculation shows that the cluster is about the same size as the full moon in the night sky. Read more about M39 at https://stardate.org/radio/program/2022-09-04.

Monday: Saturn is one and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday: “There’s water in them thar craters,” frozen water, which is. There has been speculation since the 1960s and indirect evidence since the 2000s of water on the Moon. Three years ago, astronomers studied data from four earlier missions. They noticed that the light reflecting off the bottom of craters near the lunar South Pole showed characteristics of light reflecting off pure ice. The water likely came from comet impacts or other solar system objects with trace amounts of water ice. Last summer, the Indian Space Research Organization became the fourth country to successfully land on the moon when Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar South Pole to study the water there. Read more about it at https://www.space.com/chandrayaan-3-moon-south-pole-why-nasa-wants-to-go-too. The moon is five fists above the eastern horizon at 6:00 a.m. Jupiter is less than a half fist to the lower right of the moon.

This will be a good day to try to see a planet during the day. Wait until the sun rises. Next, find the moon with your naked eye. Then aim your binoculars at the moon. Look for Jupiter below the moon. Finally, move away the binoculars and look at that same spot with your naked eye.

Wednesday: Fomalhaut, the farthest south of all the bright stars visible in the northern United States, is one fist above the south-southeastern horizon at 10:30 p.m.

Thursday:  Mnemonics are helpful for remembering astronomy facts. (Similarly, “Johnny Mnemonic,” the 1995 cyberpunk film, was helpful in getting Keanu Reeves’ career going.) After all, school children around the world are learning the order of the planets by remembering, “My very excellent mother just served us nine….” Oops, I guess that one needs updating with Pluto being classified as a dwarf planet. Well, here’s one that will not need updating for tens of thousands of years: the order of the stars in the Big Dipper. Because the nighttime stars are so far away from us, their actual motion through the sky, called their “proper motion” is not noticeable over even thousands of years. That is why the constellations have remained the same since ancient times. But two stars in the Big Dipper have a proper motion large enough such that in 100,000 years; the stars will no longer make a dipper shape. You can see this simulation at the American Museum of Natural History video found at https://youtu.be/sBfUBtdo8yo. Until then, you can remember the names of the seven dipper stars in order from handle to cup by remembering this helpful advice for teens: “AM, ask mom. PM, dad.” The stars are Alkaid, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phad, Merek, and Duhbe. The Big Dipper is one fist above the northern horizon at midnight.

Friday: The moon, Venus, and the star Regulus form a tight cluster one and a half fists above due east at 6:00 a.m. Venus is about 100 times the brightness of Regulus. Both are to the upper right of the moon.

Today is an even better day to see a planet during the day. Wait until the sun rises. Next, find the moon with your naked eye. Then aim your binoculars at the moon. Look for Venus above the moon. Finally, move away the binoculars and look at that same spot with your naked 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of September 6, 2025

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 could say it poked an ape.” Sorry. Some stores have started sending out their Christmas catalogs 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 the ground and two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeastern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Sunday: The September full moon goes by many names. The Western Abenaki call it the Corn Maker Moon because of the impending harvest. The Tlingit call it the Child Moon because this is the time of year many animals wean their young. The Ojibwe call it the Falling Leaves Moon because the trees are starting to lose their leaves. This month, everyone in the Eastern Hemisphere will call it the Red Moon because there will be a total lunar eclipse visible throughout that hemisphere. During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a prism and spreads the Sun’s white light into its component colors, with the red light hitting the moon. If you have friends in the Eastern Hemisphere, send them the link https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2025-september-7 for more information.

For more about full moon names, go to https://www.almanac.com/full-moon-names.

Monday: Fomalhaut, the southernmost bright star visible from the northern USA, is one fist above the south-southeastern horizon at 11:00 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.

Tuesday: Saturn is one fist above the east-southeastern horizon at 9:00 p.m.

Wednesday: Mars and the bright star Spica are less than a half a fist above the west-southwestern horizon at 8:00 pm. Reddish mars is to the upper right of the brighter Spica.

Thursday: 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://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/meet-pollux-red-giant-exoplanet/.

Friday: Venus is two fists above due east at 6:00 a.m. Jupiter is four and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon, to the lower right of Pollux and Castor.

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 August 30, 2025

Saturday: “Excuse me, do you have the time?” 

“No, but the Big Dipper does.”

