Saturday: The first quarter Moon, Regulus, and Saturn make a triangle in the western sky this evening. At 10 p.m., Saturn is about a fist held upright and at arm’s length to the upper left of the Moon and the bright star Regulus is about a fist right of the Moon.
Sunday: “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 November 29 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 highly personal advice such as “Today is a good day to be careful in love.”
Rasalhague (pronounced Ras’-al-hay’-gwee), the brightest star in Ophiuchus, is four fists above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. Its name comes from the Arabic words for “head of the serpent charmer” or Ras Alhauge. The rest of Ophiuchus spreads out down and to the right of Rasalhague.
Monday: The month of June is named after Juno, the queen of the Roman gods and the mythological protector of the Roman state. In ancient Rome, the month began when the crescent moon was first seen in the evening sky from Capitoline Hill in Rome. If we still started months this way, June would begin last week and not today.
Tuesday: Spica is about one fist to the upper left of the Moon at 10 p.m.
Wednesday: Nearly 400 years ago, Galileo viewed the Pleiades star cluster through his telescope and saw that the seven or so stars in the region visible to the naked eye became a couple dozen. Now we know there are about 100 stars in this open star cluster. There are two main types of star clusters. Open star clusters 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. The stars in the Pleiades are about 100 million years old, much younger than our five billion year old Sun. Globular clusters are groups of up to a few million stars that orbit the core of spiral galaxies such as our own Milky Way. June’s “Hot Topic” for the International Year of Astronomy is star clusters. Go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics_jun.htm for more information.
Thursday: 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 five fists above the east horizon at 11 p.m. Two fists above Vega is a keystone shape. Aim your binoculars at the upper left hand star of the keystone. 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 stuff”. Go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/observe_jun.htm for more information about the Hercules globular cluster.
Friday: Jupiter is nearly three fists above the south horizon at 5 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 5/23/09
Saturday: Ophiuchus (pronounced O-fee-u’-kus) the serpent holder rises just before sunset this evening. By 11, p.m., the leading star, Yed Prior or “the preceding star of the hand” is three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon.
Sunday: Tonight’s Moon is new. Don’t bother looking for it. The new moon is the phase where the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun. Hence the side of the Moon facing Earth is not receiving any sunlight and cannot be seen. This is why some people call this phase the “dark moon” and reserve the name “new moon” for the first visible waxing crescent after the Moon moves out from directly between the Earth and Sun.
Monday: Jupiter appears to have another Moon for the next few mornings. The planet Neptune is less than one pinky width to the upper left of Jupiter, the brightest point of light in that portion of the sky. They are two and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. Over the next couple of days, Neptune will move closer to Jupiter in the morning sky. Neptune is visible with binoculars.
Tuesday: U Scorpii is a recurrent nova that explodes about once every ten years. It gets over 2,000 times brighter for a few hours after the explosion. I wrote about it two weeks ago. Did you look for it? You will not be able to see it now without a 16 inch telescope. But once it explodes, you will be able to see it in binoculars. First find Antares one fist above the south-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. Then, looking through your binoculars, count up three stars that are of similar brightness yet much dimmer than Antares. U Scorpii will appear above this star when it explodes.
Wednesday: Saturn is four fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p-.m.
Thursday: Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes the herdsman is six fists above due south at 11:30 p.m. The body of Bootes resembles a kite that spreads upward from Arcturus. Arcturus is most likely your wishing star – the first star you see tonight.
Friday: Cygnus the swan flies tonight. Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation, whose name means “tail” in Arabic, is two fists above the northeast horizon. 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.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Tonight’s Moon is new. Don’t bother looking for it. The new moon is the phase where the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun. Hence the side of the Moon facing Earth is not receiving any sunlight and cannot be seen. This is why some people call this phase the “dark moon” and reserve the name “new moon” for the first visible waxing crescent after the Moon moves out from directly between the Earth and Sun.
Monday: Jupiter appears to have another Moon for the next few mornings. The planet Neptune is less than one pinky width to the upper left of Jupiter, the brightest point of light in that portion of the sky. They are two and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. Over the next couple of days, Neptune will move closer to Jupiter in the morning sky. Neptune is visible with binoculars.
Tuesday: U Scorpii is a recurrent nova that explodes about once every ten years. It gets over 2,000 times brighter for a few hours after the explosion. I wrote about it two weeks ago. Did you look for it? You will not be able to see it now without a 16 inch telescope. But once it explodes, you will be able to see it in binoculars. First find Antares one fist above the south-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. Then, looking through your binoculars, count up three stars that are of similar brightness yet much dimmer than Antares. U Scorpii will appear above this star when it explodes.
Wednesday: Saturn is four fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p-.m.
