Saturday: Do you want to learn more about what goes on at night
in the natural world? You can at a free event called Nature of Night on the CWU
campus, today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Go to the two largest science buildings on
campus, J-9 and H-10 on the map found at http://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map. The Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics
Education gets help from various community organizations to put on this event.
Sunday: Are you disappointed because you are not going
anywhere for Thanksgiving? Why not take a (virtual) trip to outer space using
Google’s new visualization tool called 100,000 Stars. It shows the stars in our
neighborhood in a very good 3-D simulation. The Sun is initially at the center.
If you zoom in, you can click on neighboring stars and learn more about them. Go
to http://stars.chromeexperiments.com/
for the simulation. It works best on a Chrome browser.
Monday: If
you are a fan of science fiction, you may have heard of Tau Ceti. It’s a real
Sun-like star with many fake civilizations. In 2012, astronomers discovered
strong evidence of five real planets orbiting Tau Ceti. But before you go
looking for Barbarella, read the latest research reports. Astronomers think
these planets are made from different materials than Earth and would be
regularly bombarded with comets and asteroids, destroying any life and space
babes that arise. Tau Ceti is two and a half fists above due south at 10 p.m.,
one and a half fists to the left of Diphda.
Tuesday: Saturn is just above the southwest horizon at 5 p.m.
Venus is easier to spot, more than one fist above the south-southwest horizon.
Wednesday: Are you thankful that you live in a solar
system with multiple planets? You should be. A giant planet like Jupiter cleans
up planetary debris that could have collided with Earth and hindered the
formation of complex life. Any inhabitants of the planets orbiting Upsilon
Andromedae are thankful for this, as well. Upsilon Andromedae, a star in the
constellation Andromeda, was the first Sun-like star discovered to have
multiple planets orbiting it. So far, all of its planets are giant planets like
Jupiter. But, the system is likely to also contain smaller planets. The dim
star, but certainly not its planets, is barely visible straight overhead at 9
p.m. Jupiter is much easier to see, but you have to wait until tomorrow morning
to see it. It is three fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
Thursday: Some of us have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.
But, probably not as much as Andromeda had to be thankful for. According to
Greek mythology, the beautiful princess Andromeda was chained to a rock next to
the ocean. Cetus the sea monster was about to devour her in order to punish her
family. Her mother Queen Cassiopeia and her father King Cepheus didn’t know
what to do. It seemed that all was lost. But, along came Andromeda’s boyfriend,
the great warrior Perseus. Even though Perseus’ standing as the son of King
Zeus and the slayer of Medusa was probably enough to win Andromeda under normal
circumstances, Andromeda’s impending death-by-sea-monster was not a normal
circumstance. So, Perseus drove his sword into the sea monster’s neck and
killed it. This was the first time in recorded history that a set of parents
actually welcomed an uninvited Thanksgiving visit from the boyfriend. Perseus
is about five fists above the east-northeast horizon and Andromeda is about
seven fists above the east horizon at 7 p.m.
You should also be thankful that today you will able to find
a planet during the day. Jupiter is often bright enough to be seen during the
day. But it is difficult to find in the middle of the bright blue sky with no
markers around. At 1 p.m., Jupiter is about two to three finger widths to the
left of the Moon, low in the west-southwest sky. It helps to first locate it
with binoculars. Just get the Moon to the right side of your field of view.
Jupiter will be in the middle of the field. Then remove the binoculars and aim
your naked eyes to that same region of the sky.
Friday: The brightest star in the nighttime sky is making its way into the
evening sky. Sirius is a little more than a half a fist above the southeast
horizon at 11 p.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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