Saturday: Today is the day we celebrate the anniversary of something new – a new classification of celestial objects. Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres [pronounced sear’-ease], the first of what are now called “asteroids”, on January 1, 1801. Ceres is the largest asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. At first, Piazzi thought it was a star that didn’t show up on his charts. But, he noted its position changed with respect to the background stars from night to night. This indicated to him that it had to be orbiting the Sun. In August of 2006, Ceres got promoted to the status of “dwarf planet” by the International Astronomical Union.
Has it been tough to wake up this past week? It should have been because the sunrise has been getting a little later since summer started. I know. I know. December 22 was the shortest day of the year. But, because the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical and not circular, the Earth does not travel at a constant speed. It moves faster when it is closer to the Sun and slower when it is farther away. This leads to the latest sunrise occurring in early January, tomorrow for 2011, and the earliest sunset occurring in early December, not on the first day of winter, the shortest day of the year. On the first day of winter, however, the interval between sunrise and sunset is the shortest.
Sunday: Today’s weather forecast: showers. Meteor showers, that is. The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks over the next two nights. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. That makes this shower mysterious because there isn’t any constellation with this name now. The shower was named after Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation found in some early 19th century star atlases. These meteors appear to come from a point in the modern constellation Draco the dragon. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the northeast horizon at 1 a.m. In good years, careful observers can spot about 100 meteors per hour. Fortunately, 2011 is going to be a good year because the moon will be new during the peak nights meaning less ambient light to obscure the dimmer meteors. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. Most meteors are associated with the path of a comet. This shower consists of the debris from an asteroid discovered in 2003. Keeping with the comet-origin paradigm, astronomers think the asteroid is actually an “extinct” comet, a comet that lost all of its ice as it passed by the Sun during its many orbits.
Monday: If the Sun looks big today, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The Earth is at perihelion at about 11 a.m. If you dig out your Greek language textbook, you’ll see that peri- means “in close proximity” and helios means “Sun”. So, perihelion is when an object is closest to the Sun in its orbit, about 1.5 million miles closer than its average distance of 93 million miles. Since it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere now, the seasonal temperature changes must not be caused by the Earth getting farther from and closer to the Sun. Otherwise, we’d have summer when the Earth is closest to the Sun. The seasons are caused by the angle of the sunlight hitting the Earth. In the winter, sunlight hits the Earth at a very low angle, an angle far from perpendicular or straight up and down. This means that a given “bundle” of sunlight is spread out over a large area and does not warm the surface as much as the same bundle in the summer.
Tuesday: Jupiter is about three fists above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m.
Wednesday: As a follow-up to the 1982 hit “Southern Cross”, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Palmquist are working on this: “When you see the Northern Cross for the first time. You’ll understand now why swans fly this way”. The Northern Cross, also known as Cygnus the swan, appears to standing up on the northwest horizon at 8 p.m. The bottom of the cross about one fist and the bright star Deneb at the top of the cross is three fists above the northwest horizon.
Thursday: The holidays are family time. Now that the time you have spent with your human family is over, spend some time with your solar system family. This year begins the International Year of the Solar System. Nearly each month has a different theme. The theme for January is “A Family Affair”. Your solar system family has some great 3-D pictures posted at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/slideshows/index.cfm?id=22&page=1. They’re a lot better than the pictures of your aunt’s dog and that stupid doggy sweater he wears.
Friday: Saturn is nearly four fists above the south horizon and Venus is nearly two fists above the 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, December 30, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 12/25/10
Saturday: Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw Jupiter being eclipsed by the Moon in the east and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2, Bruce Palmquist version, informed by Michael Molnar). There are many theories as to the physical explanation of the Star of Bethlehem, the celestial object that guided the wise men to the location of Jesus. Some people think it was a recurring nova, a star that explodes again and again. Some think it was a close alignment of bright planets. Some think it was a miracle that requires no physical explanation. In 1991, astronomer Michael Molnar bought an ancient Roman Empire coin that depicted a ram looking back at a star. Aries the ram was a symbol for Judea, the birthplace of Jesus. The Magi, or “wise men”, who visited the baby Jesus practiced astrology and would have been looking in that region of the sky for the king prophesied in the Old Testament. Molnar, a modern day wise person, used sky simulation software to model the positions of planets and the Moon in the region of Aries. According to his model, Jupiter was eclipsed, or blocked, by the Moon on the morning of April 17, 6 BC. Molnar’s theory is supported by a book written by the astrologer of Constantine the Great in 334 AD. The book describes an eclipse of Jupiter in Aries and notes a man of divine nature born during this time. See http://www.eclipse.net/~molnar/ for more information.