You can use the orientation of the Big Dipper to tell time with a precision of about 15-30 minutes. First, find the two stars at the far end of the Big Dipper cup, the stars that do not touch the handle. Draw an imaginary line segment starting at the North Star and passing through the two Big Dipper cup stars. Now, draw a big circle around the North Star. Your circle is a 24-hour clock. Number the circle from 0 hours at the top, counterclockwise to 12 hours at the bottom of the circle, and back up to 24 hours at the top. (O hours and 24 hours are the same on this clock because the day is 24 hours long.) The hour number on the big circle closest to where your imaginary line intersects this circle is called your raw time. Due to the location of the Big Dipper compared to the rest of the stars, the time nearest the intersection (the raw time) is correct for March 6. For any other night, subtract two times the number of months the current date is after March 6 from the raw time. For example, let’s say the imaginary line between the North Star and the Dipper stars is pointed to the right. That means the raw time is 18 hours or 6 p.m. If you made this observation tonight, which is six months after March 6, you would subtract two times six or 12 hours from the raw time. Don’t forget to convert for daylight savings time if needed. If you prefer a more visual tool, and a fun project to do with your kids, there is a simple “star clock” template and instructions at https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/make-a-star-clock/. Use this paper star clock whenever your watch is broken. The Big Dipper is in the northwestern sky at 9:00 p.m. tonight.

Sunday: Mars is about a half a fist above the western horizon at 8:30 p.m. Saturn is rising in the east at this time. By 9:30 p.m., Saturn is one fist above the eastern horizon.

Monday: Labor Day was the brainchild of labor unions and is dedicated to American workers. The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882. The Greek mythical hero Hercules probably wished there was a Labor Day to commemorate his work. As punishment for killing his family while he was temporarily insane, he had to perform twelve nearly impossible tasks such as killing monsters or stealing things from deities. Hmmm. Maybe we shouldn’t commemorate his labors. But we can enjoy his constellation. The keystone asterism representing the body of Hercules is six fists above the western horizon at 10:00 p.m. For more information about the Labors of Hercules, go to http://goo.gl/ozVF5.

Tuesday: Had the script been written a little differently for a well-known Robin Williams movie, we might have heard Mr. Williams shout, “Goooood Morning Orion the hunter.” Orion is typically thought of as a winter constellation. But it makes its first appearance in the early morning summer sky. The lowest corner of Orion’s body, represented by the star Saiph (pronounced “safe”), rises at 2:45 a.m. By 5:30 a.m., Orion’s belt is three fists above the southeastern horizon.

Wednesday: School starts this week, so it is time for a little geometry review. A square is a regular quadrilateral. This means it has four equal sides, four equal angles, and wears old fashioned clothing. Go outside at 9:30 p.m. tonight with a notebook in hand to sketch one. The Great Square of Pegasus is balancing on its corner about two fists above the eastern horizon. The top corner of the square is two fists above the bottom corner. The other two corners are to the left and right of the line segment connecting the top and bottom corners.

Thursday: Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury make a line in the early morning sky. At 5:45 a.m., Jupiter is four fists above the eastern horizon. Venus, the brightest of the three, is two fists above the eastern horizon. Mercury is right above the east-northeastern horizon.

Friday: Geometry review, part 2. Go outside at 9:30 p.m. tonight with a notebook in hand. (Good teaching involves a little repetition.) A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three line segments as sides. A good example is the Summer Triangle made up of the bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Altair is five fists above the southern horizon. Vega, the brightest star in the triangle, is seven and a half fists above the southwestern horizon. Deneb is a little bit east of straight overhead.

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 August 23, 2025

Saturday: The moon is almost directly between the Earth and the Sun today. That means you won’t be able to see it. But that does not mean it doesn’t exist. Contrary to the belief of toddlers and immature politicians, just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. (Note a double negative statement followed by a triple negative statement. I’m not unsorry about that.) Now, back to the science. What would happen to the Earth if the moon really didn’t exist? In that 2013 blockbuster Oblivion, aliens destroy the moon and Tom Cruise survives. In real life, the long-term effects on the Earth would be devastating to life as we know it. The moon stabilizes the spin axis of the Earth keeping the seasons fairly uniform over time. For more information on what would happen to the earth if the moon were destroyed, go to https://www.popsci.com/what-would-happen-if-moon-suddenly-disappeared/. For more information on Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise.

