The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of December 10, 2022

Saturday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The fish are attached to lines of stars that branch out at one o’clock and three o’clock from Alrescha. By the way, “The Fishing Hole”, The Andy Griffith Show’s theme song, was rated the 20th best TV theme song of all time by ign.com. That’s too low of a ranking in my opinion. 

Sunday: The bright star Capella is nearly straight overhead at midnight.

Monday: Mars is three fists above due east at 7:00 p.m. As seen through small telescopes on Earth, Mars looks like a reddish circle. During the Martian winter, you might be able to see the Martian polar ice cap. But not much else. Up close, Mars has a very interesting topography. The southern hemisphere of Mars is many kilometers higher, on average, than the northern hemisphere. Some scientists think this may be due to a collision between Mars and another planet in the early solar system. There is a color-coded image of the Martian surface at https://stardate.org/astro-guide/gallery/martian-dichotomy. 

Tuesday: The Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow morning. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Gemini the twins. This point is about four fists above due east at midnight tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain near the bright star Castor, the right hand star of the “twin” stars Pollux and Castor. By 4:00 a.m., it is four fists above the southwest horizon. This shower is typically one of the best ones of the year producing bright, medium speed meteors with up to 80 meteors per hour under ideal conditions near the peak. This year, the waning gibbous moon will be in the sky starting at about 9:30 p.m., obscuring the dimmer meteors after that time.

Most meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the orbital trail of a comet. The broken off comet fragments collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. Astronomers had searched for a comet source for this shower since 1862 when the shower was first observed. Finally, in 1983, astronomers discovered the object that created the fragments that cause the meteor shower each year. To their surprise, it was a dark rock that looked like an asteroid, not a shiny icy comet. Astronomers named this object Asteroid 3200 Phaethon. For more information about the Geminid shower, go to https://goo.gl/f4qMqg.

Wednesday: Jupiter is four fists above due south at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday: Last week we learned that the early December evenings are getting darker earlier than any time of the year. While the sky is getting darker earlier, the nighttime sky is actually getting brighter due to the greater use of low energy LED bulbs. While these bulbs use much less energy than incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs, researchers think that people and communities are using more of the bulbs and leaving them on longer. This is increasing light pollution near cities. You can get more illumination on the subject at https://www.latimes.com/environment/light-pollution-latt-123.  

Friday: Venus is the bright point of light just above the southwestern horizon at 4:45 p.m. Mercury is to the upper left of Venus.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of December 3, 2022

Saturday: Is your favorite astronomy-loving relative asking for a telescope this Christmas? Before reaching for your credit card, read this guide to choosing your first telescope, available at http://goo.gl/5oXmGj. If cost is an issue, look no further than this article about low cost telescopes https://goo.gl/8yyddy. These are not cheap telescopes. They are simple, low-cost, easy to use telescopes that your future astronomer will still use for quick observing sessions long after she has purchased a much larger instrument for richer viewing. If you want to give a gag astronomy gift to someone who really bugs you, give them a copy of this column. After such a dud “gift”, you’ll never hear from them again. And that may be the best gift of all.

Sunday: 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 11:00 o’clock when it is two fists above due northwest.

Monday: At 5:00 p.m., Jupiter is about three and a half fists above the southeastern horizon. Saturn is two and a half fists above the southern horizon.

Tuesday: It’s getting too cold to see frogs in the wild. But this is a great time to see frogs in the sky. Ancient Arabs referred to the stars that we now call Fomalhaut and Diphda as Ad-difdi al-awwal and Ad-difda at-tani. This means the first frog and the second frog, respectively. Both frogs are low in the southern sky at 5:30 p.m. Fomalhaut is nearly one and a half fists above due south. The slightly dimmer Diphda is two fists above the south-southeast horizon.

Wednesday: Tonight’s December full moon is called the Cold Moon… for obvious reasons. On the evening of a full moon, the moon rises as the Sun sets, reaches its highest point in the sky in the south at midnight, and sets as the Sun rises. Mars is in opposition tonight. When a planet is in opposition, it rises as the Sun sets, reaches its highest point in the sky in the south at midnight, and sets as the Sun rises. Thus, the moon and Mars move across the sky together… almost. Since the moon is so much closer to the Earth than Mars, its own motion affects the path we see. As the moon and Mars appear to move from the eastern to the western horizon due to the Earth’s rotation, the moon moves slightly eastward compared to Mars, due to the moon’s own orbit around Earth. At about 6:50 p.m., the moon passes between Mars and the Earth, occulting Mars. Mars disappears behind the left side of the moon. About an hour later, Mars appears from the right side of the moon.

