The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of June 28, 2026

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: Jupiter is about a half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon at 9:45 p.m. Mercury is below it, likely too close to the horizon to be visible. They are moving towards the Sun in the sky and will soon be lost in its glare. At one and a half fists above the western horizon, Venus is still far enough from the Sun in the sky to be visible in the evening sky for a few more weeks.

Monday: The July full moon is the Buck Moon, named for the new antlers that form on the forehead of male deer this time of year.

Tuesday: Happy Asteroid Day (http://www.asteroidday.org/), the day we celebrate avoiding the destruction of the Earth by an undiscovered asteroid. There are about a million asteroids in the Solar System with the potential to strike Earth and destroy a city. Astronomers have discovered only 1% of them. Asteroid Day is an effort to educate the public and encourage policy makers to fund this important effort. King Tut may have celebrated an ancient Asteroid Day by asking his assistants to make a dagger out of a broken-off asteroid that landed on Earth. Astronomers discovered that the blade of the knife contained much more nickel than is found in terrestrial iron, an amount consistent with iron meteorites, especially with one found in the year 2000 in the Kharga region in northern Egypt. For more information about the dagger, go to http://goo.gl/BHBivd.

Wednesday: Mizar is a star in the middle of the Big Dipper handle. Don’t confuse Mizar with its rhyming brother Izar in the constellation Boötes. 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.

Thursday: 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.

Friday: Mars is about one and a half fists above the east-northeastern horizon at 4:30 a.m., halfway between the Pleiades and Hyades open star clusters. But that’s not the most interesting thing about looking at Mars this morning. The planet Uranus is right above Mars in the sky this morning. Uranus is not quite bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. But it is easily visible with binoculars, right above Mars.

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 20, 2026

Saturday: At 10:00 p.m., very bright Venus is one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon. Jupiter is to the lower right of Venus, a half a fist above the horizon. Mercury is to the lower right of Jupiter, just above the west-northwestern horizon.

Sunday: At 1:25 a.m. today, the Sun reached its highest declination (the official name for sky latitude) of 23.5 degrees above the celestial equator. The celestial equator is the line that divides the northern sky from the southern sky. That makes today the first full day of summer. In Ellensburg, the Sun is about seven fists held upright and at arm’s length above the south horizon at 1:00 p.m. (noon standard time) on the first day of summer.

Contrary to widespread belief, the Sun is never straight overhead in Ellensburg or anywhere else in the 48 contiguous states. The northernmost portion of the world where the Sun can be directly overhead is 23.5 degrees north latitude. In ancient times, the Sun was in the constellation Cancer the crab on the first day of summer. Hence, 23.5 degrees north latitude has the nickname "Tropic of Cancer". Because the Earth wobbles like a spinning top, the Sun's apparent path through the sky changes slightly over time. Now, the Sun is in the constellation Taurus the Bull on the first day of summer. However, citing the high cost of revising all the science books, geographers are not changing the name of 23.5 degrees north latitude to "Tropic of Taurus". The first day of summer is often called the summer solstice. However, astronomers refer to the summer solstice as the point in the sky in which the Sun is at its highest declination above the celestial equator. Summer starts when the Sun is at the summer solstice point.

Monday: Don’t wait until July 4 to watch those wimpy firecracker shows. Find the hypergiant star Rho Cassiopeiae. Astronomers think that Rho Cassiopeiae will likely go supernova (explode) in the near future. Of course, for stars, “near future” might mean tomorrow. It might mean 20,000 years from now. Rho Cassiopeiae is in the constellation Cassiopeia the queen. At 11:00 tonight, Cassiopeia looks like the letter “W” about two and a half fists above the north-northeastern horizon. Rho Cassiopeiae is about a finger’s width to the right of the rightmost star in the “W”. Once you find it you’ll be thinking, “Big deal, I can hardly see it.” Although it is barely visible to the naked eye, it is actually very bright. It is the 20^th most luminous star in the sky, a whopping 550,000 times more luminous than the Sun.

Tuesday: The bright star Spica is about a half fist to the upper right of the moon, in the south-southwestern sky at 10:00 p.m.

