Saturday:
“You know Aries and Cancer and Draco and Libra. Leo and Pisces and Virgo and
Hydra. But, do you recall, the pointiest asterism of all? Triangulum, the three
sided asterism, had a very pointy edge….” Sorry. Some stores have started sending
out their Christmas catalogues and that has put me in the mood to modify some
Christmas songs. Anyway, Triangulum is a small constellation between the more
prominent Andromeda and Aries. Its main feature is a skinny triangle oriented
parallel to and nearly four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the
east horizon at 10 p.m.
Sunday: Venus
is at its brightest for this viewing cycle. You’ll have no trouble finding it
two and a half fists above the east horizon at 6 a.m. In fact, you could
probable wait until 6:30 a.m., just a few minutes before sunrise and still see
it three fists above the east-southeast horizon.
Monday: There
is a rumor (started by my dog and me) that The Beach Boys are working on a new
solar system-themed record. I bet the first single will be “Catch a Wave and
You’re Sitting on Top of Titan.” As the seasons change on this large moon of
Saturn, astronomers are looking for signs of the winds increasing. They’ll send
the Cassini spacecraft on a flyover of Kraken Mare, a large liquid hydrocarbon
sea, to see if there are any waves. The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has made
a “Titan Great Lakes” tour video that you can find at http://goo.gl/ndXDhd.
Available lakefront property and the potential for large waves. Who is up for a
“Surfin' Safari”? Saturn is one and a half fists above the southwest horizon at
7:30 p.m.
Tuesday: To
celebrate the start of school at Central Washington University tomorrow, let’s
sing a song of the season. “Oh the weather outside is grand. And the fire is
rightfully banned. There is really no place to go. Let it snow, let it snow,
let it snow. On Mars.” The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered evidence
of carbon dioxide snow clouds high above the surface of Mars. Carbon dioxide, also called “dry ice”,
exists in Mars south polar ice cap and requires temperatures of nearly 200
degrees below zero Fahrenheit to form. Astronomers were not sure how this polar
cap gets replenished but the discovery of carbon dioxide clouds may provide an
answer. For more information, go to http://goo.gl/shMTf. Mars is two
fists above the east horizon at 6:00 a.m., just above the bright star Regulus
and halfway between the very bright planets Venus above it and Jupiter below
it.
Wednesday:
At precisely 1:21 a.m. PDT, the center of the Sun crosses the celestial equator
and passes into the southern sky. The celestial equator is an imaginary line
that divides the sky into a northern and southern half. When the Sun is in the
southern half of the sky, it appears to take a shorter path from rising to
setting. It also does not get as high in the sky at noon. This leads to shorter
days and longer nights. Since the Sun crosses the celestial equator today,
there is an instant when it is equally in the northern and southern sky, called
the north and south celestial hemispheres. This so-called “equal night” is
given by the Latin word equinox. Thus, today is known as the Autumnal Equinox.
However, the day and night are not of equal duration today. The sun rises at
6:49 a.m. and sets at 7:00 p.m. Day and night are closest to equal duration on
Saturday.
Thursday: The
bright star Arcturus is three fists above the west horizon at 7:30 p.m.
Friday: Fomalhaut,
the most isolated bright star, is about one and a half fists above the south horizon
at 11:30 p.m. It is the first magnitude star furthest from any other first
magnitude stars. First magnitude stars represent the approximately twenty
brightest stars.
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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