Saturday: Geometry review: part 2. School starts this week so it is time to continue our little geometry review from last week. Did you forget last week’s lesson? Well, go to the litter box, dig out last Saturday’s paper and review it. Then go outside at 9 p.m. with notebook in hand. Ready? A square is a quadrilateral with four sides of equal length and four right angle corners. A good example in the sky is the Great Square, an asterism (group of stars) consisting of three stars from the constellation Pegasus and one star from the constellation Andromeda. At 9 p.m., the bottom of the Great Square is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due east.
Sunday: There is a lot to see at the Kittitas County Fair. But there is not a lot to see in the sky when you are at the fair because the fair lights, which are fairly bright, obscure most celestial objects. Jupiter is one of the few objects bright enough to be seen. As you are getting home from the fair at 11 p.m., look for Jupiter about one fist above the east horizon. Luckily Galileo didn’t do his observing at the Kittitas County Fair because he would not have been able to see Jupiter’s moons. So what, you say? Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter provided strong evidence that objects other than the Earth could have satellites, thus supporting the hypothesis of a Sun-centered solar system.
Monday: Labor Day was the brainchild of labor unions and is dedicated to American workers. The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882. The Greek mythical hero Hercules probably wished there was a Labor Day to commemorate his work. As punishment for killing his family while he was temporarily insane, he had to perform twelve nearly impossible tasks such as killing monsters or stealing things from deities. Humm. Maybe we shouldn’t commemorate his labors. But we can enjoy his constellation. The keystone asterism representing the body of Hercules is six fists above the west horizon at 10 p.m. For more information about the Labors of Hercules, go to http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/labors.html.
Tuesday: The calendar says summer is nearing an end. School starting tomorrow says summer is nearing an end. The summer triangle in the sky begs to differ as it is still high in the sky. Vega, the brightest star in the triangle, is a little bit west of straight overhead at sunset. Deneb is a little bit east of straight overhead and Altair is five fists above the south horizon.
Wednesday: The little king must have ordered a lot of merchandise on eBay. Mercury, named after the Roman god of trades, passes by Regulus, Latin for “little king” over the next few mornings. This morning, Mercury, the brighter of the two objects, is about a finger thickness above Regulus. By Saturday morning, they’ll be side-by-side and you will not be able to fit an outstretched pinky between them. This interaction offers an excellent opportunity to see why planets are called “planets”, from the Greek word meaning “wanderer”. All planets move with respect to the background stars. Because Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, it moves the fastest in its orbit. And it is, on average, our second nearest planetary neighbor. Both of these contribute to Mercury’s motion through the sky being the greatest of all the planets. This is probably the reason this planet was named after the speedy, messenger god.
Thursday: Fomalhaut, the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus, is one fist above the south-southeast horizon at 11 pm. It is the southernmost bright star visible from Ellensburg.
Friday: Mars is four fists above the east horizon at 6 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 8/27/11
Saturday: School starts next week so it is time for a little geometry review. Go outside at 10 p.m. tonight with notebook in hand. Ready? A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three line segments as sides. A good example is the Summer Triangle made up of the bright stars Vega, Deneb and Altair. Vega, the brightest star in the triangle is a little bit west of straight overhead. Deneb is a little bit east of straight overhead and Altair is five fists held upright and at arm’s length above the south horizon.
Sunday: Jupiter is one fist above the east horizon at 11 p.m.
Monday: WISE finds some Y’s and they’re as cool as your eyes. NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, WISE for short, has discovered a type of brown dwarf that astronomers are calling a Y dwarf star. Astronomers study brown to better understand how stars form and to understand the atmospheres of gas giant planets like Jupiter. These Y dwarf stars are on the classification boundary between stars that fuse hydrogen at their core, like our Sun does, and objects similar to Jupiter and other newly discovered planets that are a little too small to be a star. One of these Y dwarf stars is only nine light years away making it the seventh closest star system. For more information about this discovery, go to http://goo.gl/hRmJ2.