Aries and Jupiter make an appearance in the Christmas sky tonight. At 7 p.m., the dim constellation Aries is about six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon and Jupiter is three and a half fists above the southwest horizon.
Sunday: Columbia the dove, representing the bird Noah sent out to look for dry land as the flood waters receded, is perched just above the ridge south of Ellensburg. Its brightest star Phact is about one fist above due south at 11 p.m.
Monday: The rapper Lil Bow Wow, now known by his adult name, Bow Wow, has a new album coming out next year. The sky has its own lil bow wow coming out every night this winter. Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor, the lesser dog, is about three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Tuesday: Have you ever looked down on the ground and spotted a penny? In Yakima? While you were standing in Ellensburg? If you have, then you may be able to see the star Hamal as more than just a point of light. It has an angular diameter that can be detected from Earth. Hamal, the brightest star in the constellation Aries the ram, has the same angular diameter as a penny 37 miles away. (For comparison, the moon is about half the diameter of a penny held at arm’s length.) Hamal is six and a half fists above due south at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Are you celebrating New Year Eve eve by staying up late? If so, check out the ringed planet Saturn, one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 2 a.m.
Thursday: Venus is about a fist to the left of the crescent moon at 6 a.m.
Friday: Forget about that big bright ball in Times Square. You can mark the start of the new year with one of the sky’s own big bright balls. That perennial favorite New Year’s Day marker, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, rises to its highest point in the sky a little after midnight on January 1. Thus, when Sirius starts to “fall”, the new year has begun. Look for Sirius about two and a half fists above due south at midnight.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Aries and Jupiter make an appearance in the Christmas sky tonight. At 7 p.m., the dim constellation Aries is about six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon and Jupiter is three and a half fists above the southwest horizon.
Sunday: Columbia the dove, representing the bird Noah sent out to look for dry land as the flood waters receded, is perched just above the ridge south of Ellensburg. Its brightest star Phact is about one fist above due south at 11 p.m.
Monday: The rapper Lil Bow Wow, now known by his adult name, Bow Wow, has a new album coming out next year. The sky has its own lil bow wow coming out every night this winter. Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor, the lesser dog, is about three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Tuesday: Have you ever looked down on the ground and spotted a penny? In Yakima? While you were standing in Ellensburg? If you have, then you may be able to see the star Hamal as more than just a point of light. It has an angular diameter that can be detected from Earth. Hamal, the brightest star in the constellation Aries the ram, has the same angular diameter as a penny 37 miles away. (For comparison, the moon is about half the diameter of a penny held at arm’s length.) Hamal is six and a half fists above due south at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Are you celebrating New Year Eve eve by staying up late? If so, check out the ringed planet Saturn, one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 2 a.m.
Thursday: Venus is about a fist to the left of the crescent moon at 6 a.m.
Friday: Forget about that big bright ball in Times Square. You can mark the start of the new year with one of the sky’s own big bright balls. That perennial favorite New Year’s Day marker, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, rises to its highest point in the sky a little after midnight on January 1. Thus, when Sirius starts to “fall”, the new year has begun. Look for Sirius about two and a half fists above due south at midnight.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 12/18/10
This week, we’ll all be reminded of the lyrics of the song Bonnie Tyler almost sang, Total Eclipse of the Moon. “Turn around. Twice a year I move into the shadow of Terra and I become very dark. Turn around. Five years out of ten I get a little bit tired of becoming red like blood from a shark.”
Saturday: Jupiter is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 6 p.m. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time.
Sunday: Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, is about a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 7 p.m.
Monday: Tonight’s moon is full. Ho hum. A full moon happens every month. But, this month, the moon is very close to being in the same plane as the Earth and Sun. Not ho hum. That means there will be a lunar eclipse tonight. Even less ho hum. It will be a total lunar eclipse. Total lunar eclipses are not as obvious 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 that would normally miss the moon towards the moon. 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. Thus, the moon looks red during a total lunar eclipse.
