Saturday: Saturn
remains about half a fist held at arm’s length to the upper left of the Moon
throughout the night. Look for them in the southern sky at sunset. They will be
moving closer together in the sky as they both set as viewed from the United
States. People in parts of Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea will
actually see the Moon occult or block Saturn. You might think, “big deal, the
Moon blocks a planet.” But carefully timed occultations such as this give astronomers
a means to precisely study lunar topography.
Sunday: “Excuse me,
do you have the time?”
“No, but the Big
Dipper does.”
You can use the
orientation of the Big Dipper to tell time with a precision of about 15-30
minutes. First, find the two stars at the far end of the Big Dipper cup, the
stars that do not touch the handle. Draw an imaginary line segment starting at
the North Star and passing through the two Big Dipper cup stars. Now, draw a
big circle around the North Star. Your circle is a 24-hour clock. Number the
circle from 0 hours at the top, counterclockwise to 12 hours at the bottom of
the circle, and back up to 24 hours at the top. (O hours and 24 hours are the
same on this clock because the day is 24 hours long.) The hour number on the
big circle closest to where your imaginary line intersects this circle is
called your raw time. Due to the location of the Big Dipper compared to the
rest of the stars, the time nearest the intersection (the raw time) is correct
for March 6. For any other night, subtract two times the number of months the
current date is after March 6 from the raw time. For example, let’s say the
imaginary line between the North Star and the Dipper stars is pointed to the
right. That means the raw time is 18 hours or 6 p.m. If you made this
observation on October 6, which is seven months after March 6, you would
subtract two times seven or 14 hours from the raw time. Thus, the time
for November 6 is 18 hours minus 14 hours or 4 hours. In other words, 4 a.m.
Don’t forget to convert for daylight savings time if needed. For a more
complete explanation on how to do the Big Dipper clock math, go to http://goo.gl/02HmA. If you prefer a
more visual tool, and a fun project to do with your kids, there is a simple
“star clock” template and instructions at http://goo.gl/SFKrE. Use this paper
star clock whenever you watch is broken.
Monday: 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. Go out at 11:00 p.m. and
find Fomalhaut, the bright star a little less than one fist above the
south-southeastern horizon. Then move your binoculars up about three binocular
fields of view to the fairly bright star called Skat. Next continue to move up
about one and a half binocular fields of view to the reddish star called Hydor,
which is a little dimmer than Skat. Finally, move your binoculars one binocular
field of view to the left to a Phi Aquarii, star that is a little dimmer than
Hydor. Neptune is the dimmer point of light to the right of Phi Aquarii. Go
back to this spot for the next few nights to watch Neptune move away from Phi
Aquarii.
Tuesday: Had the
script been written a little differently for a well-known Robin Williams movie,
we might have heard Mr. Williams shout, “Goooood Morning Orion the hunter”.
Orion is typically thought of as a winter constellation. But, it makes its
first appearance in the early morning summer sky. The lowest corner of Orion’s
body, represented by the star Saiph (pronounced “safe”), rises at 2 a.m., well
before the Sun. By 6 a.m., Orion’s belt is nearly four fists above the
south-southeastern horizon.
Wednesday: In 1987,
the rock group Def Leppard sang “Pour some sugar on me, in the name of love.
Pour some sugar on me, come on fire me up”. In 2012, some European astronomers
“found some sugar near stars, they were very young. Found some sugar near
stars, out where planets formed.” Astronomers observed molecules of
glycolaldehyde, a simple form of sugar, in the disk of gas and dust orbiting
young binary stars. This is the first time astronomers have found this simple
sugar so close to a star indicating that organic molecules can be found in
planet-forming regions of stars. For more information, go to http://goo.gl/tfwy1.
Thursday: Next
July, NASA will launch the Mars 2020 rover. Boring name, right? Well, NASA just
launched a contest for K-12 students to name the rover. Go to https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/name-the-rover/ for more
information.The first helicopter in space will be hitching a ride on the rover.
This helicopter, with blades that rotate at about 3,000 revolutions per minute,
is a possible prototype for future missions to Mars and other Solar System
bodies. Go to https://youtu.be/oOMQOqKRWjU to see a test
flight. Mars is too close to the Sun in the sky to be visible. By the end of
September, it will pop out from the Sun’s glare.
Friday: Tonight's
Full Moon is an un-supermoon because it is near apogee, its farthest distance
from the Earth.
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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