Tuesday: “I’m a little teapot, short and stout. The galactic center, I pour it out.” (I’m a Little Teapot, astronomy version, 2011.) Despite its great size and importance, the center of our Milky Way galaxy and its giant black hole remains hidden to the naked eye behind thick clouds of gas and dust. By plotting the orbits of stars near the middle of the galaxy, astronomers have determined that the black hole’s mass is equal to about 4.5 million Suns. While you can’t see the actual galactic center, you can gaze in the direction of the center by looking just to the right of the teapot asterism in the constellation Sagittarius. This point is about one fist above the south-southwest horizon at 9 p.m.
Wednesday: Ah, the beauty of classification. A large three-sided figure such as the Summer Triangle is a triangle. Hence the name “Summer Triangle” and not “Summer Sandwich”. Although those little triangle-shaped sandwiches are quite tasty. Where was I? Oh yes, classification. Any three-sided figure is called a triangle. Just after sunset, Saturn, the Moon, and the bright star Spica make a small right triangle very low in the west-southwest sky. Spica is a half a fist to the upper left and Saturn is a fist to the upper right of the Moon.
Thursday: The morning sky is filled with visible planets. At 5:30 a.m., Mercury is a half a fist above the east-northeast horizon, Mars is three and a half fists above the east horizon, and Jupiter is five and a half fists above the south horizon.
Friday: The Ellensburg Rodeo is a “Top-25” rodeo. What does it take to be a “Top-25” star? There are many ways to rank stars. The most obvious way for a casual observer to rank stars is by apparent brightness. The apparent brightness is the brightness of a star as seen from Earth, regardless of its distance from the Earth. Shaula (pronounced Show’-la) is the 25th brightest star in the nighttime sky as seen from Earth. It represents the stinger of Scorpius the scorpion. In fact, Shaula means stinger in Arabic. Shaula has a visual brightness rating of 1.62. Sirius, the brightest star has a visual brightness rating of -1.46. (Smaller numbers mean brighter objects.) The dimmest objects that can be seen with the naked eye have a visual brightness rating of about 6. There are approximately 6,000 stars with a lower visual brightness rating than 6 meaning there are 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye. Shaula is a blue sub-giant star that radiates 35,000 times more energy than the Sun. It is 700 light years away making it one of the most distant bright stars. Shaula is a challenge to find because it never gets more than a half a fist above the horizon. Look for it tonight about a half a fist above the south horizon, a little bit west of due south, at 8:30.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Jupiter is one fist above the east horizon at 11 p.m.
Monday: WISE finds some Y’s and they’re as cool as your eyes. NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, WISE for short, has discovered a type of brown dwarf that astronomers are calling a Y dwarf star. Astronomers study brown to better understand how stars form and to understand the atmospheres of gas giant planets like Jupiter. These Y dwarf stars are on the classification boundary between stars that fuse hydrogen at their core, like our Sun does, and objects similar to Jupiter and other newly discovered planets that are a little too small to be a star. One of these Y dwarf stars is only nine light years away making it the seventh closest star system. For more information about this discovery, go to http://goo.gl/hRmJ2.
Tuesday: “I’m a little teapot, short and stout. The galactic center, I pour it out.” (I’m a Little Teapot, astronomy version, 2011.) Despite its great size and importance, the center of our Milky Way galaxy and its giant black hole remains hidden to the naked eye behind thick clouds of gas and dust. By plotting the orbits of stars near the middle of the galaxy, astronomers have determined that the black hole’s mass is equal to about 4.5 million Suns. While you can’t see the actual galactic center, you can gaze in the direction of the center by looking just to the right of the teapot asterism in the constellation Sagittarius. This point is about one fist above the south-southwest horizon at 9 p.m.
Wednesday: Ah, the beauty of classification. A large three-sided figure such as the Summer Triangle is a triangle. Hence the name “Summer Triangle” and not “Summer Sandwich”. Although those little triangle-shaped sandwiches are quite tasty. Where was I? Oh yes, classification. Any three-sided figure is called a triangle. Just after sunset, Saturn, the Moon, and the bright star Spica make a small right triangle very low in the west-southwest sky. Spica is a half a fist to the upper left and Saturn is a fist to the upper right of the Moon.
Thursday: The morning sky is filled with visible planets. At 5:30 a.m., Mercury is a half a fist above the east-northeast horizon, Mars is three and a half fists above the east horizon, and Jupiter is five and a half fists above the south horizon.
