The Ellensburg WA sky for the week of 6/2/18

Saturday: The CWU Physics Department and the College of the Sciences is hosting its First Saturday Planetarium Show today from noon to 1 pm. Local science educator Megan Rivard will give a kid-friendly presentation about what can be seen in the summer sky called "Summer Night Lights – A Tour". There will be a show at noon on the first Saturday of every month hosted by different CWU astronomers and astronomy educators. The planetarium is room 101 in Science Phase II, just off the corner of 11th and Wildcat Way, H-11 on the campus map found at https://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map. 

Sunday: Cygnus the swan flies tonight. Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation, whose name means “tail” in Arabic, is two and a half fists held upright and at arm's length above the northeast horizon at 10 p.m. Cygnus’ wings make a vertical line one half a fist to the right of Deneb. Its head, marked by the star Albireo, is two fists to the right of Deneb. While Deneb is at the tail of Cygnus, it is at the head of the line of bright stars. It is 160,000 times more luminous than the Sun making it one of the brightest stars in the galaxy. It does not dominate our night sky because it is 2,600 light years away, one of the farthest naked eye stars. If Deneb were 25 light years away, it would shine as bright as a crescent moon. Compare that to Vega, which is 25 light years away. Vega is three and a half fists above the east-northeast horizon at this time. 

Monday: Venus is one and a half fists above the west horizon at 9:30 p.m. 

Tuesday: While the NASA probe Dawn is off exploring the largest main-belt asteroid Ceres, you can explore the second largest asteroid Vesta. NASA has released Vesta Trek, a free web-based application that allows you to zoom in, “fly” over the surface, measure craters sizes, and see what Vesta looks like in different wavelengths of light. Go to http://goo.gl/97NxgF for more information about Vesta Trek and the Dawn mission. Vesta is the brightest asteroid and can easily be seen with binoculars. For the next few weeks, use Saturn as your celestial starting point. Find Saturn with your binoculars, a little more than one fist above the southeast horizon at midnight. Shift your binoculars so Saturn is in the lower left edge of your field of view. Move your binoculars a little to the upper right. The brightest point of light in the region of the sky you are now looking at is Vesta. To confirm, go back to that spot for the next few nights. Vesta will move noticeably from night to night with respect to the background stars. 

Wednesday: 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 Enceladus. NASA’s Cassini probes 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 Enceladus, Saturn is one fist above the southeast horizon at 11:30 p.m. 

Thursday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 10:47 pm. That is as high as it will get above the horizon this season. 

Friday: Mars is two fists above due south at 4:30 a.m. I know, you may still be sleeping. But your co-worker isn't so she will soon pass you in the race to the top of the career ladder! And, she will see Mars. 

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 https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.  

The Ellensburg WA sky for the week of 5/26/18

Saturday:  Today: In 1979, the group Foreigner recorded the song “Head Games”. They could have been singing about the constellations Hercules and Ophiuchus when they said “head games, it’s just you and me baby, head games, I can’t take it anymore” because the heads of these two constellations have been right next to each other in the nighttime sky for all of human history. And just to make it easy for you, a star that bears an Arabic name that means “the head” represents each head. In Hercules, it's Ras Algethi (head of the kneeler); in Ophiuchus, Ras Alhague (head of the serpent charmer). At 11 p.m., Ras Alhague, the brighter of the two, is three and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-southeast horizon. Ras Algethi is about a half a fist to the upper right of Ras Alhague. 

Sunday: At 11 p.m., the bright star Regulus is less than a fist from the upper left of the Moon. But what if it is cloudy or you are study inside all day and night? Easy, check out the Moon online. One of the best live Moon maps is found at http://goo.gl/wRXQqa. See the most up to date lunar images at fantastic resolution, down to about two meters. You could easily tell the difference between a car and a minivan on the moon. 

Monday: The questions who, what, where, and when can only be asked with a “W”. At 10:30 p.m., the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia is about one and a half fists above due north. The middle star in the W was used as a navigation reference point during the early space missions. The American astronaut Gus Grissom nicknamed the star Navi, his middle name Ivan spelled backwards. After he died in the Apollo 1 fire, the star name was kept as a memorial. 

Tuesday: Altair, the lowest star in the Summer Triangle, is one fist above due east at 11 p.m. 