Wednesday: “Mom, I can’t sleep. It is too light out!” A poor excuse you say. Good astronomy skills, I say. The latest sunset of the year happens around this date. Surprisingly, the earliest sunrise and the latest sunset do not both happen on the longest day of the year, the day of the summer solstice. The earliest sunrise occurs just before the longest day and the latest sunset occurs just after the longest day. This phenomenon relates to the angle of the Sun’s path near rising and setting. In Ellensburg, that angle is about 66 degrees above the southern horizon at noon near the first day of summer. Because of the Earth’s orbit, which causes the Sun’s apparent motion, the angles are not symmetric. The asymmetry in orbital angles leads to the asymmetry in rise and set times. This year, the sun sets at about 9:01 p.m. every night the rest of this week as viewed from Ellensburg, WA. Find sunset data for your location at https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/.

Thursday: At 4:00 a.m., Mars is one fist above the east-northeastern horizon. Saturn is two and a half fists above the south-southeastern horizon at this time.

Friday: The bright star Antares is about a half fist to the left of the moon at 11:00 p.m., one and a half fists above due south. If you’d like to learn more about stars like Antares, the CWU Lydig Planetarium has free shows at 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. today. They are in Discovery Hall, room 101. Here is a Google maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Nwp1e5t7qXk5bfE9. Parking on campus is free after 4:30 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 June 13, 2026

 

CWU graduation is this weekend. Your favorite graduate deserves a gift. Why not get her, him, or them a star? I don’t mean from one of those organizations that offer to “register the name of YOUR star with the U.S. Patent Office”. No company owns the right to name stars after people. Besides, the stars that those companies “name” are so dim you can’t find them. In this column, I’ll pick a constellation and representative star for each of the four colleges at CWU. Then, I’ll briefly tell the story of the constellation and relate that story to the aspect of public service CWU graduates from that college are highly qualified to engage in based on my version of sky interpretation. If different couples can have “their” song, then your favorite college graduate can have their star. If you can’t make it to campus, celebrate with your favorite CWU 2026 graduate at the Livestreamed ceremony shown here: http://www.cwu.edu/commencement/.

Saturday: College of Arts and Humanities: You are the people who interpret the world in unique ways. Then, you share those ways with others. According to Greek mythology, Orpheus charmed everyone he met when he played the lyre or harp. After his wife died tragically, he journeyed to the underworld to charm its inhabitants in an effort to win his wife back to the living world. Your service reminder: use your talent to bring joy to others. The constellation Lyra and its bright star Vega should remind you of the power of the arts. Vega is five and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the eastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Sunday: "Do I have to wake up yet? It's so early!" The next few days have the earliest sunrises for the northern part of the United States, including Ellensburg. "Wait, I thought this happened on the longest day of the year, which hasn't occurred yet." Because the Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle, the sunrise and sunset time is not symmetric. The earliest sunrise occurs before the longest day, and the latest sunset occurs after the longest day. Go to http://earthsky.org/?p=4027 to read more about this phenomenon. While you are up early, look for the planets Venus and Saturn. Venus is one fist above the eastern horizon and Saturn is two and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 4:15 a.m.

Monday: College of Business. You are the future movers and shakers. The future CEOs. The future big donors to Central. Auriga represented a king of Athens who happened to be mobility impaired. Instead of sitting around waiting for others to transport him, he took the initiative to invent the four-wheeled chariot. He solved a problem for a special need. Your service reminder: address the problems of those in the most need. To remind you of that, look to the constellation Auriga. Its bright star Capella is about a half a fist above the north-northwestern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Tuesday: Mars’ two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, are not visible in typical backyard telescopes. But they are an interesting study. The former view among astronomers was that both moons are captured asteroids. That makes sense given Mars’ proximity to the asteroid belt. But recent findings by European astronomers indicate that Phobos is very porous and made of material similar to the surface of Mars. This implies that Phobos may consist of chunks of Martian debris that was blasted off by numerous impacts and gravitationally bound together. Unfortunately, the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe launched late 2011 to collect material from Phobos crashed to Earth after malfunctioning. For more information about this recent model of Phobos’ formation, go to https://sci.esa.int/web/mars-express/-/31031-phobos. For more information about Mars, look one fist above the east-northeastern horizon at 4:15 a.m. Saturn is two fists above the east-southeastern horizon at this time.