Sunday: School starts soon. One of the most important lessons to learn in science class is to always save your data. Even if the data looks “wrong” or you don’t think it contains essential information, you never know what future researchers might find in it. Two years ago, Kepler space telescope scientists reanalyzed older data and discovered an Earth-sized planet orbiting in the habitable zone of its host star. It turns out the previous computer algorithm misidentified it. Maybe there are other Earth-cousins hiding in the data somewhere. Read more about it at https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/earth-size-habitable-zone-planet-found-hidden-in-early-nasa-kepler-data.

Monday: Mars is a half a fist above the western horizon at 8:45 p.m. Soon it will be lost in the glare of the Sun’s light.

Tuesday: “The sky is black (or light polluted), the stars are white (or red or orange or yellow or blue), the whole world gazes upon the sight (except where there are too many city lights or people are lazy.” Wow. It is difficult to write a flowing set of lyrics when there are so many parenthetical thoughts. Most people think of the sky’s blackness as a lack of stars. But dark patches in the Milky Way are actually massive clouds of dust that are blocking the stars behind them. Two of the most prominent are dark nebulae B142 and B143 in the constellation Aquila the eagle. These are easy to find and enjoy with binoculars. First find the bright white star Altair, five fists above due south at 10:30 p.m. Then move your binoculars up and to the right a little bit to the next bright star Tarazed, about one fifth as bright. B142 and B143 are to the upper right of Tarazed. They make an “E” shape in the sky; fitting because American astronomer E. E. Barnard first proposed that these were dust clouds and not simply big spaces between the stars. For more information about dark nebulae, including many more to look at with binoculars, go to https://goo.gl/9tiqdh.

Wednesday: Saturn is two fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Thursday: The star FG Sagittae, in the constellation Sagitta the arrow, is changing before our eyes. Over the past 60 years, FG Sagittae has turned from blue to white to orange, indicating that it has puffed up and gotten cooler. The star is too dim to be seen with the naked eye, but the constellation looks like a small, horizontal arrow six fists above due south at 10:30 p.m.

Friday: Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury make a line in the early morning sky. At 5:15 a.m., Jupiter is three fists above due east. Venus, the brightest of the three, is one and a half fists to the lower left of Jupiter. Mercury is right above the east-northeastern 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 August 16, 2025

Saturday: Not every woman in the Black family is evil. Let’s focus on the good. Andromeda Black, Bellatrix’s sister, is a good witch and the mother of Tonks, a young witch from the last few Harry Potter books. (If these Harry Potter references are confusing, you better start reading the books.) Andromeda the constellation is an interesting one. It contains the Andromeda galaxy, the most distant object visible with the naked eye from a dark site. To locate the Andromeda Galaxy, first find the Great Square of Pegasus. At midnight, the left-hand corner of the square is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the eastern horizon. Less than two fists to the left and down a little bit is another star, the same brightness as the star at the corner of the square. From that star, hop about a half a fist up to a star that is about one fourth as bright. Less than another half fist in the same direction is a fuzzy oval patch of light known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy is impressive to see in binoculars. It consists of about one trillion stars and is 2.5 million light years away.

Sunday: Arcturus is two and a half fists above due west at 10:15 p.m. This star, whose name means bear watcher, is the brightest in the sky’s northern hemisphere. It follows Ursa Major, the Great Bear, around the North Star. Arcturus is the closest giant star to Earth. It is one of the few stars whose diameter can be measured directly rather than being inferred from its density and mass, which themselves are derived from other parameters.

Monday: Mars is a half a fist above the western horizon at 9:00 p.m. An hour later, at 10:00 p.m., you can find Saturn a half a fist above the eastern horizon.

Tuesday: 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 half a fist above the east-northeastern horizon at 5:15 a.m. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. By mid-October, it will be visible in the evening sky.

Wednesday: The moon, Venus, and Jupiter make a small right triangle low in the eastern sky at 5:30 a.m. Venus is to the lower right and Jupiter is to the upper right of the moon. As a bonus, the bright stars Pollux and Castor in the constellation Gemini are to the upper left of the moon.

