Saturday: Halloween. The pumpkins. The candy. The children going door-to-door dressed up has their favorite astronomers Antonia Maury and Edward Pickering. At least they should because Halloween is, in part, an astronomical holiday. Halloween is a “cross-quarter date”, a day approximately midway between an equinox and a solstice. Historically, the Celts of the British Isles used cross-quarter dates as the beginnings of seasons. For the Celts, winter began with Halloween. So when all those little Maurys and Pickerings come to your door, honor the Celts and give them a wintry treat.
Don’t forget to “fall back” tonight. Before you fall back on to your bed, set your clock back one hour to the real time. Daylight savings ends early Sunday morning at 2 a.m. This means one more hour of sky watching at night 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. But, 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.
Sunday: Happy Celtic New Year! Many historians think that this day, 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.
Monday: Tonight’s full Moon and the waning gibbous phase of the next few nights will obscure many meteorites. But, the one or two bright fireballs per hour you can see during the typical Southern Taurid meteor shower may make it worth your while to say up. The Southern Taurid meteor shower reaches a maximum over the next few nights with a peak on November 5. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull. This point is about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist to the right of the 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. If you stay up all night, you may notice Venus less than one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 6 a.m.
Tuesday: Orion is about two fists above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. If you are having trouble finding things in the sky, Orion is a good confidence builder.
Wednesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the south horizon at 7 p.m.
Thursday: The weather may be getting cold. But, NASA still has Hot Topics for the International Year of Astronomy. November’s topic is very hot. Starting at a few thousand degrees Celsius for most of their productive lives and moving on to 100,000 degrees Celsius for new white dwarf stars, stars can definitely heat up a room. (Not as much as an episode of Grey’s Anatomy with all of those good looking doctors but close.) Not all stars start at the same temperature or die the same way. The temperature of a star for most of its productive life can tell an astronomer a lot about how the star was formed and how it will end up. Four hundred years ago, Galileo would have never dreamed that the descendants of his telescope would see such a variety of stars, objects that many uninformed people still call little points of white light. For more information about the lives of stars, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics.htm and click on November.
Friday: Mars is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 11:30 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/24/09
Saturday: “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 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 10 p.m. The much brighter Fomalhaut is a fist and a half below Skat. And, it’s not fun being below Skat.
Sunday: Tonight’s first quarter moon is in the constellation Capricornus the sea goat.
Monday: Jupiter is about as finger’s width to the lower left of the Moon. They are two and a half fists above due south at 8 p.m.
Tuesday: The Stargate movies and TV shows have access to a portal to other planets. Harry Potter has access to a portal to the Chamber of Secrets. You have access to a Portal to the Universe. This portal, available not in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom but on the web at http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/, is a repository of up-to-date astronomy news, blogs, and podcasts.
Wednesday: Venus is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 7 a.m. It is near the belly button of the maiden depicted in the constellation Virgo. Great. I hope this does start a new trend – tattooing a planet near your belly button.
Thursday: A few stars appear to be a color other than white to the naked eye. The reddish Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion and the bluish Vega in the constellation Lyra come to mind. But if you look with binoculars, the star Mu Cephei appears to be more vividly colored than either of these - a surprisingly deep red. This star, named the Garnet star by the astronomer William Herschel, is eight fists above the north horizon, very close to being straight overhead, at 8 p.m. It is a red supergiant star that varies in brightness by about a factor of five over a two-year period. If our Sun were replaced by Mu Cephei, it would fill up the solar system out to halfway between Jupiter and Saturn.
Friday: Finally, you don’t have to be an insomniac or work the late shift to see Mars before you go to bed! Mars is a half a fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Tonight’s first quarter moon is in the constellation Capricornus the sea goat.
Monday: Jupiter is about as finger’s width to the lower left of the Moon. They are two and a half fists above due south at 8 p.m.
Tuesday: The Stargate movies and TV shows have access to a portal to other planets. Harry Potter has access to a portal to the Chamber of Secrets. You have access to a Portal to the Universe. This portal, available not in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom but on the web at http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/, is a repository of up-to-date astronomy news, blogs, and podcasts.
Wednesday: Venus is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 7 a.m. It is near the belly button of the maiden depicted in the constellation Virgo. Great. I hope this does start a new trend – tattooing a planet near your belly button.