From our perspective in central Washington, the moon will begin the partial eclipse stage at 10:32 p.m. The moon will slowly move into the Earth’s shadow and get dark from left to right. At 11:40 p.m., the moon will be fully eclipsed. The total eclipse lasts until 12:52 a.m. The moon will be moving out of the earth’s darkest shadow or umbra until 2:00 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, go to NASA’s eclipse website at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html.
Tuesday: At 3:43 p.m., the Sun reaches its lowest point in the sky with respect to the background stars. This point is called the Winter Solstice. During the day that the Sun reaches this point, your noon time shadow is longer than any other day of the year. Also, the Sun spends less time in the sky on the day of the Winter Solstice than any other day making this the shortest day of the year. Even though it is the shortest day of the year, it is not the day with the latest sunrise or the earliest sunset. The latest sunrise is during the first week in January and the earliest sunset is during the second week in December. 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 Sun rise and set time depends on more than its apparent vertical motion. 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 first part of the analemma to go below the horizon. During the first week in January, it is on the last part of the analemma to rise above the horizon. For more information on this, go to http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/astronomical-information-center/dark-days.
Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time. Yes, I know I wrote this about Jupiter. Venus is brighter than Jupiter but it is not above the horizon in the evening this month.
Thursday: I know you’re staying up late to train yourself to wait up for Santa. So look out a south-facing window at 1 a.m. and see Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, as high as it ever gets in the sky. It is two and a half fists above sue south.
Friday: What would that special someone want to see on the back of Santa’s sleigh when she gets up early Christmas morning to eat one of Santa’s cookies? A fruit cake? No. A barbell? Maybe to work off the fruitcake. A subscription to The Daily Record? Of course. But what she really wants is a ring. And if she looks out a south-facing window, she’ll see her ring. Saturn the ringed planet, that is. Saturn is nearly four fists above the south horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Saturday: Jupiter is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 6 p.m. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time.
Sunday: Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, is about a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 7 p.m.
Monday: Tonight’s moon is full. Ho hum. A full moon happens every month. But, this month, the moon is very close to being in the same plane as the Earth and Sun. Not ho hum. That means there will be a lunar eclipse tonight. Even less ho hum. It will be a total lunar eclipse. Total lunar eclipses are not as obvious 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 that would normally miss the moon towards the moon. 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. Thus, the moon looks red during a total lunar eclipse.
From our perspective in central Washington, the moon will begin the partial eclipse stage at 10:32 p.m. The moon will slowly move into the Earth’s shadow and get dark from left to right. At 11:40 p.m., the moon will be fully eclipsed. The total eclipse lasts until 12:52 a.m. The moon will be moving out of the earth’s darkest shadow or umbra until 2:00 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, go to NASA’s eclipse website at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html.
Tuesday: At 3:43 p.m., the Sun reaches its lowest point in the sky with respect to the background stars. This point is called the Winter Solstice. During the day that the Sun reaches this point, your noon time shadow is longer than any other day of the year. Also, the Sun spends less time in the sky on the day of the Winter Solstice than any other day making this the shortest day of the year. Even though it is the shortest day of the year, it is not the day with the latest sunrise or the earliest sunset. The latest sunrise is during the first week in January and the earliest sunset is during the second week in December. 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 Sun rise and set time depends on more than its apparent vertical motion. 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 first part of the analemma to go below the horizon. During the first week in January, it is on the last part of the analemma to rise above the horizon. For more information on this, go to http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/astronomical-information-center/dark-days.
Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time. Yes, I know I wrote this about Jupiter. Venus is brighter than Jupiter but it is not above the horizon in the evening this month.
Thursday: I know you’re staying up late to train yourself to wait up for Santa. So look out a south-facing window at 1 a.m. and see Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, as high as it ever gets in the sky. It is two and a half fists above sue south.