Thursday: All stars rotate. Our Sun takes a little less than one Earth month to rotate once on its axis. Astronomers studied the relationship between mass, stellar rotation, and planetary formation by aiming NASA’s recently retired Kepler space telescope toward the Pleiades open star cluster. All 1,000 stars in this group are nearly the same age, 125 million years old. Since all the stars are the same age and formed from the same set of materials, astronomers have the ideal “laboratory” to isolate the role star mass plays on star rotation and evolution. Read more about the findings at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/kepler-watches-stellar-dancers-in-the-pleiades-cluster. See the Pleiades for yourself, about a half a fist above the east-northeastern horizon at 11:30 p.m.

Friday: Seventeenth century astronomers documented the appearance of a new star, or “nova,” in 1670. However, as modern astronomers studied the records of the star, called Nova Vulpeculae 1670, they realized it didn’t have the characteristics of a typical nova because it didn’t repeatedly brighten and dim. It brightened twice and disappeared for good. Turning their telescopes to the region, they discovered the chemical signature to be characteristic of a very rare collision of two stars. For more information about this discovery, go to http://goo.gl/rJnC2G. Nova Vulpeculae 1670 is right below the binary star system Alberio, the head of Cygnus the swan. Alberio is seven fists above due south 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of August 9, 2025

Saturday: One minor Harry Potter character actually has two well-known star names: Regulus Arcturus Black, the brother of Sirius Black who is Harry Potter’s godfather. Regulus Black was a former follower of Voldemort, the bad guy of the Harry Potter series. However, Regulus tried to dissociate himself from Voldemort and was killed. In the sixth book, Harry found an important note written by someone known only by the initials R.A.B. Hmmm. R.A.B. Regulus Arcturus Black perhaps? Regulus the star is right in line with the Sun at this time of year so it is not visible. Arcturus, the second brightest star visible in the nighttime sky in Washington and at Hogwarts, is about two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Sunday: Venus and Jupiter are right next to each other, low in the eastern sky for the next few mornings. At 5:00 a.m., they are two fists above the eastern horizon. Venus is brighter and to the upper right of Jupiter. Over the next few weeks, Venus will move to the lower left, down toward the east-northeastern horizon, and eastward compared to the background stars.

Monday: The Perseid meteor shower peaks this morning and tomorrow morning. In case you decide to stay in bed this week, the shower is active until about September 1 so you may still enjoy an increased number of meteors later. The moon is in the waning gibbous phase so its light will obscure all but the brightest meteors. The meteors appear to come from a point just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is about three fists above the northeast horizon at 11:00 p.m. By dawn, this point is nearly straight overhead. For tips about optimizing your viewing this year, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=165416. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. These meteors are sand to pea-sized bits of rock that fell from Comet Swift-Tuttle. They travel about 40 miles per second as they collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Tuesday: Bellatrix Lestrange is Sirius Black’s cousin. But certainly not kissing cousins. They are killing cousins. Bellatrix kills Sirius in a fight at the Ministry of Magic. Bellatrix the star is the third brightest star in the constellation Orion the hunter. It is two and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 5:00 a.m.

Wednesday: Of course, Bellatrix is in cahoots with “he who must not be named.” Now, that’s a poorly written sentence, using an obscure synonym for “conspiring” and a vague reference to someone. I must be under the curse “writicus dreadfulium.” Clearly this is the work of Tom Riddle, whose mother is named Merope Gaunt. Merope is a star in the Pleiades, an open star cluster about five and a half fists above the southeastern horizon at 5:15 a.m. Mercury is a half a fist above the east-northeastern horizon at this time.

Thursday: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s young nemesis, is related to Sirius Black. Draco’s mother, Narcissa Black (Sirius’ cousin), helped develop a plan to trap Harry at the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book. Draco’s namesake, the constellation Draco the dragon, is one of the largest constellations in the sky, winding around the North Star. Draco’s head is a four-sided figure a little on the northwest side of straight overhead at 10:00 p.m.

Friday: Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, is one and a half fists above the south-southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m. Draco Malfoy was so impressed with this constellation name that he used it for the first name of his son. Mars is half a fist above the western horizon at this 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of August 2, 2025

 Saturday: Star light. Star bright. The first star you see tonight might be Vega, nearly seven fists held upright and at arm’s length above the eastern horizon right after sunset. 

Sunday: Mars is half a fist above the western horizon at 9:30 p.m. In case that is not interesting enough for you, look to the south. The bright star Antares, which means rival of Mars, is right above the moon.

Monday: It is often said that Earth is a water world because about 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. What would it look like if all that water on the surface were gathered up into a ball? That “ball” would be about 700 km in diameter, less than half the diameter of the Moon. The Astronomy Picture of the day shows us right here https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120515.html.

