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 11 p.m.
Sunday: Fomalhaut,
the southernmost bright star visible from the northern USA, is one fist above
the south-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. In 2008, Fomalhaut and its surroundings
became the first star system with an extrasolar planet to be directly imaged https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081114.html.
Monday: At 8 p.m.,
Jupiter is one fist above the southwest horizon. Saturn is two fists above the
south horizon and less than one fist to the left of the Moon.
Tuesday: The planet
Neptune is on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun is, meaning it is at
its brightest and easiest to see. Of course, “bright and easy” is relative
because you’ll still need binoculars to see it. First find Fomalhaut, the
bright star a little less than one fist above the south-southeast horizon. Then
move your binoculars up and to the left about three binocular fields of view to
the fairly bright star called Skat. Next continue to move up and to the left
about one and a half binocular fields of view to the reddish star called Hydor,
which is a little dimmer than Skat. With Hydor in the upper right of your field
of view, Neptune will be near the center. The radio program “Stardate” has
three 1-minutes episodes about Neptune earlier this month. Listen to them here:
https://stardate.org/radio/program/2018-09-05.
Wednesday: To
celebrate the start of school at Central Washington University tomorrow, you
could take a quick trip to Mars. How about America’s desert Southwest? Not
enough time? Then just look at some photos from… from…. Hmmm. The photos at https://goo.gl/Elx7O8 look like they
could be from either place. The Murray Buttes region of Mars, where the
Curiosity rover has been exploring, look a lot like the landscape of Utah. So
much so that the Mars-based movie John Carter was filmed there. Look for John
Carter at your local video store. (“What’s that?” asked the child.) Look for
Mars two fists above due south at 9:30 p.m., just a little bit below the Moon.
If you wait until tomorrow night, the Moon will have moved eastward so you will
be able to see Mars better.
Thursday: According
to “One world, group hug, love everyone” philosophy, political borders are
human-made and can’t be seen from space so why can’t we all just get along.
According to real world, pragmatic discoveries, some human-made political borders
CAN be seen from space. Since 2003, India has illuminated its border with
Pakistan to prevent illegal crossings. In 2011, astronaut Ron Garan took a
picture of that border from the International Space Station. For more
information, including the photo, go to http://goo.gl/mY8xG.
Friday: Earlier
this week, you read about Fomalhaut, the second brightest star with a planet.
The brightest star with a planet is Pollux, in the constellation Gemini. (First
and second brightest is misleading here because they are nearly identical in
magnitude, 1.15 vs. 1.16.) Pollux is four and a half fists above due east at
5:30 a.m., right below its “twin” star Castor. Read more about Pollux at https://goo.gl/cL5t9p.
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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