Wednesday: “Three planets and a crescent moon line up in the western sky.” This is not the opening line of a bad joke. It is a description of the evening sky. At 10:00 p.m., the crescent moon is one and a half fists above the western horizon. A little to the lower right is the planet Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky. To the lower right of Venus is Jupiter, the second brightest point of light in the sky tonight. Continuing along that line is Mercury, a half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon.

Thursday: College of Education and Professional Studies. You are the teachers. The craftspeople. The technical experts. Boötes, the herdsman, was such a person. Boötes’ job was to guide the northern constellations to the feeding place and the watering hole. He and his dogs were especially in charge of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the greater and lesser bears. Your service reminder: guide others to a better place in life. Look to the constellation Boötes and its bright star Arcturus to remind you of this. Arcturus is five and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 11:00 p.m. If you’d like to learn more about constellations, the CWU Lydig Planetarium has free shows at 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. today. They are in Discovery Hall, room 101. Here is a Google maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Nwp1e5t7qXk5bfE9. Parking on campus is free after 4:30 p.m.

Friday: College of the Sciences. You are the people who will systematically study how the world works. Agriculture is an important scientific application. Each year, farmers must use the findings of science to be successful. Who better to represent the College of the Sciences than Virgo, the goddess of the harvest? Virgo looms large in the sky holding an ear of wheat in her hand. Your service reminder: study the practical aspects of the scientific world. The ear of wheat, and your service reminder, is represented by the bright star Spica. Spica is two and a half fists above the southwestern 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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of June 6, 2026

Saturday: I hope that you have never been in a collision. It can be scary and dangerous. The biggest collision in our celestial neighborhood may occur in a few billion years when our Milky Way Galaxy may collide with the Andromeda Galaxy. Notice I said, “MAY occur” and “MAY collide. Up until about a year ago I would have sounded more certain. But recent simulations by astronomers have lowered the chance of a collision to about 50%. These new simulations did a better job in accounting for the effects of the smaller galaxies in the celestial neighborhood. This video shows a simulation with the new findings: https://youtu.be/o2x_31dE04s.

If you can’t stay awake for a few billion years to see the possible collision, stay up until late at night to see the Andromeda Galaxy. First find the Great Square of Pegasus. At 2:00 a.m., the left-hand corner of the square is about two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeastern 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 about two and a half fists above the northeastern horizon. The galaxy is impressive to see in binoculars. It consists of nearly a trillion stars and is 2.2 million light years away.

Sunday: The Globe at Night June campaign starts tomorrow. Globe at night is a citizen science project to quantify the impact of light pollution on our view of the night sky. Go to https://globeatnight.org/campaigns/ to learn more and participate. This is a fun way to observe the night sky and contribute to science at the same time.

Monday: Venus and Jupiter are neighbors in the sky all week but tonight they are at their closest. Look for them one and a half fists above the west-northwestern horizon at 9:45 p.m. Mercury is to the lower right of them, less than a fist above the horizon.

Tuesday: Alkaid, the end of the Big Dipper handle, is nearly straight overhead at 10:00 p.m.

Wednesday: In 1982, the British group Bow Wow Wow first sang, “I Want Candy”. In May 2019, NASA finally granted that wish by releasing images of Mars’ moon Phobos looking like candy. The thermal imaging camera on NASA’s long lived Odyssey orbiter took a series of images of the full phase of Phobos. The resulting composite, looking like a many layered jawbreakers, shows how the temperature varies throughout the small moon. This temperature distribution, in turn, can help astronomers determine what the moon is made of. For more about this yummy treat, go to https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/why-this-martian-full-moon-looks-like-candy. Mars is about half a fist above the east-northeastern horizon at 4:15 a.m. Saturn is nearly two fists above the east-southeastern horizon at this time, just to the lower right of the moon.

Thursday: It looks so peaceful up in the night sky. But the sky is not peaceful for Jupiter. According to a recent study by astronomers, Jupiter gets hit by a 5-20 meter diameter asteroid 10 to 65 times a year. For comparison, the object that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013 was 20 meters in diameter. Earth gets hit by a 20-meter asteroid about once every 50 years. Jupiter is one fist above the west-northwestern horizon at 10:00 p.m., right below the brighter Venus. You can see how much Venus has moved compared to Jupiter over the past three days.