Tuesday: Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky, is two fists above the eastern horizon at 5:00 a.m. Jupiter is about a half a fist to the lower left of Venus.

Wednesday: The Gemini twins, first Castor and then Pollux, rise just before the Sun. At 5:00 a.m., Pollux is one and a half fists above the northeastern horizon. A slightly dimmer Castor is half a fist above it. Pollux is the brightest star, as observed from Earth, known to have a planet orbiting it. The planet, creatively called Pollux b, has about twice the mass of Jupiter.

Thursday: If you want to show your loved ones a celestial sign that they should hang up their clothes, show them Brocchi's Cluster, commonly known as the Coat Hanger cluster because of its resemblance to an upside-down coat hanger. The cluster is about six fists above due south at 11:20 p.m., midway between Altair and Vega, the two brightest stars in the Summer Triangle. You'll need binoculars to make out the shape. First find Altair five fists above the southern horizon. Slowly move your binoculars up toward Vega. You will run into the coat hanger along the way. And while you are at it, put away your shoes.

Friday: Tonight’s August full moon is traditionally called the full sturgeon moon by Midwest and northeastern Native American tribes because the sturgeon in lakes in this part of the country were easiest to catch during this full moon time. The Ojibwe in the Midwest harvest wild rice in August, calling the August full moon the Ricing Moon.

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 July 26, 2025

Saturday: At 9:30 p.m., the bright star Regulus is to the lower right of the crescent moon, low on the west-northwestern horizon. Mars is nearby, one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon.

Sunday: Have you ever planned a vacation to a place because it was supposedly the up-and-coming locale? Then, when the vacation time finally arrives, you find out the place doesn’t live up to its billing. Over the past decade, astronomers strengthened earlier findings about the planetary system of the star Tau Ceti, one of our closest Sun-like star neighbors at 12 light years away. It has four planets classified as “super-Earths.” Two of the planets are on the edge of the habitable zone where the temperature is just right for having liquid water on their surface. Time for a va-ca-tion! Well, not so fast. Astronomers have only a lower limit to the planet masses so they may be too massive for complex life to form. And the Tau Ceti system has ten times as much mass in dust and rocks as our own solar system. So, you’ll want to do some research before you travel there. Tau Ceti is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 3:00 a.m. For more information about the system, go to https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/four-exoplanets-may-orbit-nearby-sun-like-star/.

Monday: Saturn is a half a fist above the eastern horizon at 11:30 p.m.

Tuesday: The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks tonight, tomorrow night, and on into mid-August. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. This point is about one and a half fists above the southeastern horizon at 1:00 am tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky. The Moon is in the waxing crescent to first quarter phase this week meaning it will not be up for many hours each night. For more information about this year’s shower, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=159138. As your mother might say, dress warmly and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Wednesday: At 4:30 a.m., Jupiter is one fist above the east-northeastern horizon and Venus is one and a half fists above the eastern horizon.

Thursday: Mizar is a well-known binary star in the constellation Ursa Major. You can find it at the bend in the Big Dipper handle, three fists above due northwest at midnight. Its name is Arabic for waistband. Mizar has an optical double called Alcor, which is less than a pinky width away and can easily be seen with the naked eye. Optical doubles are stars that are close together in the sky but do not orbit a common center of mass as true binary stars. Not wanting to deceive sky gazers who call Alcor and Mizar a binary star, two stars that DO orbit a common center of mass, Mizar actually is a binary. It was the first binary star system discovered using a telescope. Mizar A and Mizar B are about 400 astronomical units apart from each other and about 80 light years from Earth. 400 astronomical units is about 10 times the distance between the Sun and Pluto.

Friday: The Perseid meteor shower peaks in a week and a half. But there will be an increased number of meteors over the next two weeks. If the Moon is out when you want to look, position yourself so you are blocked from the Moon’s light. The meteors appear to come from a point just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is about two and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 11:00 p.m. By dawn, this point is about seven fists above the northeast horizon. If you fall asleep or forget to set your alarm, you will be able to observe this shower from about 11:00 p.m. to dawn for the next two weeks in about the same location in the sky.

