Saturday: 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”. Pisces rises with the Sun around the first day of spring.
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? Until recently, the smallest known stars were about five times the mass of Jupiter. However, in 2023, a pair of astronomers looking at the Orion Nebula think they discovered pairs of binary brown dwarf stars just a little more massive than Jupiter. If confirmed, that could necessitate a substantial change in the accepted theory of star formation. For more on the smallest star, go to https://www.science.org/content/article/astronomers-may-have-spotted-smallest-possible-stars. You can’t see these stars. But you can see the Orion Nebula two fists above the southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m.
Monday: Antares is a half a fist to the left of the moon at 5:30 a.m., low in the southern sky.
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: 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 that 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.
Thursday: Venus is a half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon and Jupiter is five and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m.
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 due northeast at 10:00 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.