Thursday: The earliest sunset of the year in Ellensburg occurs this weekend: 4:12 p.m. This seems odd because the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, isn’t for about two more weeks. The Sun is at its southernmost point with respect to the background stars on the day of the winter solstice. This means the Sun spends the least amount of time above the horizon on that day. But, the sunrise and sunset times depend on more than the Sun’s apparent southward motion in the sky. It also depends on where the Sun is on the analemma, that skinny figure-8 you see on globes and world maps. During the second week in December, the Sun is not quite to the bottom of the analemma. But, it is on the leading edge of the analemma, the first section to go below the horizon. For a slightly better explanation of this, including a diagram, go to https://go.shr.lc/2NOMOQC. Or just go watch the sunset. But don’t stare at the Sun.

Friday: Mercury and Venus set just after the Sun so they are a challenge to see. Look just above the southwestern horizon right after the Sun has set. Venus is the brighter point of light. Mercury is just to the left of it. If you don’t find them tonight, that’s okay. They’ll be moving farther away from the Sun in the sky, making them easier to spot by mid-month.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 26, 2022

Today: Today: “Hey baby! What’s your sign?”

“Ophiuchus, of course”

The Sun is in the same part of the sky as the stars of Ophiuchus from about today to December 17. This is what astrologers mean when they say the Sun is “in” a constellation. Thus, if you were born between these dates, you should be an Ophiuchus. The fact that the horoscopes never list Ophiuchus is a major flaw of astrology. Astrology says that some of our characteristics are based on the location of the Sun at our birth. How can astrologers leave out three weeks from their system? That is like a scientist saying she can explain the results of her experiment every month of the year except early December. Ophiuchus was a mythical healer who was a forerunner to Hippocrates. According to myth, he could raise people from the dead. Maybe that is why he is ignored by astrology. Raising people from the dead is much less impressive than giving spot-on advice such as “Today is a good day to watch your finances.”

The bright stars of Ophiuchus rise just before the Sun. Rasalhague (pronounced Ras’-al-hay’-gwee), the brightest star, is just above the east-northeastern horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Sunday: We are just a few days away from the earliest sunsets of the year in Ellensburg. (No, the earliest sunsets are not on the first day of winter.) So this is a good time to learn how to quantify the darkness of the sky. First find the Great Square, the main part of the constellation Pegasus. It is six fists above due south at 7:30 p.m. Find the dimmest star that you can see inside or near the square. Then compare that star to the chart at  https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/how-dark-is-your-night-sky/. The larger the magnitude number, the dimmer the star. When the sky is exceptionally dark, you can see more stars and more interesting deep-sky objects such as star clusters and nebulae.

Monday: Have you been online shopping all weekend? Do you need an evening sky break? You deserve a big reward so make it a double. A Double Cluster, that is. The Double Cluster, also known as h and Chi Persei, consists of two young open star clusters in the constellation Perseus. Of course, young is a relative term as these clusters are about 13 million years old. Each cluster is spread out over an area about the same size as the full moon. To the naked eye, the Double Cluster shines with a steady, fuzzy glow. Binoculars resolve dozens of individual stars in the clusters. The Double Cluster is five and a half fists above the northeastern horizon at 6:00 p.m., about a fist below the sideways “W” of Cassiopeia and three fists above the bright star Capella.

Tuesday: Mars is four fists above the eastern horizon at 9:00 p.m.

Wednesday: Lacerta, the faint lizard constellation, is straight overhead at 6:00 p.m. It was named by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687 to fill the space between the much brighter and well-defined constellations Pegasus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cygnus going clockwise from the constellation just south of Lacerta.

Thursday: Jupiter is less than a half a fist above the moon. Both are about four fists above the south-southeastern horizon. Saturn is two and a half fists above the south-southwestern horizon.

Friday: What do Justin Bieber and Betelgeuse have in common? Both are superstars. One will shine brightly for about a few hundred thousand more years. The other will only seem to be around for that long. “Sorry” Beliebers. “If you Love Yourself”, you and your “Boyfriend” need to learn more about Betelgeuse, the real supergiant star that is big enough to hold about one million Suns. “What Do You Mean” you don’t know where to look? For more information about Betelgeuse, go to http://goo.gl/0MyfHT. You’ll find it one fist above due east at 11 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 19, 2022

Today: “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 held upright and at arm’s length 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. 