Friday: The Ellensburg Rodeo is a “Top-25” rodeo. What does it take to be a “Top-25” star? There are many ways to rank stars. The most obvious way for a casual observer to rank stars is by apparent brightness. The apparent brightness is the brightness of a star as seen from Earth, regardless of its distance from the Earth. Shaula (pronounced Show’-la) is the 25th brightest star in the nighttime sky as seen from Earth. It represents the stinger of Scorpius the scorpion. In fact, Shaula means stinger in Arabic. Shaula has a visual brightness rating of 1.62. Sirius, the brightest star has a visual brightness rating of -1.46. (Smaller numbers mean brighter objects.) The dimmest objects that can be seen with the naked eye have a visual brightness rating of about 6. There are approximately 6,000 stars with a lower visual brightness rating than 6 meaning there are 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye. Shaula is a blue sub-giant star that radiates 35,000 times more energy than the Sun. It is 700 light years away making it one of the most distant bright stars. Shaula is a challenge to find because it never gets more than a half a fist above the horizon. Look for it tonight about a half a fist above the south horizon, a little bit west of due south, at 8:30.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 8/20/11
Saturday: Sometimes you find a quarter on the ground. Maybe you find a dollar in the lining of your jacket. But how often do you find a galaxy in a well-known part of the sky? The Hubble Space Telescope discovered a face-on spiral galaxy in the Coma Cluster of galaxies about 320 million light years away. This galaxy, called NGC 4911, contains regions of gas and dust as well as glowing newborn star clusters. The Coma Star cluster is in the constellation Coma Berenices, found two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 9 p.m. For more information about this newly discovered galaxy, plus a zoomable image, go to http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/24/.
Sunday: This is a great time to observe Neptune because is in opposition tomorrow night. That doesn't mean Neptune is now a teenager. Opposition means that Neptune is on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun. An object is in opposition when it is due south 12 hours after the Sun. Thus, when an object is in opposition, it is at its highest point in the sky during the darkest time of the day. Neptune is near the boundary of the constellations Capricornus the sea goat and Aquarius the water bearer, about two and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. It is easy to see with binoculars. First find the bright star Fomalhaut just above the southeast horizon. Neptune is exactly 20 degrees, or two fists held upright and at arm’s length, above Fomalhaut.
Monday: You: “I’d like a chocolate cluster for a snack, please.”
Moon: “Not me. I’d like an open star cluster for breakfast.” The Moon will get its request because it is midway between the Pleiades and Hyades open star clusters this morning in the southeastern sky. These clusters, while not as tasty as chocolate clusters, are regions of the galaxy where very young stars can be found. Stars in the Hyades cluster are about 600 million years old and stars in the Pleiades are a very toddler-like 100 million years old. (By comparison, the Sun is about 5 billion years old.) The Hyades cluster is a little less than a fist below the Moon and the Pleiades is a little less than a fist above the Moon at 5 a.m.
Tuesday: You may have trouble holding in your water at midnight. But not the Big Dipper. The cup of the Big Dipper is facing upward in a water-holding orientation about two fists above the north horizon at midnight.
Wednesday: Vega, the third brightest star visible from Ellensburg and the entire northern section of the United States, flies nearly straight overhead at 9 p.m.
Thursday: Mars is about a half a fist to the upper left of the Moon at 5 a.m.
Friday: The Sun is finally moving out of it period of having few or no sunspots. But while the Sun was inactive, astronomers were studying sunspots on other stars such as Corot-2a, a star that is similar to the Sun but much younger. Astronomers noticed that the brightness drop of Corot-2a was slightly different every time its planet Corot-2b passed in front of it. They thought it should be the same since the same planet was passing in front of it. So, the astronomers concluded the variation in brightness was due to sunspots on Corot-2a. For more information about this, go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/49444867.html.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: This is a great time to observe Neptune because is in opposition tomorrow night. That doesn't mean Neptune is now a teenager. Opposition means that Neptune is on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun. An object is in opposition when it is due south 12 hours after the Sun. Thus, when an object is in opposition, it is at its highest point in the sky during the darkest time of the day. Neptune is near the boundary of the constellations Capricornus the sea goat and Aquarius the water bearer, about two and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. It is easy to see with binoculars. First find the bright star Fomalhaut just above the southeast horizon. Neptune is exactly 20 degrees, or two fists held upright and at arm’s length, above Fomalhaut.
