The Ellensburg sky for the week of 6/2/12

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

Sunday: At 10 p.m., reddish Mars is four fists above the southwest horizon and orangish Saturn is three and a half fists above the south horizon. Don’t confuse Saturn with the bluish and slightly dimmer Spica that is a half a fist below it.

Monday: Set your alarm for early this morning so you don’t miss the partial lunar eclipse. The full moon will move into the Earth’s shadow at about 3 a.m., Pacific Daylight Time. By the eclipse peaks at 4 a.m., the Earth’s shadow will cover more than one third of the moon.

Tuesday: You are a busy person. I understand that. But will you be busy in 105 years? That is the question to ask yourself if you are thinking of skipping the CWU Astronomy Club Venus Transit viewing event today from 3:00 pm to sunset. CWU astronomy students will be on the corner of 18^th Avenue and Walnut Street with properly filtered telescopes and other safe viewing devices to observe Venus pass across the face of the Sun for the last time in 105 years. There will be prizes, fun, and education. Of course, education is its OWN prize and fun. You should NEVER look directly at the Sun without proper protection.

There is a CWU parking lot about a block away that is free all day and a CWU parking lot across the street that is free after 4:30. See the campus parking map at http://goo.gl/Lps0s for more details. For the most up-to-date information about CWU Astronomy Club events such as this, go to http://www.facebook.com/CWUAC. (You don’t need to have a Facebook account to view this page.)

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 many more. 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. Globular clusters are groups of up to a few million stars that orbit the core of spiral galaxies such as our own Milky Way. One of the most well known star clusters is the globular cluster in Hercules, an object that is fairly easy to find with binoculars. First find Vega, the bright bluish star 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”.

Thursday: It is often said that Earth is a water world because about 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. What would it look like if all that water on the surface were gathered up into a ball? That “ball” would be about 700 km in diameter, less than half the diameter of the Moon. The Astronomy Picture of the day shows us right here http://goo.gl/4wXLM

Friday: Mercury is a half a fist above the northwest horizon at 9:30 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

The Ellensburg sky for the week of 5/26/12

Saturday: The constellation Aquila the eagle is starting its migration across the summer evening sky this month. Aquila, marked by its bright star Altair, rises above the east horizon at about 11 p.m. Not all animal migrations are fully understood by scientists. We might be inclined to attribute bird migrations to instinct. This answer certainly did not satisfy the theologian C. S. Lewis. In his short work “Men Without Chests”, he wrote, “to say that migratory birds find their way by instinct is only to say that we do not know how migratory birds find their way”. In science (and theology), Lewis is telling us to look for real causes and not simply labels such as instinct. The cause for Aquila’s migration is the Earth orbiting the Sun. As the Earth moves around the Sun, certain constellations move into the evening sky as others get lost in the glare of the setting Sun.

Sunday: Last Sunday, the moon passed directly between the earth and the Sun resulting in a solar eclipse. For about 95% of the eclipse, the sky was cloudy in Ellensburg. However, for five minutes near the eclipse peak, the clouds thinned enough to safely view the eclipse. Here is a link to a photo taken by a CWU Astronomy Club member with her point and shoot digital camera http://goo.gl/mjxma.

Monday: Tonight’s first quarter moon is the constellation Sextans the sextant. Sextans is sort of a self-referential constellation since it is named for the astronomical instrument used to measure the positions of the stars in the constellation, itself. At 11 p.m., Mars is about a fist above the moon in the southwestern sky.

Tuesday: One week from today, Venus will pass directly between the Earth and the Sun. “Big deal, this happened in 2004”, you say dismissively. It IS a big deal because it will not happen again until 2117. Due to the tilt and wobble of Venus’ orbit, these transits, as they are called, occur eight years apart, then over a hundred years apart, then eight years apart again. Most of you reading this will have two opportunities to see Venus transit the Sun in your lifetime. People born next week will most likely have no opportunities. For a lot of general information about this transit, go to http://www.transitofvenus.org/. The CWU Astronomy Club will have a safe Venus Transit viewing event on the afternoon and evening of June 5. For the most up-to-date information about CWU Astronomy Club events such as this, go to http://www.facebook.com/CWUAC. (You don’t need to have a Facebook account to view this page.)