The Perseid shower is one of the longest lasting showers. For tips about optimizing your viewing this year, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=165416. These meteors are sand to pea-sized bits of rock that fell off Comet Swift-Tuttle. They travel about 40 miles per second as they collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

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 July 19, 2025

Saturday: As of July 17, both the US Senate and House of Representatives have rejected the White House NASA budget cuts and propose to keep NASA’s budget nearly unchanged. But your favorite NASA mission isn’t out of danger yet. Because of the White House request, NASA has directed teams to start submitting project termination plans. One of the missions in danger is the Deep Space Climate Observer (DSCOVR), a collaboration between NASA, NOAA, and the U.S. Air Force. Since reaching orbit in 2015, it has been Earth’s primary warning system for dangerous solar magnetic storms.

Sunday: Take a two and a half hour walk today. Too long, you say? 56 years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first ever walk by humans on another world. They spend two and a half hours setting up scientific instruments and collecting rocks for study back on Earth. Their colleague Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the spacecraft the astronauts would use to return to Earth. While everyone seems to know about Armstrong and Aldrin, spend some time learning more about Collins by reading https://time.com/5624528/michael-collins-apollo-11/.

Monday: At 4:30 a.m., Venus is one and a half fists above the eastern horizon, right below the moon. Jupiter is a half a fist above the east-northeastern horizon.

Tuesday: Mars is a little more than one fist above the western horizon at 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday: Zubenelgenubi, the second brightest star in the constellation Libra. The name means "southern claw", a holdover from the time when this part of the sky was associated with the neighboring constellation of Scorpius the scorpion. Zubenelgenubi is a binary star system, easily seen with binoculars as a white and yellow pair. To a person living on a planet orbiting the dimmer of the two stars, the brighter star would be nearly as bright as the full Moon appears from Earth. Zubenelgenubi is one and a half fists above due southwest at 10:45 p.m.

Thursday: What you see with the naked eye isn’t all that can be seen. While astronomers can learn a lot from observing the sky in the visible wavelengths, many celestial objects radiate more light, and more information, in wavelengths such as radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma ray. In 2012, NASA launched the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to study objects that radiate in the infrared range such as asteroids, cool dim stars, and luminous galaxies. For an interesting comparison of how different wavelengths show distinct aspects of celestial objects, go to http://goo.gl/nvuax. If it weren’t for infrared telescopes such as WISE, astronomers would not know about the significant amount of dust in galaxies. We also wouldn’t know how much brighter than the Sun red supergiant stars are. Antares is a red supergiant star, currently sitting at one and a half fists above the southern horizon at 9:30 p.m. In the visible wavelengths, Antares shines 10,000 times brighter than the Sun. But since Antares is much cooler than the Sun, its energy distribution peaks in the infrared. Across all wavelengths of light, Antares shines 60,000 times brighter than the Sun. The JWST is also an infrared telescope.

Friday: Capella is the fourth brightest star we can see in Ellensburg. It is the brightest northerly star. Actually two stars, a binary star system of two yellow giant stars that orbit each other every 100 days. At 11:30 p.m., Capella is a half a fist above the northern horizon. At this time, the planet Saturn is half a fist above 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 July 12, 2025

Saturday: This evening’s viewing challenge is the planet Mercury. It is less than half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon at 9:25 p.m., a half hour after sunset. Pan the west-northwestern horizon with binoculars for the best chance to see it.

Sunday: Since 2014, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission has been orbiting Mars gathering information about the Martian upper atmosphere. Studying the atmosphere and climate on other planets is crucial for helping scientists understand the Earth’s climate history and make better predictions about its future. Unfortunately, as of early July, the White House proposed 2025-26 budget cuts funding for this mission. While MAVEN may no longer be able to send valuable information back to Earth, Mars will always be visible to us. Mars is one fist above the western horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Monday: Ten years ago today, NASA’s New Horizons probe passed by Pluto. If the band Nirvana was still together, they’d probably rewrite one of their hit songs to be called “Heart-Shaped Spot”, after one of Pluto’s most distinctive features. “She eyes me like a dwarf planet when I am weak. I’ve been imaging your heart-shaped spot for weeks.” Astronomers think this heart-shaped spot is a large plain of nitrogen ice that consists of convective cells 10-30 miles across. Solid nitrogen is warmed in the interior of Pluto, becomes buoyant, and bubbles up to the surface like a lava lamp. You will find great pictures and information about what New Horizons found this past year at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/. Pluto, itself, is one fist above the southeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Hey, wait, I’ve got a new complaint. People should be more interested in astronomy. The best group to start with is children. If you are stuck at home, wondering what to do, go to the NASA Kids Club website at https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/. There are fun and educational activities for younger children. Older children may like my favorite NASA website - about planets outside our Solar System. I suggest first exploring the “Galaxy of Horrors!” at https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/galaxy-of-horrors/.