Monday: You: “I’d like a chocolate cluster for a snack, please.”
Moon: “Not me. I’d like an open star cluster for breakfast.” The Moon will get its request because it is midway between the Pleiades and Hyades open star clusters this morning in the southeastern sky. These clusters, while not as tasty as chocolate clusters, are regions of the galaxy where very young stars can be found. Stars in the Hyades cluster are about 600 million years old and stars in the Pleiades are a very toddler-like 100 million years old. (By comparison, the Sun is about 5 billion years old.) The Hyades cluster is a little less than a fist below the Moon and the Pleiades is a little less than a fist above the Moon at 5 a.m.
Tuesday: You may have trouble holding in your water at midnight. But not the Big Dipper. The cup of the Big Dipper is facing upward in a water-holding orientation about two fists above the north horizon at midnight.
Wednesday: Vega, the third brightest star visible from Ellensburg and the entire northern section of the United States, flies nearly straight overhead at 9 p.m.
Thursday: Mars is about a half a fist to the upper left of the Moon at 5 a.m.
Friday: The Sun is finally moving out of it period of having few or no sunspots. But while the Sun was inactive, astronomers were studying sunspots on other stars such as Corot-2a, a star that is similar to the Sun but much younger. Astronomers noticed that the brightness drop of Corot-2a was slightly different every time its planet Corot-2b passed in front of it. They thought it should be the same since the same planet was passing in front of it. So, the astronomers concluded the variation in brightness was due to sunspots on Corot-2a. For more information about this, go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/49444867.html.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 8/13/11
Saturday: When the Moon is full, it is difficult to see dim objects in the sky because of the sky glow. But why struggle to find dim objects when there is so much to see on the big, bright object in front of you? The lunar crater called Tycho is best seen during a full Moon. Tycho was formed about 109 million years ago when an asteroid struck the Moon, leaving a crater over 50 miles in diameter and ejected dust trails that radiate out hundreds of miles in all directions. For more lunar highlights, go to
http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/ObserveMoon.pdf, a resource of the Night Sky Network.
Sunday: Many big city dwellers never see the milky white, nearly continuous band of stars known as the Milky Way. As cities grow and add more lights, it has become harder to see the bulk of the Milky Way galaxy, our home in the universe. But, there are two easy ways to see the Milky Way. The first way is to look in the mirror. You are part of the Milky Way. The second way is to look from due north through the point straight overhead (called the zenith) to due south from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. for the next two weeks. This is the time of year when the Milky Way is highest in the sky and away from the city lights on the horizon.
Monday: Need a caffeine pick-me-up? Make it a double. Need an astronomy pick-me-up? Make it a double-double. Find Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, nearly straight overhead at 11:00 tonight. Less than half a fist to the east (or left if you are facing south) of the bright bluish star Vega is the “star” Epsilon Lyra. If you look at Epsilon Lyra through binoculars, it looks like two stars. If you look at Epsilon Lyra through a large enough telescope, you will notice that each star in the pair is itself a pair of stars. Each star in the double is double. Hence, Epsilon Lyra is known as the double-double. The stars in each pair orbit a point approximately in the center of each respective pair. The pairs themselves orbit a point between the two pairs.
Tuesday: You think the Ellensburg wind is bad. Some of the Jovian planets have winds of over 1000 miles per hour. Jupiter and Saturn have belts of clouds that can be observed with back yard telescopes. You’ll have to look quickly to see Saturn. It is a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 9:30 p.m. In a few days, it will be lost in the glare of the Sun. To learn more about Saturn and other windy worlds, go to http://goo.gl/GLWAi.
Wednesday: Deneb is about seven fists above the east horizon at 10 p.m. When you look at Deneb, you are seeing light that left Deneb about 1,800 years ago.
Thursday: Fomalhaut, the bright star in the Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fishes, is about one fist above the southeast horizon at midnight. It is the southernmost bright star visible from Ellensburg.
Friday: Jupiter, another windy planet, is a half a fist to the lower right of the Moon at midnight tonight. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a storm larger than the Earth that has been raging for over 400 years.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/ObserveMoon.pdf, a resource of the Night Sky Network.