Friday: Are you up at 12:52 a.m., looking due north and thinking you see a UFO coming to take you away? That's no UFO. It's the bright star Capella, a circumpolar star that never goes below the horizon as viewed from Ellensburg.

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 May 30, 2026

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

Tonight’s and tomorrow night’s moon is the second full moon of the month, which is called a blue moon. That name originates from a mistranslation of a story from the 1500s.

Sunday: You know Metis and Thebe and Adrastea and Amalthea. Io and Ganymede and Callisto and Europa. But do you recall? There are 97 Jovian moons in all. Just 60 years ago, Jupiter was thought to have only 12 moons. But astronomers are red nosed with delight that the advent of supersensitive electronic cameras has caused the number of discovered moons to rapidly increase. Jupiter’s 115 moons range in size from Ganymede, the largest in the Solar System with a diameter of 5,262 kilometers, to numerous moons with diameters of only one kilometer. In the past few years, Saturn moved to first place in the moon race with 292 moons. Uranus follows Jupiter with 29. Then comes Neptune with 16, Mars with 2, and Earth with 1. Our moon is the fifth largest in the Solar System, with a diameter of 3,475 kilometers. (One kilometer is 0.62 miles.) Even dwarf planets have moons. Pluto has 5 while both Haumea and Quaoar have 2. Eris, Makemake, Orcus, and Gonggong have 1 each. Eris is an outer solar system object that was discovered in 2005 and named in September of 2006. Because astronomers thought it was larger than Pluto, people called it the tenth planet for a while. (More recent measurements show Eris to be a little smaller in diameter than Pluto.) Haumea, the newest dwarf planet with a moon, was discovered in 2004 and officially named a dwarf planet on September 17, 2008. Go to https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/ for more information about Solar System moons. You’ll have to wait until tonight to see our moon and to see some of the other Solar System planets that have moons.

Monday: Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury and all low in the west-northwestern horizon at 9:45 p.m. Jupiter is nearly two fists above the horizon, to the upper left. Venus, the brightest of the three, is in the middle. Mercury, on the lower right, is about half a fist above the horizon.

Tuesday: Summer is nearly here. How do I know? Because the days are very long. Because the temperature is rising. Because the school year is ending. Also, because the Summer Triangle is fairly high in the eastern sky at 11:30 p.m. Vega, the third brightest star visible from Ellensburg, is about five fists above the eastern horizon. Deneb, at the tail of Cygnus the swan, is about three and a half fists above the east-northeast horizon. The third star in the triangle, Altair in Aquila the eagle, is nearly two fists above the eastern horizon.

If you want to put somebody off, tell them to wait until Deneb sets. At Ellensburg’s latitude of 47 degrees, Deneb is a circumpolar star meaning it never goes below the horizon.

Wednesday: At 4:15 a.m., Mars is half a fist above the east-northeastern horizon and Saturn is one and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon.

Thursday: Antares is one and a half fists above the south-southeastern horizon at 11:45 p.m.

Friday: The bright star Capella is a half a fist above the north-northwestern horizon at 11:30 p.m. Interestingly enough, even though it is in the northern sky, it is only about two fists from the Sun. If you viewed Capella from Ketchikan, the southernmost city in Alaska, Capella would be one and a half fists above the horizon. The Sun would be a half a fist below the horizon, close enough to the horizon that there would be a constant twilight glow.

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 May 23, 2026

Saturday: Cygnus the swan flies tonight. Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation, whose name means “tail” in Arabic, is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due northeast at 10:15 p.m. Cygnus’ wings make a vertical line one half a fist to the right of Deneb. Its head, marked by the star Albireo, is two fists to the right of Deneb. While Deneb is at the tail of Cygnus, it is at the head of the line of bright stars. It is 160,000 times more luminous than the Sun, making it one of the brightest stars in the galaxy. It does not dominate our night sky because it is 2,600 light years away, one of the farthest naked eye stars. If Deneb were 25 light years away, it would shine as bright as a crescent moon. Compare that to Vega, its fellow Summer Triangle star. Vega IS 25 light years away and certainly doesn’t rival the light of the crescent Moon. Vega is about two fists to the upper right of Deneb.

Sunday: The bright red giant Antares is one fist above the south-southeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Monday: Altair, the lowest star in the Summer Triangle, is one fist above due east at 11:15 p.m.