Sunday: Would you like to visit Mars? How about America’s desert Southwest? Not enough time? Then just look at some photos from… from…. Hmmm. The photos at https://goo.gl/Elx7O8 look like they could be from either place. The Murray Buttes region of Mars, where the Curiosity rover has been exploring, looks a lot like the landscape of Utah. So much so that the Mars-based movie John Carter was filmed in the desert of southern Utah. Look for John Carter at your local video store. Listen to the soundtrack on your cassette player. Then take a Polaroid selfie of you enjoying each experience. Mars is three fists above due east at 9:00 p.m.

Monday: 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 similar to something moving exactly towards or exactly away from the Earth. However, a more recent analysis 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.

Tuesday: 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 of 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 straight overhead at 9:00 p.m. Our Jupiter is nearly four fists above the south-southwestern horizon at this time. Saturn is one fist above the southwest horizon.

Wednesday: Deneb Kaitos, Arabic for whale’s tail, is two and a half fists above due south at 8:30 p.m. This is the brightest star in the constellation Cetus the sea monster. Or, if you are less prone to hyperbole, Cetus the whale.

Thursday: Some of us have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. But, probably not as much as Andromeda had to be thankful for. According to Greek mythology, the beautiful princess Andromeda was chained to a rock next to the ocean. Cetus the sea monster was about to devour her in order to punish her family. Her mother Queen Cassiopeia and her father King Cepheus didn’t know what to do. It seemed that all was lost. But, along came Andromeda’s boyfriend, the great warrior Perseus. Even though Perseus’ standing as the son of King Zeus and the slayer of Medusa was probably enough to win Andromeda under normal circumstances, Andromeda’s impending death-by-sea-monster was not a normal circumstance. So, Perseus drove his sword into the sea monster’s neck and killed it. This was the first time in recorded history that a set of parents actually welcomed an uninvited Thanksgiving visit from the boyfriend. Perseus is about five fists above the east-northeastern horizon and Andromeda is about seven fists above the eastern horizon at 7:00 p.m.

Friday: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is one fist above the southeast 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. 

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 5, 2022

Saturday: Looking for something to do with your bored, science-loving children? Take them to Nature of Night, taking place from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm in the Science Building on the CWU campus. There will be a hands-on exploration of night-time science with activities, displays, the planetarium, and much more. Scouts can earn their astronomy-related badges. Use this campus map, http://www.cwu.edu/map, and search for “Science Building”.

Before you fall back on your bed tonight, set your clock back one hour to the real time. Daylight savings 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 savings time was first utilized during World War I as a way 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 savings 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 savings rules. Some states would like to adopt daylight savings year around.

Sunday: The Northern Taurid meteor shower peaks this week. The peak of the peak is the night of November 11/12. These are slow moving meteors that result in the occasional fireball. The Taurid meteor showers produce a few bright meteors every hour. The Moon will obscure the dim meteors this year. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull, near the open star cluster called the Pleiades. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon at 8 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain one fist above the V-shaped Hyades Cluster with its bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran). 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.

Monday: There is a total lunar eclipse late tonight/early tomorrow morning. Total lunar eclipses are not as noticeable as total solar eclipses because light still reaches the Moon even when it is completely blocked by the Earth. That is because the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lens and bends rays of light toward the Moon that would normally miss the Moon. However, that doesn’t mean the Moon looks the same during a total lunar eclipse as it does during a normal full moon.

Sunlight is white. White light is the sum of all of the colors in the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Our atmosphere scatters the blue component of the Sun’s white light. That is why our sky is blue. (If our atmosphere consisted of different gasses, we would likely have a different colored sky.) When the Sun or Moon is near the horizon, the light passes through a lot of the atmosphere meaning a lot of the blue light is scattered and the Sun or Moon looks redder than when it is high in the sky. During a total lunar eclipse, sunlight passes through a large slice of the Earth’s atmosphere. The remaining light that reaches the Moon is reddish. Some people say the fully eclipsed Moon looks Blood Red! These people exaggerate. It arrears a dull reddish color.

From the perspective of Ellensburg in the Pacific Time Zone, the partial eclipse stage will start at 1:09 a.m. late tonight/early tomorrow morning. The Moon will slowly move into the Earth’s shadow and get dark from left to right. At 2:16 a.m., the Moon will be fully eclipsed. The total eclipse lasts until 3:41 a.m. The moon will be moving out of the earth’s darkest shadow or umbra until 4:49 a.m. After that, the moon will look white, just like a normal full moon. Thus, during the entire eclipse, the moon looks white, then black, then red all over. For more information about the eclipse, including information about the specific times for your location, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2022-november-8. 