Thursday: A few stars appear to be a color other than white to the naked eye. The reddish Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion and the bluish Vega in the constellation Lyra come to mind. But if you look with binoculars, the star Mu Cephei appears to be more vividly colored than either of these - a surprisingly deep red. This star, named the Garnet star by the astronomer William Herschel, is eight fists above the north horizon, very close to being straight overhead, at 8 p.m. It is a red supergiant star that varies in brightness by about a factor of five over a two-year period. If our Sun were replaced by Mu Cephei, it would fill up the solar system out to halfway between Jupiter and Saturn.
Friday: Finally, you don’t have to be an insomniac or work the late shift to see Mars before you go to bed! Mars is a half a fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/17/09
Saturday: 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 a little like the morning of October 9 when the NASA satellite crashed into the lunar south pole crater Cabeus. The expected giant plume of dust that would be visible on Earth never materialized. But the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the warmth of the collision in the infrared wavelength band.
Sunday: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards. Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him noticing. The Daily Record (shop Ellensburg) would never let anything like that get into their newspaper. Their editing (shop Ellensburg) staff is too good. Nothing (pohs grubsnellE) evades their gaze.
Monday: Venus is one fist above the east horizon and Mars is six fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
Tuesday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks this tonight into early tomorrow morning. This is not a meteor shower that results in a meteor storm. There will be about 15-20 meteors per hour, many more meteors than are visible on a typical night. The chance of seeing meteors this year is greater than usual because the waxing crescent moon will set early this evening, before the peak viewing time. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about three fists above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. If you fall asleep tonight, you can catch the tail end of the shower every night until early November.
Wednesday: What time is tea time? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the south-southwest horizon by 8 p.m. The handle is on top and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea.
Thursday: In order to celebrate Galilean Nights, a world-wide astronomy outreach event, the CWU Astronomy Club is hosting a star party from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Lind Hall on the NW corner of University Way and Chestnut Street. The evening will start with a presentation about Jupiter and its moons. At 7:30, we’ll go upstairs to the CWU Observatory and view the night sky. Interested participants can participate in the Worldwide Star Count. In honor of you, the participant, we have rewritten an England Dan and John Ford Coley song for the event: “I didn’t know light would be so strong. Waiting and wondering about you. I didn’t know stars would last so long. Galilean Nights are forever without you.”
Friday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 8 p.m. For more information about Jupiter’s four largest moons, discovered by Galileo, go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/3307071.html.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards. Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him noticing. The Daily Record (shop Ellensburg) would never let anything like that get into their newspaper. Their editing (shop Ellensburg) staff is too good. Nothing (pohs grubsnellE) evades their gaze.
Monday: Venus is one fist above the east horizon and Mars is six fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
Tuesday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks this tonight into early tomorrow morning. This is not a meteor shower that results in a meteor storm. There will be about 15-20 meteors per hour, many more meteors than are visible on a typical night. The chance of seeing meteors this year is greater than usual because the waxing crescent moon will set early this evening, before the peak viewing time. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about three fists above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. If you fall asleep tonight, you can catch the tail end of the shower every night until early November.
Wednesday: What time is tea time? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the south-southwest horizon by 8 p.m. The handle is on top and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea.
Thursday: In order to celebrate Galilean Nights, a world-wide astronomy outreach event, the CWU Astronomy Club is hosting a star party from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Lind Hall on the NW corner of University Way and Chestnut Street. The evening will start with a presentation about Jupiter and its moons. At 7:30, we’ll go upstairs to the CWU Observatory and view the night sky. Interested participants can participate in the Worldwide Star Count. In honor of you, the participant, we have rewritten an England Dan and John Ford Coley song for the event: “I didn’t know light would be so strong. Waiting and wondering about you. I didn’t know stars would last so long. Galilean Nights are forever without you.”
Friday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 8 p.m. For more information about Jupiter’s four largest moons, discovered by Galileo, go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/3307071.html.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Ellensburg Sky for the week of 10/10/09
Saturday: Halley's Comet returns this month! In the form of little pieces of its tail, that is. The Orionid meteor shower consists of the earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks on the morning of October 21 but produces meteors from now until early November. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. As you Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.
