Saturday: At 10 p.m., the bright star Regulus is a little less than one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon. But, who is this Regulus? He has many potential identities. The most interesting from a pop culture standpoint is Regulus Black, the brother of Sirius Black who is Harry Potter’s godfather. Regulus Black was a former follower of Voldemort, the bad guy of the Harry Potter series. However, Regulus tried to dissociate himself from Voldemort and was killed. He would be in the pile of forgotten Harry Potter characters except that he is so interesting. Also, in the sixth book, Harry found an important note written by someone known only by the initials R.A.B. Hmmm. R.A.B. Regulus A. Black perhaps? Summer is a great time to read the books. Just seeing the movies is not good enough.
Sunday: But
what does the “A” stand for? Anthony? Abercrombie? Alfonzo? Not astronomical
enough. It stands for Arcturus, the second brightest star visible in the
nighttime sky in Washington and at Hogwarts. Arcturus is five fists above the
southwest horizon at 10 a.m. The bright star Spica and Saturn are halfway
between Arcturus and the southwest horizon and about a fist and a half from
each other. Spica is the slightly brighter object on the left within the pair.
Monday:
Bellatrix Lestrange is Sirius Black’s cousin. But, far from being kissing
cousins. They are killing cousins. Bellatrix kills Sirius in a fight at the
Ministry of Magic. Bellatrix the star is the third brightest star in the
constellation Orion the hunter. You can find it a half a fist above the east
horizon at 4:30 am. But, don’t turn you back on it!
Tuesday: Of
course, Bellatrix is in cahoots with “he who must not be named”. Now, that’s a
poor sentence, using an obscure synonym for “conspiring” and a non-specific
reference. I must be under the curse “writicus dreadfulium”. Clearly this is
the work of Tom Riddle, whose mother is named Merope Gaunt. Merope is a star in
the Pleiades, an open star cluster about two fists above the east-northeast
horizon at 4 a.m.
Wednesday:
Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s young nemesis, is related to Sirius Black. Draco’s
mother, Narcissa Black (Sirius’ cousin) helped develop a plan to trap Harry at
the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book. Draco’s namesake, the constellation
Draco the dragon is one of the largest constellations in the sky, winding
around the North Star. Draco’s head is a four-sided figure nearly straight
overhead at 11 p.m.
Thursday: Fred
and George Weasley are the best known twins in the Harry Potter universe. Mars,
Saturn and the bright star Spica are hoping to be well-known triplets in the
southwestern sky at 10 p.m. Spica is two fists above due southwest, Saturn is a
half a fist above Spica, and Mars is about two fists to the right of the
planetary pair.
Friday:
Not every woman in the Black family is evil. Since this is Friday the 13th,
let’s focus on the good. Andromeda Black, Bellatrix’s sister, is a good witch
and the mother of Tonks, a young witch from the last few Harry Potter books.
(If these Harry Potter references are confusing, talk to a young adolescent
about them.) Andromeda the constellation is an interesting one. It contains the
Andromeda galaxy, the most distant object visible with the naked eye from a
dark site. To locate the Andromeda Galaxy, first find the Great Square of
Pegasus. At 11:00 p.m., the left hand corner of the square is about two fists
above the east-northeast horizon. Less than two fists to the left and down a
little bit is another star the same brightness as the star at the corner of the
square. From that star, hop about a half a fist up to a star that is about one
fourth as bright. Less than another half fist in the same direction is a fuzzy
oval patch of light known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy is impressive to
see in binoculars. It consists of about 400 billion stars and is 2.2 million
light years away.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week
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