Tuesday: Three bright planets line up in the early evening sky tonight. At 9:30 p.m., Mercury is about a half a fist above the northwestern horizon. Venus is one and a half fists above the west-northwestern horizon. Jupiter is two and a half fists above the western horizon.

Wednesday: As the weather warms up, people start thinking about swimming in a nice cool body of water. A few years ago, astronomers discovered evidence of an ocean about 20 miles beneath the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. NASA’s Cassini probes measured variations in how the moon’s gravity pulled on the orbiting spacecraft. These variations can be explained by a large amount of liquid water under one section of the ice because liquid water is denser than an equal volume of ice. More recently, scientists have discovered organic molecules in the geyser streaming out of cracks in the surface. Now they hypothesize that the organic molecules come from hydrothermal vents, similar to those found under Earth’s oceans, and they are investigating the creation mechanism. For more information about these, go to https://www.universetoday.com/166987/linking-organic-molecules-to-hydrothermal-vents-on-enceladus/. While you need an exceptionally large telescope to see Enceladus, you can see Saturn at 4:30 a.m., about one fist above the eastern horizon. Mars is just above the east-northeastern horizon.

Thursday: Stonehenge was created on the island of Great Britain by the 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 is tonight at 8:14 p.m. Eastern time and then again tomorrow at 8:13 p.m. Eastern time. For more information about Manhattanhenge, go to https://www.amnh.org/research/hayden-planetarium/manhattanhenge.

Friday: The Beehive Cluster is about two and a half fists above the western horizon. The Beehive Cluster, described by Ptolemy as “a nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer [the crab]”, is an open star cluster of about 350 stars that is about 600 light years away.

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 May 16, 2026

 Saturday: In 1979, the group Foreigner recorded the song “Head Games”. They could have been singing about the constellations Hercules and Ophiuchus when they said “head games, it’s just you and me baby, head games, I can’t take it anymore” because the heads of these two constellations have been right next to each other in the nighttime sky for all of human history. And just to make it easy for you, a star that bears an Arabic name that means “the head” represents each head. In Hercules, it's Ras Algethi (head of the kneeler); in Ophiuchus, Ras Alhague (head of the serpent charmer). At 11:00 p.m., Ras Alhague, the brighter of the two, is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-southeastern horizon. Ras Algethi is about a half a fist to the upper right of Ras Alhague.

Sunday: Are you thirsty? I'll wait while you get some water. I will NOT wait while Corvus the crow gets you some water. The Greco-Roman god Apollo made this mistake. He sent Corvus the crow to get some water in the cup known as Crater. Some figs distracted Corvus and he waited for them to ripen so he could eat them. When Corvus got back late, Apollo put Corvus and Crater in the sky with the gently tipping cup just out of the reach of the perpetually thirsty crow. Corvus is a trapezoid-shaped constellation about two fists above due south at 9:30 p.m. Crater is just to the right of Corvus.

Monday: Venus is about a thumb’s width below the moon at 10:00 p.m., one fist above the west-northwestern horizon. When a bright planet is close to the moon in the sky, it is a tempting target to be seen when the Sun is out. “WHAT?!” you say. “Can I really see a planet when the Sun is out?” The brightest planets can be seen during the day with binoculars. The key is knowing where to look. Since you can easily find the moon during the days when it is out, use the moon to find Venus. First find the moon at 7:00 p.m., four fists above due west. Then get the moon in the center of your binocular field of view. Next move your binoculars a little to the lower left of the moon so find Venus. Finally, lower your binoculars and look in the same location.

Tuesday: Today is International Museum Day. You can read more about the day here: https://icom.museum/en/international-museum-day-2/. Even better, visit a museum instead. One of my favorite astronomy locations is the Goldendale Observatory in Goldendale, WA. Plan your visit at: https://www.goldendaleobservatory.com.

Wednesday: Are you thirsty when you get up in the morning? I know you are not waiting for Corvus. That’s okay because the Big Dipper is positioned to hold water in the morning sky. Look three fists above the northwest horizon at 4:30 a.m. You’ll see three stars that make a bent handle and four stars that make a cup. This is the Big Dipper.

Thursday: Jupiter is two fists above the western horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Friday: Regulus is about a finger’s width to the upper left of the moon, four fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

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