Tuesday: Venus is more than one and a half fists above the eastern horizon and Jupiter is just above the northeastern horizon at 4:30 a.m.

Wednesday: Did you know that you can see bright planets during the day? It really helps if they are close to an easy to spot object such as the Moon. Saturn is just to the lower right of the Moon from midnight in the eastern sky until nearly noon when they set in the west. They are four fists above the south-southeastern horizon at 4:30 a.m. Look at the Moon with binoculars anytime between sunrise and nearly noon. Once you find Saturn in the binocular field of view, lower your binoculars and look at that same location with the naked eye. You should still be able to see Saturn with the naked eye now that you know exactly where it is located.

Thursday: Say "Cheese". 175 years ago, Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, became the first star ever photographed. The photograph was taken at the Harvard Observatory using the daguerreotype process. Vega is the third brightest nighttime star we can see in Ellensburg, behind Sirius and Arcturus. Vega is nearly straight overhead at midnight.

Friday: The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower has a long gradual peak for the next few weeks into mid-August. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. This point is about two and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 3:00 am early this morning. You can follow this point throughout the night and for the next few weeks, as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky. Read about the shower, at https://earthsky.org/?p=159138. As your mother might say, dress warmly and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

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 July 5, 2025

Saturday: Let’s learn about Capella. It is the fourth brightest star we can see in Ellensburg. It is the brightest northerly star. It is a binary star consisting of two yellow giant stars that orbit each other every 100 days. At 11:20 p.m., Capella is half a fist above due north. You can also use the Big Dipper to find it. First, find the two “cap” stars on the cup of the Big Dipper, the stars on the top of the cup. Draw a line from the “cap” star closest to the handle to the cap star farthest from the handle. Then, continue that line to the next very bright star, which is Capella. Thus, you can “cap” to Capella. If you can’t “cap” tonight, don’t worry. Capella is the brightest circumpolar star meaning it is the brightest star that never goes below the horizon from our point of view in Ellensburg.

Sunday: Saturn is three and a half fists above the southeastern horizon at 4:15 a.m. The planet Neptune is less than a pinky width above Saturn. You’ll need binoculars or a small telescope to see it.

Monday: Antares is less than a fist to the upper right of the moon at 4:15 a.m., one and a half fists above due south.

Tuesday: Three years ago, the Mars Curiosity rover made a comprehensive measurement of the organic carbon found in rocks on the Martian surface. It found more organic carbon in the Gale Crater rocks than in very low-life places on Earth such as the Atacama Desert in South America. This certainly does not prove there is life on Mars now. And it does not prove there was life on Mars in the past. But it definitely strengthens the argument for either. In the past, Gale Crater likely had water, chemical energy sources, low acidity, and other elements common in living organisms. Read more about the findings at https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/mars-total-organic-carbon. Mars is one and a half fists above the western horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Wednesday: About ten years ago astronomers using a radio telescope in Australia discovered the source of fleeting radio signal bursts that had been a mystery for 17 years. And they didn’t have to probe the depths of deep space. They only had to probe the depths of… the observatory kitchen. It turns out the signal came from opening the microwave door prematurely. Read more about The Microwave Emission here: http://goo.gl/Ftb04C. Sheldon Cooper used similar methods of science when he discovered a can opener instead of magnetic monopoles in the season three premiere of “The Big Bang Theory” http://goo.gl/kAEoOD.

Thursday: Tonight’s full moon is in the constellation Sagittarius. The Wishram, Haida, and Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest call the July full moon the salmon moon. This is the time of year the salmon return after spawning season.

Friday: Stonehenge was created on the island of Great Britain by Neolithic people. “Manhattanhenge” was created on the island of Manhattan by modern day architects and construction workers. Twice a year, at the end of May and mid-July, the setting Sun aligns perfectly with the Manhattan grid pattern. That means observers will see the Sun set at the end of the street. The first Manhattanhenge sunset of July is tonight at 8:20 p.m. Eastern time and then again tomorrow at 8:22 p.m. Eastern time. For more information about Manhattanhenge, go to https://www.amnh.org/research/hayden-planetarium/manhattanhenge.