Tuesday: At 8:00 p.m., Saturn is two fists above the south-southwestern horizon, Jupiter is four fists above the south-southeastern horizon, and Mars is one and a half fists above the east-northeastern horizon.

Wednesday: Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, is a half a fist above the southeastern horizon at 11:30 p.m.

Thursday: 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 10-12. 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.

Friday: Are you planning on opening 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.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of October 29, 2022

Saturday: The CWU Pumpkin Drop is this weekend. Register and drop off your decorated pumpkin to Discovery Hall, room 302 on the CWU campus (https://www.cwu.edu/map). If you don’t have any decorating ideas or materials, show up to Discovery Hall at 2:00 to purchase a pumpkin and decorating supplies. All funds collected go to support the organizing clubs’ activities, outreach and fund scholarships.

Sunday: What’s big and orange and goes “splat”? A pumpkin participating in the CWU annual Pumpkin Drop. The 2022 Pumpkin Drop & Trashcano Event will be held today beginning at 12 pm noon and ending when the last trashcano erupts and the last pumpkin falls! The event features trashcanoes erupting on the north side of Discovery Hall and pumpkins being dropped from the roof on the south side of Discovery Hall.The Pumpkin Drop and Trashcano event is an annual fundraiser sponsored by CWU’s Society of Physics Students (SPS), Astronomy and Geology clubs. All funds collected go to support club activities, outreach and fund scholarships. There are many opportunities to actively participate or passively enjoy. There is a special planetarium show following the event. Go to http://www.cwu.edu/physics/PumpkinDrop for more information about the entire event.

Monday: Last week, you learned how to find 40 Eridani A. Today is Halloween. If you need costume ideas for Halloween, look to 40 Eridani A, a popular presence in science fiction. Vulcan, Mr. Spock’s home planet in Star Trek, orbits it. Two main planets in the Dune Universe orbit it. If you are interested in recent science fiction, the main alien character in Andy Weir’s new book Project Hail Mary comes from a planet that orbits 40 Eridani. Weir, also author of The Martian, is known to use a lot of actual science in his books. The planet in the book shares many characteristics with the actual planet orbiting 40 Eridani, discovered in 2018. For more about 40 Eridani in fiction, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_and_planetary_systems_in_fiction#40_Eridani.

Tuesday: 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.

Wednesday: At 7:00 p.m., the moon is in the middle of three bright objects in the south-southeastern sky. Jupiter is three fists to the left of the moon, Saturn is one and a half fists to the right of the moon, and the bright star Fomalhaut is one and a half fists below the moon. 

Thursday: Did you know that moons and dwarf planets can share 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 of their daytime-absorbed heat at night. Read more about Uranian moons at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/uranian-moons-are-like-dwarf-planets/.

Friday: Mars is four and a half fists above the west-southwest horizon at 7:00 a.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of October 22, 2022

Saturday: Halloween is early next week 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 held upright and at arm’s length 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, a little more than three fists above due east, is larger at over 1000 stars and younger. Compared to our 5-billion-year-old Sun, the 100-million-year age of the Pleiades is infant-like.

Sunday: Three years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope got the first close-up view of a comet from another star system. Comet 2I/Borisov was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennady on August 30, 2019 as the second interstellar object ever confirmed. 2I is the new official designator for the second interstellar object. Astronomers know it is from another star system because it is going way too fast, 110,000 miles per hour, to be gravitationally bound to the Sun. Read and watch more about the discovery at http://tiny.cc/mhh0tz.

Monday: At 10:00 p.m., Saturn is about two fists above the south-southwestern horizon, Jupiter is exactly four fists above the south-southeastern horizon, and Mars is about one fist above the east-northeastern horizon.

Tuesday: At about 4:00 am Pacific Daylight Time, the moon will pass between the Earth and the Sun. But because they are not perfectly lined up, the moon will only partially block the Sun, resulting in a partial solar eclipse. Read more about the eclipse at https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2022-october-25, including information on watching a livestream. If you’d like to see the eclipse live, you’ll have to travel to Europe, northeast Africa, the Middle East, or western Asia.

Wednesday: What time is teatime? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the south-southwestern horizon by 7:00 p.m. The handle is on top and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea. 

Thursday: At 6:30 p.m., the bright star Antares is about two finger-widths to the left of the young crescent moon. They are just above due southwest.

Friday: Halloween weekend is a great time to celebrate the dead. Dead stars, that is. Black holes are and neutron stars are the end result of 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 relatively brief period at the end of its life, the Sun will end up with a core of carbon and oxygen that no longer produces energy through nuclear fusion. Without the outward radiation pressure from fusion 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 a little more than two 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.