Sunday: Many big city dwellers never see the milky white, nearly continuous band of stars known as the Milky Way. As cities grow and add more lights, it has become harder to see the bulk of the Milky Way galaxy, our home in the universe. But, there are two easy ways to see the Milky Way. The first way is to look in the mirror. You are part of the Milky Way. The second way is to look from due north through the point straight overhead (called the zenith) to due south from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. for the next two weeks. This is the time of year when the Milky Way is highest in the sky and away from the city lights on the horizon.
Monday: Need a caffeine pick-me-up? Make it a double. Need an astronomy pick-me-up? Make it a double-double. Find Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, nearly straight overhead at 11:00 tonight. Less than half a fist to the east (or left if you are facing south) of the bright bluish star Vega is the “star” Epsilon Lyra. If you look at Epsilon Lyra through binoculars, it looks like two stars. If you look at Epsilon Lyra through a large enough telescope, you will notice that each star in the pair is itself a pair of stars. Each star in the double is double. Hence, Epsilon Lyra is known as the double-double. The stars in each pair orbit a point approximately in the center of each respective pair. The pairs themselves orbit a point between the two pairs.
Tuesday: You think the Ellensburg wind is bad. Some of the Jovian planets have winds of over 1000 miles per hour. Jupiter and Saturn have belts of clouds that can be observed with back yard telescopes. You’ll have to look quickly to see Saturn. It is a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 9:30 p.m. In a few days, it will be lost in the glare of the Sun. To learn more about Saturn and other windy worlds, go to http://goo.gl/GLWAi.
Wednesday: Deneb is about seven fists above the east horizon at 10 p.m. When you look at Deneb, you are seeing light that left Deneb about 1,800 years ago.
Thursday: Fomalhaut, the bright star in the Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fishes, is about one fist above the southeast horizon at midnight. It is the southernmost bright star visible from Ellensburg.
Friday: Jupiter, another windy planet, is a half a fist to the lower right of the Moon at midnight tonight. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a storm larger than the Earth that has been raging for over 400 years.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 8/6/11
Saturday: It’s a moonless August morning. The first remnant of dawn has not appeared yet. Suddenly, you notice a large softly radiant pyramid of light in the east sky. The base of this ghostly triangle is along the east horizon and the peak stretches two or three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the horizon about two hours before sunrise. Don’t be scared. It’s not really a ghost. It is an effect called the zodiacal light. This light comes from sunlight reflecting off dust grains in our solar system. The effect is the most visible when the band of constellations called the zodiac makes a steep angle with the horizon. You need a clear dark sky with no haze or light pollution to see the zodiacal light. At its brightest, the zodiacal light rivals the light of the central Milky Way. This is one of the best times of year to see the zodiacal light in the morning.
This is also one of the best times of the year to see meteors. The Perseid meteor shower peaks this week.
Sunday: The Moon seems to move with precision tonight, moving between the head and the heart of Scorpius the celestial scorpion. Antares, representing the heart of the scorpion, is about a half a fist to the lower left of the Moon at 11 p.m.
Monday: The NASA probe called Dawn is orbiting the asteroid Vesta. Go to http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ for more information about the Dawn mission and to see some fascinating photos of Vesta. Go to your binoculars to see Vesta for yourself in the constellation Capricornus. First find Deneb Algiedi, the brightest star in the constellation, two fists above the southeast horizon. Place this star in the upper left portion of your field of view, at the 10 o’clock position. Then move your binoculars toward the 4 o’clock position until two fairly bright stars come into your field of view. These two stars are close together, aligned diagonally, about half as bright as Deneb Algiedi. Next, place these stars in the upper left portion of your field of view, at the 10 o’clock position. Then move your binoculars toward the 4 o’clock position until a star about half as bright as these two comes into your field of view. Finally, move this star to the bottom of your field of view. Vesta will be near the middle of your field of view. It is about a finger width above this star, called 24 Capricorni.
Tuesday: Astronomers from the Beijing Planetarium recently identified a 30-ton meteorite in Northwest China. Just like asteroids such as Vesta, meteorites provide clues to the formation of the Solar System. Sometimes we spend millions of dollars on space probes to search for the evidence. Sometimes the evidence comes to us free of charge. See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/126009563.html for more information.