Wednesday: 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 at 10 p.m. Cygnus’ wings make a vertical line one half a fist to the right of Deneb. Its head, marked by the star Albireo, is two fists to the right of Deneb. While Deneb is at the tail of Cygnus, it is at the head of the line of bright stars. It is 160,000 times more luminous than the Sun making it one of the brightest stars in the galaxy. It does not dominate our night sky because it is 2,600 light years away, one of the farthest naked eye stars. If Deneb were 25 light years away, it would shine as bright as a crescent moon. Compare that to Vega, which is 25 light years away. Vega is three and a half fists above the east-northeast horizon at this time.

Thursday: At 11 p.m., the bright star Spica is less than a half a fist and Saturn is less than a fist above the moon in the southern sky.

Friday: 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 wouldn’t begin until about two weeks from now.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

The Ellensburg sky for the week of 5/19/12

Make plans for an astronomical fun time on Sunday from 5-7 p.m. in the CWU psychology building parking lot.

Saturday: Saturn is the orangish point of light three and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the south horizon at 10 p.m. The star Spica is the bluish point of light of similar apparent brightness right below it.

Sunday: Today the moon is new. Most months, that is not a big deal. This month it is a big deal because there will be an annular solar eclipse for part of the world, including part of the southwest United States, and a partial solar eclipse for the entire western United States. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon, as seen from Earth, is relatively far from Earth in its orbit and not large enough to cover the Sun even though they are nearly perfectly lined up. The resulting eclipse is called an annular solar eclipse because of the ring the sunlight makes around the Moon. (The Latin word for ring is annulus.) For more information about the eclipse, go to http://goo.gl/bGSUj.

The CWU Astronomy Club is hosting a solar eclipse party today from 5-7 p.m. in the CWU psychology building parking lot just off the corner of Dean Nicholson Boulevard and Walnut Street. It is parking lot S-10 on the map found here http://goo.gl/qANHL. There will be numerous safe solar viewing opportunities and fun prizes. You should NEVER look directly at the Sun without proper protection. Even though the Moon will block about 80% of the Sun at the peak eclipse time of 6:20 p.m., the remaining light is intense enough to damage your eye.

Monday: Venus and the Moon dance low in the west-northwestern sky for the next three nights. At 9 p.m. tonight the thin crescent Moon is just barely above the horizon and is below Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky. Tomorrow night they are side-by-side. By Wednesday, the Moon is off looking for another dance partner.

Tuesday: Aquila the eagle and its bright star Altair rises at about 10 p.m. By 11 p.m., Altair is one fist above the east horizon.

Wednesday: 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”.

Thursday: Mars is four fists above the southwest horizon at 10 p.m.

Friday: 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.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. This column is also available online at http://theellensburgsky.blogspot.com/.

The Ellensburg Sky for the week of 5/12/12

What's up in the sky 5/12/12

Today: Fortune, fame, mirror vain, Venus wanes, but the memory remains. Metallica recorded something similar to this in their 1997 single, “The Memory Remains”. But their words of wisdom apply to the planet Venus this month. On May 1st Venus’ disk was 27% illuminated. By May 31, its disk will be 1% illuminated (meaning of the half of Venus facing us, only 1% is lit by the Sun). Yes, Venus goes through phases just like the Moon does. You can observe the crescent shape of Venus with binoculars if you keep your binoculars steady. By June 5^th and 6^th, Venus disk will be 0% illuminated because the Sun will be directly behind Venus resulting to the last Venus transit for 105 years. For more information about the Venus transit, go to http://goo.gl/GHQB2. The CWU Astronomy club will have a public viewing and presentation about this event on the afternoon and evening of June 5. Venus is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 9 p.m.