Sunday: This morning’s last quarter Moon is in the constellation Gemini the twins.
Monday: Venus and Saturn are right next to each other in the sky for the next few mornings. This morning, the very bright Venus is at the top of a tiny triangle with Saturn less than a pinky width to the lower left and the star Zavijava less than a pinky width to the lower right. The bending of light from Zavijava by the Sun provided early experimental evidence for Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Einstein predicted that objects such as the Sun were so massive that they could noticeably bend light from a star. During a total solar eclipse in 1922, Zavijava was almost directly behind the Sun such that bits light would have to pass near the Sun on its way to the Earth. Astronomers measured its position on that day to be slightly different from its position on star charts meaning its light had been slightly deflected by the Sun. This morning the triangle is a fist above the east horizon at 6:30 a.m. Mercury is about a fist below them.
Tuesday: The southernmost bright star visible from Ellensburg, Fomalhaut (pronounced Fo'-mal-ought) is one fist above the south horizon at 10 p.m. Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Pisces Austrinus, the southern fish. This fish is said to be the parent of Pisces, the two zodiacal fish. The parent fish must have moved south to get away from the cold weather.
Wednesday: Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo, is about a half a fist above the Moon at 6:30 a.m.
Thursday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the south horizon at 9 p.m.
Friday: Mars is six fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: This morning’s last quarter Moon is in the constellation Gemini the twins.
Monday: Venus and Saturn are right next to each other in the sky for the next few mornings. This morning, the very bright Venus is at the top of a tiny triangle with Saturn less than a pinky width to the lower left and the star Zavijava less than a pinky width to the lower right. The bending of light from Zavijava by the Sun provided early experimental evidence for Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Einstein predicted that objects such as the Sun were so massive that they could noticeably bend light from a star. During a total solar eclipse in 1922, Zavijava was almost directly behind the Sun such that bits light would have to pass near the Sun on its way to the Earth. Astronomers measured its position on that day to be slightly different from its position on star charts meaning its light had been slightly deflected by the Sun. This morning the triangle is a fist above the east horizon at 6:30 a.m. Mercury is about a fist below them.
Tuesday: The southernmost bright star visible from Ellensburg, Fomalhaut (pronounced Fo'-mal-ought) is one fist above the south horizon at 10 p.m. Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Pisces Austrinus, the southern fish. This fish is said to be the parent of Pisces, the two zodiacal fish. The parent fish must have moved south to get away from the cold weather.
Wednesday: Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo, is about a half a fist above the Moon at 6:30 a.m.
Thursday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the south horizon at 9 p.m.
Friday: Mars is six fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/3/09
Saturday: Shine on, shine on harvest moon, up in the sky. It’s just like a full moon in January, February, June and July. The only difference is that near the Autumnal Equinox (also known as the first day of fall), the full moon rises near sunset resulting in a full night of light for the harvest. The harvest moon looks like a dull orange color while it is near the horizon because of the dust kicked up from the harvest. The dust scatters the white light reflecting off of the Moon resulting in slightly more of the red and orange components of the white light reaching your eyes. Although the Moon has a dull yellow color whenever it is near the horizon owing to light scattering off of dust and atmospheric particles, the effect is more noticeable for the harvest Moon. Tonight’s full moon is in the constellation Pisces the fish.
If you keep your old copies of “What’s Up in the Sky?” each week (and who doesn’t?), you will notice that last year’s harvest moon was also in the constellation Pisces. So was the year before’s harvest moon. And the year before that. The harvest moon won’t always be in Pisces. But, it will be in Pisces or a constellation that borders Pisces. That is because the Sun is always in (meaning in line with) the constellation Virgo on the first day of autumn. Since the full moon is always 180 degrees from the Sun in the sky, the harvest moon will be in nearly the same place each year. I say “nearly” because the moon’s orbit has a slight wobble so it does not follow the exact same path in consecutive years.
Sunday: Mercury, Venus, and Saturn close together low in the eastern sky for the next few mornings. This morning at 6:30 am, Venus, the brightest of the three, is a fist and a half held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon. Mercury, the second brightest, is a fist above the east horizon and Saturn is just below it.
Monday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 9 p.m.