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 June 28, 2025

Saturday: Nearly 400 years ago, Galileo looked at the Pleiades star cluster through his telescope and noticed that the seven or so stars in the region visible to the naked eye became many more. There are two main types of star clusters. Open star clusters, like the Pleiades and the Beehive, are groups of a few dozen to a few thousand stars that formed from the same cloud of gas and dust within our galaxy. Stars in open star clusters are young as far as stars go. Globular clusters are groups of up to a few million stars that orbit the core of spiral galaxies such as our own Milky Way. One of the most well-known star clusters is the globular cluster in Hercules, an object that is fairly easy to find with binoculars. First find Vega, the bright bluish star six and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the eastern horizon at 11:00 p.m. Two fists above Vega, and close to straight overhead, is a keystone shape that represents the body of Hercules. Aim your binoculars at the upper left-hand star of the keystone, the star closest to straight overhead. The globular cluster is one third of the way to the rightmost star of the keystone. It looks like a fuzzy patch on the obtuse angle of a small obtuse triangle. If you don’t know what an obtuse angle is, you should not have told your teacher, “I’ll never need to know this math stuff you are teaching.”

Sunday: Did you know that you can see bright planets during the day? It really helps if they are close to an easy to spot object such as the Moon. Mars is just to the upper right of the Moon from 6:30 p.m. in the southwestern sky until nearly midnight when it sets in the west. Look at the Moon with binoculars anytime between 6:30 and sunset. Once you find Mars in the binocular field of view, lower your binoculars and look at that same location with the naked eye. You should still be able to see Mars with the naked eye now that you know exactly where it is located.

Monday: Look straight up at midnight. The head of Draco the dragon will be looking straight down on you. The brightest star in the head is called Eltanin. If you wait for a VERY long time, Eltanin will be the brightest star in the entire night sky. Currently 154 light years away, it is moving towards Earth and will be only 28 light years away in about 1.3 million years, claiming the title as the brightest star.

Tuesday: Mizar is a star in the middle of the Big Dipper handle. Don’t confuse Mizar with its rhyming brother Izar in the constellation Bootes. Izar is also a binary star with about the same apparent brightness. And both were featured in different episodes of Star Trek. Izar was featured in the Star Trek episode “Whom Gods Destroy” from the original series. It is the base of Fleet Captain Garth, a former big shot in the federation and one of Kirk’s heroes before he went insane. Garth kidnaps Kirk and Spock before eventually being outsmarted. Mizar doesn’t play as big a role in its episode. It is the star of the home world of one of the alien species in The Next Generation episode “Allegiance.” Izar is one fist above the bright star Arcturus and exactly six fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 11:00 p.m. Mizar is nearly six fists above the west-northwestern horizon.

Wednesday: At 4:00 a.m., Saturn is three fists above the southeastern horizon and Venus is about a fist above the eastern horizon.

Thursday: Hot enough for you? Don’t blame the Earth-Sun distance. Surprisingly, the overall temperature of the Earth is slightly higher in July, when the Earth is farthest from the Sun, than in January, when it is closest. That’s because in July, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun. (This is the real cause of the seasons.) The Northern Hemisphere has more land than the Southern Hemisphere. Thus, in July, the large amount of Northern Hemisphere land heats up the entire Earth about two degrees Celsius warmer than in January. In January, the watery Southern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun. But water does not heat up as fast as land, so the Earth is a few degrees cooler. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is its greatest today, 152.1 million kilometers. This is called aphelion from the Greek prefix “apo” meaning “apart” and Helios, the Greek god of the Sun.

Friday: Being in a coma is a bad thing. Looking at the Coma Star Cluster is a good thing. The Coma Star Cluster is an open cluster of about 50 stars that takes up more space in the sky than 10 full Moons. It looks like a fuzzy patch with the naked eye. Binoculars reveal dozens of sparkling stars. A telescope actually diminishes from the spectacle because the cluster is so big, and the telescope’s field of view is so small. The Coma Star Cluster is in the faint constellation Coma Berenices (ba-ron-ice’-ez) or Queen Berenice’s hair. Queen Berenice of Egypt cut off her beautiful hair as a sacrifice to the gods for the safe return of her husband Ptolemy III from battle. The Coma Star Cluster is about three fists above the western horizon at 11:00 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.