Sunday: So you think your mother has problems on Mother’s Day because she has you as you as a child? Her mother issues can’t be as bad as Cassiopeia’s issues. First, she was chained to a chair for boasting about her beauty. Second, she has to revolve around the North Star night after night. Third, her daughter Andromeda was nearly sacrificed to a sea monster. Look for poor Cassiopeia about one and a half fists above the north horizon at 10 p.m. Cassiopeia looks like a stretched out “W”.

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 3^rd 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. 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: Mars is four and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m.

Wednesday: The bright star Antares is one fist above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m.

Thursday: 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. It is known as the Horn Mansion, one of 28 mansions, or constellations, in the Chinese sky. You now know how to use the Big Dipper handle to “arc” to Arcturus and “spike” to Spica.

Friday: Saturn is three and a half fists above due south at 11 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. This column is also available online at http://theellensburgsky.blogspot.com/.

The Ellensburg Sky for the week of 5/5/12

It’s a plane. It’s a bird. No, it’s Supermoon! The biggest and brightest full moon this year, 14% bigger and 30% brighter! This will lead to very high tides! And an overuse of exclamation points! The Moon is full on Saturday night meaning the Earth, Moon, and Sun are in line with each other. That means the Moon and Sun are both stretching the Earth along the same axis causing the ocean water in line with the Sun and Moon to be pulled upward. In addition, the moon is at perigee Saturday night. Peri- means close and –gee refers to the Earth so this is the day of the month when the moon is closest to the Earth. Tonight is the closest the full moon gets all year, which accentuates the upward pull on the water and makes the tides really high. For more information about Supermoon, go to http://goo.gl/Bv1pe.

Saturday: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow morning. But since this meteor shower has a fairly broad peak range, there will be many more meteors than in the typical pre-dawn sky throughout the month. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. The meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation Aquarius near the star Eta. This point is about one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon at 4 a.m. Although the full moon will light the sky, you could be rewarded with a few bright, fast meteors. The Eta Aquarid meteors slam into the Earth at about 40 miles per second. They often leave a long trail. The Eta Aquarid meteors are small rocks that have broken off Halley’s Comet. For more information about the Eta Aquarids, go to http://meteorshowersonline.com/eta_aquarids.html.

Sunday: Mother’s Day is a week away. What are you going to get her? Get her a Gem(ma). The star Gemma, also known as Alphekka, is the brightest star in the constellation Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. Gemma, Latin for jewel is the central gemstone for the crown. It is four fists above due east at 10 p.m.

Monday: Antares is about a half a fist to the lower left of the Moon at 4 a.m.

Tuesday: Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky, is one and a half fists above the west horizon at 10 p.m. Owing to their own motion and the Earth’s motion, planets appear to move with respect to the background stars. Tonight, Venus is about a pinky thickness to the left of the star at the tip of one horn on Taurus the bull. Since the Arabs that named many of the stars were quite sensible, they called the star El Nath, meaning “the butting one”. Watch Venus for the next few nights as it moves away from El Nath.

Wednesday: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is less than a half a fist above the southwest horizon at 9 p.m. Soon it will be lost in the glare of the Sun.

Thursday: Mars is four fists above the south-southwest horizon at 10 p.m.

Friday: This weekend, celebrate Mother’s Day with the big mom of the sky, Virgo. Ancient Greeks and Romans associated this portion of the sky with their own goddess of the harvest, either Demeter (Greeks) or Ceres (Roman). Demeter was the mother of Persephone and Ceres was the mother of Proserpina. According to myth, each of these daughters was abducted causing their mothers great grief. The first star in Virgo rises in the afternoon. Spica, the brightest star in the constellation rises at 6:30 and is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m. Saturn is about a half a fist to the upper left of it.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. This column is also available online at http://theellensburgsky.blogspot.com/.