Tuesday: Mars finally rises in the evening sky… assuming you define 11:56 p.m. as “evening”. By 1 a.m., it is a fist above the east-northeast horizon.
Wednesday: The Draconid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow night. The meteors appear to come from a point in the head of Draco, the dragon constellation. This point is about five fists above the northwest horizon at 10 p.m. tonight. This point remains near the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco throughout the night. Typically, this is a minor shower. However, Draconid meteors are slow moving which means you will have a easy time differentiating true Draconid meteors, from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, from stray grains of dust that happen to enter the Earth’s atmosphere near where we see the constellation Draco. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.
Thursday: This morning, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn are within a circle smaller than your fist held at arm’s length. They are about a fist above the east horizon at 6:30 a.m. Saturn and Mercury are about a third of a degree apart, less than the width of a pencil held at arm’s length.
Friday: Do you know how it is when people drive by a collision? They don’t want to look but they can’t help it. The CWU astronomy club and physics department will be feeding on that morbid human curiosity by hosting an LCROSS collision party in Lind Hall on the southeast corner of the CWU campus this morning starting at 3:30 a.m. LCROSS stands for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. This morning (October 9) at 4:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, LCROSS will crash into the crater Cabeus near the Moon’s South Pole. A trailing part of the satellite will analyze the ejected dust for signs of water. Locally, CWU physics professor Michael Braunstein will be tracking the collision at the CWU Observatory on the roof of Lind Hall (weather permitting). The NASA feed will be showing in room 204 starting at 3:30 a.m. There will be various smaller telescopes available for general sky observing, as well. The event will end, and nap time will begin, at 5:00 a.m. For more information about LCROSS, go to http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
If you keep your old copies of “What’s Up in the Sky?” each week (and who doesn’t?), you will notice that last year’s harvest moon was also in the constellation Pisces. So was the year before’s harvest moon. And the year before that. The harvest moon won’t always be in Pisces. But, it will be in Pisces or a constellation that borders Pisces. That is because the Sun is always in (meaning in line with) the constellation Virgo on the first day of autumn. Since the full moon is always 180 degrees from the Sun in the sky, the harvest moon will be in nearly the same place each year. I say “nearly” because the moon’s orbit has a slight wobble so it does not follow the exact same path in consecutive years.
Sunday: Mercury, Venus, and Saturn close together low in the eastern sky for the next few mornings. This morning at 6:30 am, Venus, the brightest of the three, is a fist and a half held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon. Mercury, the second brightest, is a fist above the east horizon and Saturn is just below it.
Monday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 9 p.m.
Tuesday: Mars finally rises in the evening sky… assuming you define 11:56 p.m. as “evening”. By 1 a.m., it is a fist above the east-northeast horizon.
Wednesday: The Draconid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow night. The meteors appear to come from a point in the head of Draco, the dragon constellation. This point is about five fists above the northwest horizon at 10 p.m. tonight. This point remains near the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco throughout the night. Typically, this is a minor shower. However, Draconid meteors are slow moving which means you will have a easy time differentiating true Draconid meteors, from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, from stray grains of dust that happen to enter the Earth’s atmosphere near where we see the constellation Draco. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.
Thursday: This morning, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn are within a circle smaller than your fist held at arm’s length. They are about a fist above the east horizon at 6:30 a.m. Saturn and Mercury are about a third of a degree apart, less than the width of a pencil held at arm’s length.
Friday: Do you know how it is when people drive by a collision? They don’t want to look but they can’t help it. The CWU astronomy club and physics department will be feeding on that morbid human curiosity by hosting an LCROSS collision party in Lind Hall on the southeast corner of the CWU campus this morning starting at 3:30 a.m. LCROSS stands for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. This morning (October 9) at 4:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, LCROSS will crash into the crater Cabeus near the Moon’s South Pole. A trailing part of the satellite will analyze the ejected dust for signs of water. Locally, CWU physics professor Michael Braunstein will be tracking the collision at the CWU Observatory on the roof of Lind Hall (weather permitting). The NASA feed will be showing in room 204 starting at 3:30 a.m. There will be various smaller telescopes available for general sky observing, as well. The event will end, and nap time will begin, at 5:00 a.m. For more information about LCROSS, go to http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
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