Saturday: The
CWU Physics Department and the College of the Sciences is hosting its first
Saturday planetarium show today from noon to 1 pm. CWU physics professor Tony
Smith will give a show called Space: The Fun and the Fiction. Have Scotty beam
you aboard and come to the presentation. There will be a show at noon on the
first Saturday of every month hosted by different CWU astronomers and astronomy
educators. These shows are free and open to all ages. 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: Venus
is within a fingerwidth of the bright star Regulus for the next few days. They
are about one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due west
at 9:30 p.m. Venus is the brighter of the two. Mercury is lower, about a half a
fist above the west-northwest horizon at this time.
Monday: Look
straight up at midnight. The head of Draco the dragon will be looking straight
down on you. The brightest star in the head is called Eltanin. If you chose to
wait a VERY long time, Eltanin will be the brightest star in the night sky.
Currently 154 light years away, it is moving towards Earth and will be only 28
light years away in about 1.3 million years, claiming the title as brightest
star.
Tuesday: Being
in a coma is a bad thing. Looking at the Coma Star Cluster is a good thing. The
Coma Star Cluster is an open cluster of about 50 stars that takes up more space
in the sky than 10 full Moons. It looks like a fuzzy patch with the naked eye. Binoculars
reveal dozens of sparkling stars. A telescope actually diminishes from the
spectacle because the cluster is so big and the telescope’s field of view is so
small. The Coma Star Cluster is in the faint constellation Coma Berenices (ba-ron-ice’-ez) or Queen
Berenice’s hair. Queen Berenice of Egypt cut off her beautiful hair as a
sacrifice to the gods for the safe return of her husband Ptolemy III from
battle. The Coma Star Cluster is about four fists held upright and at arm’s
length above the west horizon at 11:00 p.m.
Wednesday: It is Wednesday so you want to go to bed early fo focus on the
early evening (for summer, anyway) planets. At 10 p.m., Jupiter is two and a
half fists above the southwest horizon. It is the brightest point of light in its
part of the sky. Saturn is about five fists to the left of Jupiter, about one
and a half fists above the southeast horizon. The star Antares is halfway
between the two in the night sky.
Thursday: Mizar is a star in the middle of the Big Dipper handle. Don’t
confuse Mizar with its rhyming brother Izar in the constellation Bootes. Izar
is also a binary star with about the same apparent brightness. And both were
featured in different episodes of Star Trek. Izar was featured in the Star Trek
episode “Whom Gods Destroy” from the original series. It is the base of Fleet
Captain Garth, a former big shot in the federation and one of Kirk’s heroes
before he went insane. Garth kidnaps Kirk and Spock before eventually being out
smarted. Mizar doesn’t play as big a role in its episode. It is the star of the
home world of one of the alien species in The Next Generation episode
“Allegiance”. Izar is one fist above the bright star Arcturus and seven fists
above the south horizon at 10 p.m. Mizar is seven fists above the northwest
horizon at this time.
Friday: It
is Friday so you don’t mind staying up late. Mars is one fist above the
southeast horizon at midnight.
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.
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