Saturday: Venus is two and a half fists held upright and at
arm’s length above the west horizon at 9 p.m.
Sunday: Tonight at 8 p.m., listen to an Eminem song.
Next, eat some M & M candies. Finally, look one fist above the west horizon
to see the Moon and Mars and Mercury side by side. Mars is less than a half a
fist to the right of the Moon and Mercury is a half fist to the lower right of
Mars. That’s right. Watch the sky’s own M and M and M while eating M & Ms
while listening to Eminem. You’ll have a great time or my name’s not (what?).
My name’s not (who?). My name’s not… Slim Shady.
Monday: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is
dipping lower and lower. (Do you like how I used the word “dipping”? Big
Dipper. Get it? Never mind.) It is only a half a fist above the west-southwest
horizon at 10 p.m.
Tuesday: Its two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, are not
visible in typical backyard telescopes. But they are an interesting study. The
prevailing view among most astronomers is that they are captured asteroids.
That makes sense given Mars’ proximity to the asteroid belt. But resent
findings by European astronomers indicate that Phobos is very porous and made
of material similar to the surface of Mars. This implies that Phobos may
consist of chunks of Martian debris that was blasted off by numerous impacts
and gravitationally bound together. Unfortunately, the Russian Phobos-Grunt
probe launched late 2011 to collect material from Phobos crashed to Earth after
malfunctioning. For more information about this new model of Phobos’ formation,
go to http://goo.gl/8sw3rM.
Wednesday: Remember the old saying: April
showers bring… meteors. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks this morning and tomorrow
morning. The meteors appear to come from a point to the right of the bright
bluish star Vega in the constellation Lyra the lyre. This point is about three
fists above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight and close to
straight overhead near dawn. The best time to look is just before dawn since
that is when the radiant, or point from which the meteors appear to come, is
high in the sky. This year, the Moon is in the waxing crescent phase meaning it
has set long before the prime viewing time. Typically, this is one of the least
interesting major meteor showers of the year. However, it is also one of the
most unpredictable. As recently as 1982, there were 90 meteors visible during a
single hour. In addition, the Lyrid meteor shower has historical interest
because it was one of the first ones observed. Chinese records say “stars fell
like rain” in the shower of 687 B.C. As your Mother might say, dress warm and
sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that
hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more information, go to http://goo.gl/j87bVB.
Thursday: As the weather warms up, people
start thinking about swimming in a nice cool body of water. Recently,
astronomers have discovered evidence an ocean about 20 miles beneath the
surface of Saturn’s moon Enceledas. NASA’s Cassini probe measured variations in
how the moon’s gravity pulled on the orbiting spacecraft. These variations can
be explained by a large amount of liquid water under one section of the ice
because liquid water is denser than an equal volume of ice. While you need a
very large telescope to see Enceledas, Saturn is one fist above due southeast at
midnight.
Friday: Capella is a half a fist above the
north-northeast horizon at 5 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and
planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information
about the night sky, go to http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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