Wednesday: Had the script been written a little differently for a well-known Robin Williams movie, we might have heard Mr. Williams shout, “Goooood Morning Orion the hunter”. Orion is typically thought of as a winter constellation. But, it makes its first appearance in the summer sky. The lowest corner of Orion’s body, represented by the star Saiph (pronounced “safe”), rises at 4:30 a.m., well before the Sun. By 5 a.m., Orion’s belt is about one fist above the east-southeast horizon.
Thursday: Saturn is less than a fist above the west horizon at 9:30 p.m.
Friday: The Perseid meteor shower peaks late tonight and early tomorrow morning. The meteors appear to come from a point just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is about two and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 11 p.m. By 4 a.m., the peak time, this point is about seven fists above the northeast horizon. If you fall asleep or forget to set your alarm, you will be able to observe this shower from midnight to dawn for a few days before and after tonight in about the same location in the sky. The Perseid shower is one of the longest lasting showers. With dark skies, you can see up to 100 meteors per hour in the late night and early morning hours all week. Unfortunately, the nearly full Moon will obscure all but the brightest fireballs. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. These meteors are sand to pea-sized bits of rock that fell off of Comet Swift-Tuttle. They are traveling about 40 miles per second as they collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more tips about meteor watching, go to http://goo.gl/6glPq.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
This is also one of the best times of the year to see meteors. The Perseid meteor shower peaks this week.
Sunday: The Moon seems to move with precision tonight, moving between the head and the heart of Scorpius the celestial scorpion. Antares, representing the heart of the scorpion, is about a half a fist to the lower left of the Moon at 11 p.m.
Monday: The NASA probe called Dawn is orbiting the asteroid Vesta. Go to http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ for more information about the Dawn mission and to see some fascinating photos of Vesta. Go to your binoculars to see Vesta for yourself in the constellation Capricornus. First find Deneb Algiedi, the brightest star in the constellation, two fists above the southeast horizon. Place this star in the upper left portion of your field of view, at the 10 o’clock position. Then move your binoculars toward the 4 o’clock position until two fairly bright stars come into your field of view. These two stars are close together, aligned diagonally, about half as bright as Deneb Algiedi. Next, place these stars in the upper left portion of your field of view, at the 10 o’clock position. Then move your binoculars toward the 4 o’clock position until a star about half as bright as these two comes into your field of view. Finally, move this star to the bottom of your field of view. Vesta will be near the middle of your field of view. It is about a finger width above this star, called 24 Capricorni.
Tuesday: Astronomers from the Beijing Planetarium recently identified a 30-ton meteorite in Northwest China. Just like asteroids such as Vesta, meteorites provide clues to the formation of the Solar System. Sometimes we spend millions of dollars on space probes to search for the evidence. Sometimes the evidence comes to us free of charge. See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/126009563.html for more information.
Wednesday: Had the script been written a little differently for a well-known Robin Williams movie, we might have heard Mr. Williams shout, “Goooood Morning Orion the hunter”. Orion is typically thought of as a winter constellation. But, it makes its first appearance in the summer sky. The lowest corner of Orion’s body, represented by the star Saiph (pronounced “safe”), rises at 4:30 a.m., well before the Sun. By 5 a.m., Orion’s belt is about one fist above the east-southeast horizon.
Thursday: Saturn is less than a fist above the west horizon at 9:30 p.m.
Friday: The Perseid meteor shower peaks late tonight and early tomorrow morning. The meteors appear to come from a point just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is about two and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 11 p.m. By 4 a.m., the peak time, this point is about seven fists above the northeast horizon. If you fall asleep or forget to set your alarm, you will be able to observe this shower from midnight to dawn for a few days before and after tonight in about the same location in the sky. The Perseid shower is one of the longest lasting showers. With dark skies, you can see up to 100 meteors per hour in the late night and early morning hours all week. Unfortunately, the nearly full Moon will obscure all but the brightest fireballs. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. These meteors are sand to pea-sized bits of rock that fell off of Comet Swift-Tuttle. They are traveling about 40 miles per second as they collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more tips about meteor watching, go to http://goo.gl/6glPq.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
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