Friday: What would that special someone want to see on the back of Santa’s sleigh when she gets up early Christmas morning to eat one of Santa’s cookies? A fruit cake? No. A barbell? Maybe to work off the fruitcake. A subscription to The Daily Record? Of course. But what she really wants is a ring. And if she looks out a south-facing window, she’ll see her ring. Saturn the ringed planet, that is. Saturn is nearly four fists above the south horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 12/11/10
Saturday: Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies on a hill overlooking Vantage, Washington. And the sky cuts loose three horses of its own: Pegasus, the flying horse; Equueus, the little horse; and Monoceros, the unicorn. The Great Square of Pegasus is easiest to find. The center of the square is nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon at 8 p.m. Equueus is about two fists to the right of the Moon and Monoceros is just rising due east.
Sunday: Jupiter is four fists above the south horizon at 7 p.m.
Monday: The Geminid meteor shower peaks at 3 a.m. tomorrow morning but will remain highly active throughout the night. 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 three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at 9 p.m. 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. This shower is typically one of the best ones of the year producing bright, medium speed meteors with up to 80 meteors per hour near the peak. The Moon will have set for most of the night so the sky will be very dark meaning good viewing conditions. Yahoo! News is calling this the best meteor shower of 2010.
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. 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. But, they still don’t know if it an asteroid or if it is a comet with all of its ice sublimated away by many close passes by the Sun. For more information about 3200 Phaethon, go to http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=2344.
Tuesday: On these cold mornings, it is difficult to get going. You just want to plop into a chair and sit still. But, are you really sitting still? You’re moving at about 700 miles per hour due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis and 66,000 miles per hour due to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. If that’s not enough, the entire solar system is orbiting the center of the galaxy at a whopping 480,000 miles per hour! So while you may be sitting still with respect to your living room (and all of the over achievers in your house), you are NOT sitting still with respect to the center of the galaxy. For more information about this concept, go to http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/71/howfast.html.
Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon. Even though the dawn sky is well lit, Venus is still bright enough to be seen. Some people call Venus the “morning star”. I call it the “late sleepers’ planet”.
Thursday: When you were growing up, you may have heard “Don’t make waves.” The red supergiant star Betelgeuse must not have listened. According to data from the Japanese Akari satellite, Betelgeuse creates a shockwave as it moves through the surrounding cloud of gas and dust. If viewed through a telescope sensitive to infrared radiation, this shockwave would appear to be the size of the full Moon as seen from Earth. Betelgeuse is four fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Friday: Saturn is nearly four fists above the south-southeast horizon at 7 a.m. If you don’t want to get up so early, stay up until 2 a.m. and look for Saturn less than a fist above the east horizon.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Jupiter is four fists above the south horizon at 7 p.m.
Monday: The Geminid meteor shower peaks at 3 a.m. tomorrow morning but will remain highly active throughout the night. 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 three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at 9 p.m. 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. This shower is typically one of the best ones of the year producing bright, medium speed meteors with up to 80 meteors per hour near the peak. The Moon will have set for most of the night so the sky will be very dark meaning good viewing conditions. Yahoo! News is calling this the best meteor shower of 2010.
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. 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. But, they still don’t know if it an asteroid or if it is a comet with all of its ice sublimated away by many close passes by the Sun. For more information about 3200 Phaethon, go to http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=2344.
Tuesday: On these cold mornings, it is difficult to get going. You just want to plop into a chair and sit still. But, are you really sitting still? You’re moving at about 700 miles per hour due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis and 66,000 miles per hour due to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. If that’s not enough, the entire solar system is orbiting the center of the galaxy at a whopping 480,000 miles per hour! So while you may be sitting still with respect to your living room (and all of the over achievers in your house), you are NOT sitting still with respect to the center of the galaxy. For more information about this concept, go to http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/71/howfast.html.
Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon. Even though the dawn sky is well lit, Venus is still bright enough to be seen. Some people call Venus the “morning star”. I call it the “late sleepers’ planet”.
Thursday: When you were growing up, you may have heard “Don’t make waves.” The red supergiant star Betelgeuse must not have listened. According to data from the Japanese Akari satellite, Betelgeuse creates a shockwave as it moves through the surrounding cloud of gas and dust. If viewed through a telescope sensitive to infrared radiation, this shockwave would appear to be the size of the full Moon as seen from Earth. Betelgeuse is four fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Friday: Saturn is nearly four fists above the south-southeast horizon at 7 a.m. If you don’t want to get up so early, stay up until 2 a.m. and look for Saturn less than a fist above the east horizon.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)