Saturday:
Geometry review: part 3. 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. The bluish star Vega is one of
the few objects bright enough to be seen. As you are finishing your rides at 10
p.m., look for Vega nearly straight overhead.
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://goo.gl/ozVF5.
Tuesday: Saturn
is one fist above the west-southwest horizon and about a half a fist above
Spica. Mars is one fist to the left of Saturn.
Wednesday:
The calendar says summer is nearing an end. School starting today 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.
Thursday: Jupiter
rises at about 11:30 p.m. and is about a half a fist above the northeast
horizon at midnight. By 6 a.m., Jupiter is six fists above the southeast
horizon. At this time, Venus is three fists above the east horizon.
Friday: In
the movie The Terminator, Arnold said “Hasta la vista, baby”. Tomorrow you can
join NASA scientists and many other people around the world in saying “Hasta la
vista, Vesta”. The probe known as Dawn has studied the asteroid Vesta for the
past year. Soon it will head over to the dwarf planet Ceres. Before it goes,
Dawn scientists and engineers will host a Google+ Hangout from noon-2:00 p.m.
Pacific Daylight Time. You can also get mission updates on Facebook or Twitter.
For more information, go to http://goo.gl/fKorW.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.
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