Wednesday: NASA recently launched InSight, a mission to study Martian seismology. When it lands on Mars in late November, it will monitor the seismic waves that occur when rocks and land masses shift. By measuring the size and frequency of these marsquakes, astronomers will learn more about the structure, history, and formation of Mars. For more about marsquakes, including a short video, go to https://goo.gl/ybFETD. You can see Mars for yourself, one and a half fists above due south at 5 a.m. 

Thursday: The month of June is named after Juno, the queen of the Roman gods and the mythological protector of the Roman state. In ancient Rome, the month began when the crescent moon was first seen in the evening sky from Capitoline Hill in Rome. If we still started months this way, June would start on a different day each year. Celebrate the first sunset in June by actually watching it… and then looking for the visible planets. At 9:30 p.m., one and a half fists above the west horizon and Jupiter is nearly two and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon. If you wait until 11:30 p.m., you can see Saturn and the Moon rising up from the southeast horizon. 

Friday: The CWU Physics Department and the College of the Sciences is hosting its monthly First Saturday planetarium show tomorrow from noon to 1 pm. Local science educator Megan Rivard will give a presentation about what can be seen in the summer sky called "Summer Night Lights – A Tour". Shows are free and open to all ages. There will be a show at noon on the first Saturday of every month hosted by different CWU astronomers and astronomy educators. The planetarium is room 101 in Science Phase II, just off the corner of 11th and Wildcat Way, H-11 on the campus map found at https://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map. 

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 https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.  

The Ellesnburg WA sky for the week of 5/19/18

Saturday:  Are you thirsty. I’ll wait while you get some water. I will NOT wait while Corvus the crow gets you some water. The Greco-Roman god Apollo made this mistake. He sent Corvus the crow to get some water in the cup known as Crater. Some figs distracted Corvus and he waited for them to ripen so he could eat them. When Corvus got back late, Apollo put Corvus and Crater in the sky with the gently tipping cup just out of the reach of the perpetually thirsty crow. Corvus is a trapezoid-shaped constellation about two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 9:30 p.m. Crater is just to the right of Corvus. 

Sunday: The bright star Capella is one and a half fists above the northwest horizon at 9:30 p.m. 

Monday: You can set your watch tonight by carefully observing Navi, the center star in the W-shaped Cassiopeia. It will be due north at exactly 10 p.m. However, another star in Cassiopeia is causing astronomers to doubt whether or not they can use neutron stars as the most precise known clocks in the universe. Neutron stars have such a precise spin rate that they are used to set clocks on Earth. But the neutron star called 1E 2259+586 (how’s that for a celebrity baby name) exhibited a spin glitch that astronomers had never seen before. To find out more about this new excuse for being late, go to http://goo.gl/C4V8R1. 

Tuesday: At 9:30 p.m., Venus is one and a haf fists above the west horizon and Jupiter is two fists above the southeast horizon. 

Wednesday: You’ve seen all of the top 100 lists: top 100 ways to use sandpaper, top 100 Tex-Mex restaurants in Ellensburg, etc. Now get excited for next week’s full Moon by reading about and finding some of the lunar 100 at http://goo.gl/ldGvH6 This list describes 100 interesting landmarks on the Moon that are visible from Earth. They are listed from easiest to see, starting with the entire moon itself at number 1, to most difficult (Mare Marginis swirls, anyone?). Stay up all night to binge watch the moon or just make a few observations a month. It’s your decision. It’s our moon. Start your viewing tonight at 9:30 p.m. when the Moon is due south. I suggest starting with Mare Crisium, the circular, dark, basaltic plain in the upper right-hand portion of the moon. Items such as Crisium were names "Mare" by early astronomers who mistook them foe seas, instead of the hardened lava beds that they really are.  

Thursday: Mars and Saturn are both two fists above the horizon and on either side of due south at 4:30 a.m. Mars is a little bit east (to the left) of due south and Saturn is a little bit to the west (to the right) of due south. 

Friday: Are you thirsty when you get up in the morning? I know you are not waiting for Corvus. That’s okay because the Big Dipper is positioned to hold water in the morning sky. Look three fists above the northwest horizon at 4:30 a.m. You’ll see three stars that make a bent handle and four stars that make a cup. 

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 https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.