Thursday: Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes the herdsman is six fists above due south at 11:30 p.m. The body of Bootes resembles a kite that spreads upward from Arcturus. Arcturus is most likely your wishing star – the first star you see tonight.
Friday: Cygnus the swan flies tonight. Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation, whose name means “tail” in Arabic, is two fists above the northeast horizon. 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.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 5/16/09
Saturday: Saturn is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon at 10:30 p.m.
Sunday: Jupiter is less than a half a fist to the lower right of the last quarter Moon at 5 a.m.
Monday: Late spring and early summer is a good time to look for star clusters. Last week, you learned about M3, the third object cataloged by French astronomer Charles Messier over 200 years ago. One of the best clusters is the globular cluster in the constellation Hercules, also called M13. (Hummm. Guess what number that object is in Messier’s catalog.) Globular clusters are compact groupings of a few hundred thousand stars in a spherical shape 100 light years across. (For comparison, a 100 light year diameter sphere near out Sun would contain a few hundred stars.) The globular cluster in Hercules is six fists above due east at 11 p.m. First find Vega, the bright bluish star about four fists above the east-northeast horizon. Two fists to the upper right of Vega is a keystone shape. Aim your binoculars at the two stars that form the uppermost point of the keystone. The globular cluster is one third of the way south of the uppermost star on 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 stuff”.
Tuesday: When it is sitting low in the western sky, many people mistake the star Capella for a planet. It is bright. It has a slight yellow color. But, Capella is compelling on its own. It is the fourth brightest star we can see in Ellensburg. It is the most northerly bright star. It is a binary star consisting of two yellow giant stars that orbit each other every 100 days. At 10 p.m., Capella is two fists above the northwest horizon. If you miss it 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.
Wednesday: The Moon interacts with Mars and Venus in the morning sky for the next two days. At 5 a.m., Venus is about a fist to the lower left of the Moon. Mars is about a half a fist to the lower left of Venus.
Thursday: Mars, Venus and the Moon make a nearly equilateral triangle in the eastern sky just before sunrise. Venus is the bright point of light on the right side of the triangle. Mars is the lowest point of light in the triangle.
Friday: Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, is known as the Horn Mansion one of 28 mansions, or constellations, in the Chinese sky. Spica is about three fists above the south horizon at 11 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Jupiter is less than a half a fist to the lower right of the last quarter Moon at 5 a.m.
Monday: Late spring and early summer is a good time to look for star clusters. Last week, you learned about M3, the third object cataloged by French astronomer Charles Messier over 200 years ago. One of the best clusters is the globular cluster in the constellation Hercules, also called M13. (Hummm. Guess what number that object is in Messier’s catalog.) Globular clusters are compact groupings of a few hundred thousand stars in a spherical shape 100 light years across. (For comparison, a 100 light year diameter sphere near out Sun would contain a few hundred stars.) The globular cluster in Hercules is six fists above due east at 11 p.m. First find Vega, the bright bluish star about four fists above the east-northeast horizon. Two fists to the upper right of Vega is a keystone shape. Aim your binoculars at the two stars that form the uppermost point of the keystone. The globular cluster is one third of the way south of the uppermost star on 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 stuff”.
Tuesday: When it is sitting low in the western sky, many people mistake the star Capella for a planet. It is bright. It has a slight yellow color. But, Capella is compelling on its own. It is the fourth brightest star we can see in Ellensburg. It is the most northerly bright star. It is a binary star consisting of two yellow giant stars that orbit each other every 100 days. At 10 p.m., Capella is two fists above the northwest horizon. If you miss it 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.
Wednesday: The Moon interacts with Mars and Venus in the morning sky for the next two days. At 5 a.m., Venus is about a fist to the lower left of the Moon. Mars is about a half a fist to the lower left of Venus.
Thursday: Mars, Venus and the Moon make a nearly equilateral triangle in the eastern sky just before sunrise. Venus is the bright point of light on the right side of the triangle. Mars is the lowest point of light in the triangle.
Friday: Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, is known as the Horn Mansion one of 28 mansions, or constellations, in the Chinese sky. Spica is about three fists above the south horizon at 11 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 5/9/09
Saturday: If the commanding officer in the movie Stripes would ask the Bill Murray character what happens to the star U Scorpii this year, he could reprise his well known quote from the movie and say “Blown up, sir!” U Scorpii is a recurrent nova meaning it explodes at least once a century. Based on records over the past one hundred years, U Scorpii explodes about once every ten years. Its last eruption was in 1999. You do the math. When U Scorpii explodes, it gets over 2,000 times brighter in only five hours going from a star visible in large telescopes to a star visible in binoculars. U Scorpii, if it was visible, would be to the upper left of the Moon at midnight tonight.
Sunday: Jupiter is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 5 a.m.
