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.
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