Saturday: “The
crow rises in the southeast,” said spy number one. “I’m sorry. I don’t
recognize that code,” replied spy number two. Spy one exclaimed, “That’s
because it’s not a code, you idiot. I’m talking about the constellation Corvus
the crow.” This very bad spy movie dialogue is to remind you that Corvus had a
very bad life. According to one myth, Corvus brought the god Apollo the news
that his girlfriend was seeing someone else. In a classic case of punishing the
messenger, Apollo turned the formerly beautifully colored crow black. The
box-shaped Corvus is one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the
southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Sunday: Tonight
is a great night to look for the Big Dipper. Tomorrow will be a great night to
look for the Big Dipper. In fact, every night for many centuries will be great
nights to look for the Big Dipper. But the Big Dipper’s shape slowly changes over
many, many, many, many centuries. (Have I reached my word count yet?) Tens of
thousands of years ago, it didn’t look like a dipper and tens of thousands of
years from now, it will no longer look like a dipper. For a short video
simulation of the changing Big Dipper, go to http://goo.gl/df1yV.
For a look at the current Dipper, face northeast at 8 p.m. The lowest star,
Alkaid, is two and a half fists above the horizon.
Monday: Antares,
the brightest star in Scorpius the scorpion, is less that a fist below the moon
at 6 a.m. this morning.
Tuesday: The
group AC/DC sings that “Rock ‘n’ roll ain’t noise pollution, rock ‘n’ roll
ain’t gonna die.” Unfortunately, because of excess and improper outdoor
lighting in cities, even those as small as Ellensburg, our view of the night
sky is gonna die. Lights that are aimed upward illuminate the atmosphere and
obscure dim objects. To watch an informative and entertaining video about the
effects of light pollution, go to http://goo.gl/40sOS.
To watch ACV/DC sing “Rock ‘n’ Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution, go to http://goo.gl/6ngTx.
Wednesday:
Vega is about a fist above the northeast horizon just before midnight.
Thursday: If
you ask an astrobiologist for the three most likely places to find evidence of
life in the Solar System, other than Earth, they’d probably say Mars, Europa
(“Didn’t they sing “The Final Countdown”?”), and Enceladus. Mars makes sense
because you know scientists have sent a lot of probes there. Astronomers
discovered strong evidence of a large water ocean on Europa, a moon of Jupiter,
in 1989. However, Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, piqued astrobiologists’
interested a few years ago then NASA’s Cassini probe discovered jets of water
containing organic materials shooting out. Last year, the German space agency
started a project called Enceladus Explorer, EnEx for short, to collect sample
from deep within Enceladus. For more information on the Enceladus mission, go
to http://goo.gl/VPxzs. Jupiter
and Europa are three fists above due west horizon at 10 p.m. Saturn and
Enceladus are one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 11:30 p.m. By the
way, the Swedish group Europe sang “The Final Countdown”. And they were
“heading for Venus” in the song, not to the worlds of the outer Solar System.
Friday: In
this busy world, it is important to know what time it is. We have many devises
that give us the time. A phone. A computer. A watch. But who has time to build
a phone, computer or even a watch. Not you. But everyone has enough time to
build a simple Sun Clock. All you need is a pencil, a compass and a print out
of the clock template. Go to
http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/sunclock.html for more
information.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate
for the entire week.
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