Monday: Give me an “M”. Give me a “3”. What does that spell? “M3.” “Big deal,” you say. It was a big deal to French comet hunter Charles Messier (pronounced messy a). M3 was the 3rd comet look-alike that Messier catalogued in the late 1700s. M3 is a globular cluster, a cluster of over 100,000 stars that is 32,000 light years away. It is too dim to be seen with the naked eye but is fairly easy find with binoculars. First find Arcturus five and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m. (See Wednesday’s entry to learn how to find Arcturus.) Move your binoculars up a little so two stars of nearly identical brightness are in your field of view. When the top star is in the lower left part of your field of view, there should be a fuzzy patch near the center of your field of view. This is M3.
Tuesday: Venus is one fist above the east horizon at 5 a.m. Mars is about one fist to the loser left of Venus.
Wednesday: This is a good time of the year to find the Big Dipper. It is nearly straight overhead at 10 p.m. The cup is to the west and the handle is to the east. You can always use the Big Dipper to find some other bright stars. First, follow the curve, or arc, of the Big Dipper down three fists into the southern sky. This is the bright star, Arcturus, the second brightest nighttime star we can see in Ellensburg. Next, continue on a straight line, or spike, another three fists down toward the south horizon to the star Spica. Spica is the tenth brightest nighttime star we can see in Ellensburg. You now know how to use the Big Dipper handle to “arc” to Arcturus and “spike” to Spica.
Thursday: The latest fad on hard rock is groups are covering 1980s songs. Disturbed covers “Land of Confusion” by Genesis. Seether covers “Careless Whisper” by Wham. How about covering a song by The Police? An appropriate one this week is “King of Pain”: “There’s a little black spot on Saturn today. You would not have seen it yesterday.” The shadow of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, passes across Saturn from 10:26 tonight until 3:39 tomorrow morning. This should be visible in high quality small telescope, one with a light gathering lens or mirror at least three inches in diameter. Saturn is four and a half fists above the southwest horizon at 10:26 p.m.
Friday: Wait a minute. We got all the way to the end of the week with no Moon phase summary? How can that be? There are 29.5 days between the same Moon phase in two different cycles. That means about 7.5 days between the phases new, first quarter, full and last quarter. Since a week is seven days, there are some weeks in which none of the main phases occur. This week, the Moon was always in the waning gibbous phase.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Jupiter is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 5 a.m.
Monday: Give me an “M”. Give me a “3”. What does that spell? “M3.” “Big deal,” you say. It was a big deal to French comet hunter Charles Messier (pronounced messy a). M3 was the 3rd comet look-alike that Messier catalogued in the late 1700s. M3 is a globular cluster, a cluster of over 100,000 stars that is 32,000 light years away. It is too dim to be seen with the naked eye but is fairly easy find with binoculars. First find Arcturus five and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m. (See Wednesday’s entry to learn how to find Arcturus.) Move your binoculars up a little so two stars of nearly identical brightness are in your field of view. When the top star is in the lower left part of your field of view, there should be a fuzzy patch near the center of your field of view. This is M3.
Tuesday: Venus is one fist above the east horizon at 5 a.m. Mars is about one fist to the loser left of Venus.
Wednesday: This is a good time of the year to find the Big Dipper. It is nearly straight overhead at 10 p.m. The cup is to the west and the handle is to the east. You can always use the Big Dipper to find some other bright stars. First, follow the curve, or arc, of the Big Dipper down three fists into the southern sky. This is the bright star, Arcturus, the second brightest nighttime star we can see in Ellensburg. Next, continue on a straight line, or spike, another three fists down toward the south horizon to the star Spica. Spica is the tenth brightest nighttime star we can see in Ellensburg. You now know how to use the Big Dipper handle to “arc” to Arcturus and “spike” to Spica.
Thursday: The latest fad on hard rock is groups are covering 1980s songs. Disturbed covers “Land of Confusion” by Genesis. Seether covers “Careless Whisper” by Wham. How about covering a song by The Police? An appropriate one this week is “King of Pain”: “There’s a little black spot on Saturn today. You would not have seen it yesterday.” The shadow of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, passes across Saturn from 10:26 tonight until 3:39 tomorrow morning. This should be visible in high quality small telescope, one with a light gathering lens or mirror at least three inches in diameter. Saturn is four and a half fists above the southwest horizon at 10:26 p.m.
Friday: Wait a minute. We got all the way to the end of the week with no Moon phase summary? How can that be? There are 29.5 days between the same Moon phase in two different cycles. That means about 7.5 days between the phases new, first quarter, full and last quarter. Since a week is seven days, there are some weeks in which none of the main phases occur. This week, the Moon was always in the waning gibbous phase.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
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