The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 30, 2019

Saturday:  Is your favorite astronomy-loving relative asking for a telescope this Christmas? Before reaching for your credit card, read this guide to choosing your first telescope, available at http://goo.gl/5oXmGj. If cost is an issue, look no further than this article about low cost telescopes https://goo.gl/8yyddy. These are not cheap telescopes. They are simple, low-cost, easy to use telescopes that your future astronomer will still use for quick observing sessions long after she has purchased a much larger instrument for richer viewing. If you want to give a gag astronomy gift to someone who really bugs you, give them a copy this column. After such a dud “gift”, you’ll never hear from them again. And that may be the best gift of all.

Sunday: Have you been shopping all weekend? Do you need an evening sky break? You deserve a big reward so make it a double. A Double Cluster, that is. The Double Cluster, also known as h and Chi Persei, consists of two young open star clusters in the constellation Perseus. Of course, young is a relative term as these clusters are about 13 million years old. Each cluster is spread out over an area about the same size as the full moon. To the naked eye, the Double Cluster shines with a steady, fuzzy glow. Binoculars resolve dozens of individual stars in the clusters. The Double Cluster is five and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the northeastern horizon at 6 p.m., about a fist below the sideways “W” of Cassiopeia and three fists above the bright star Capella.

Monday: At 5:00 p.m., bright Jupiter is less than a half fist above the southwestern horizon, very bright Venus is more than a half a fist above the southwestern horizon, and somewhat bright Saturn is nearly one and a half fists above the south-southwestern horizon.

Tuesday: Did you miss out on a fun Thanksgiving weekend vacation. Then take a virtual vacation to a black hole. NASA scientists have just developed a visualization to show how light moves in the vicinity of a black hole. Book your ticket at https://tinyurl.com/y4z5pm2p. 

Wednesday: Most constellations don’t look like the object their name refers to. That’s because most constellations don’t have such a simple to object to emulate as Triangulum does. Triangulum is shaped like a… wait for it…. wait for it…. A thin isosceles triangle. Metallah is the only mononymous star in the constellation. In Latin this star is called Caput Trianguli, the head of the triangle. Triangulum is seven fists above due south at 9 p.m. It is pointing down and to the right with Metallah being the southernmost star at this time of night. The Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with binoculars about half a fist to the right of Metallah.

Thursday: At 6:30 a.m., Mercury is a half fist above the southeastern horizon and Mars is one and a half fists above due southeast.

Friday: The CWU Physics Department and the College of the Sciences is hosting its monthly First Saturday planetarium show tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m. Do you ever wonder how to find objects in the sky? Or how to explain to someone else where you have found something? CWU student and future teacher Grace Warren will answer these questions in her show called “How to measure the sky: Gittin’ griddy wit it”. The show is free and open to all ages. There will be a show at noon on the first Saturday of every month of the school year hosted by different CWU astronomers and astronomy educators. The CWU Lydig 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 Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 23, 2019

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 Science Building at the intersection of Wildcat Way and 11th Avenue, J-9 on the map found at http://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map. There will be 30 minute planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, animals, cookies and much more. The CWU College of the Sciences is putting on this event. Go to cwu.edu/sciences for more information.

After you get home and have read about all of the interesting things you learned at Nature of Night, go outside at 5:00. Venus and Jupiter are a thumb width from each other in the sky, a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above due southwest. Venus is the brighter of the two. They’ll be together for a few nights.

Sunday:  “Hey baby! What’s your sign?”

“Ophiuchus, of course”

The Sun is in the same part of the sky as the stars of Ophiuchus from about November 29 to December 17. This is what astrologers mean when they say the Sun is “in” a constellation. Thus, if you were born between these dates, you should be an Ophiuchus. The fact that the horoscopes never list Ophiuchus is a major flaw of astrology. Astrology says that some of our characteristics are based on the location of the Sun at our birth. How can astrologers leave out three weeks from their system? That is like a scientist saying she can explain the results of her experiment every month of the year except early December. Ophiuchus was a mythical healer who was a forerunner to Hippocrates. According to myth, he could raise people from the dead. Maybe that is why he is ignored by astrology. Raising people from the dead is much less impressive than giving spot-on advice such as “Today is a good day to watch your finances.”

The bright stars of Ophiuchus rise just before the Sun. Rasalhague (pronounced Ras’-al-hay’-gwee), the brightest star, is about a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeastern horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Monday: 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 still hanging out with Venus, low in the southwestern sky fight after sunset.

Tuesday: Mars is one and a half fists above the southeastern horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Wednesday: Mercury will be as far away from the Sun in the sky as it will get this orbital cycle. This "farthest away" point is known as the planet's greatest elongation. Since Mercury is in the morning sky, it is west of the Sun and this occurrence is called the greatest western elongation. This morning, Mercury is one fist above the east-southeastern horizon at 6:30 a.m. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. By early February, it will be visible in the evening sky.

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.

Also be thankful that (from left to right) the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter are neighbors in the southwestern sky right after sunset.

Friday: We are just a few days away from the earliest sunsets of the year in Ellensburg. (No, the earliest sunset is not on the first day of winter.) So this is a good time to learn how to quantify the darkness of the sky. First find the Great Square, the main part of the constellation Pegasus. It is six fists above due south at 7 p.m. Find the dimmest star that you can see inside or near the square. Then compare that star to the chart at  https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/how-dark-is-your-night-sky/. The larger the magnitude number, the dimmer the star. When the sky is exceptionally dark, you can see more stars and more interesting deep-sky objects such as star clusters and nebulae.

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 November 16, 2019

Saturday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 10:20 p.m. The fish are attached to lines of stars that branch out at one o’clock and three o’clock from Alrescha. By the way, “The Fishing Hole”, The Andy Griffith Show’s theme song, was rated the 20^th best TV theme song of all time by ign.com. That’s too low of a ranking in my opinion. 

Sunday: The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight. These meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation Leo the lion. This point is about one fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night and into the morning, as it will remain about one fist above the bright star Regulus. The waning gibbous Moon will illuminate the sky and interfere with viewing the dimmer meteors. The Leonid meteors are particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet discovered by Ernst Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle in 1866. These are exceptionally fast moving meteors – over 150,000 miles per hour! Go to https://earthsky.org/?p=29831 to read everything you need to know about the Leonid meteor shower. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.

Monday: Lieutenant Worf, the Klingon Starfleet officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, might say “Today is a good day to die.” But Deneb, the bright supergiant star in Cygnus the Swan would say “two million years from now is a good day to die.” This may seem like a long time. But, compared to the lifespan of most stars, two million years from now is as close as tomorrow. For example, the Sun will last about five billion years. Small stars known as red dwarfs may last trillions of years. Prepare your astronomically short goodbyes to Deneb tonight at 7 o’clock when it is seven fists above the western horizon.

Tuesday: Lacerta, the faint lizard constellation, is straight overhead at 6:30 p.m. It was named by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687 to fill the space between the much brighter and well-defined constellations Pegasus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cygnus going clockwise from the constellation just south of Lacerta.

Wednesday: At 5:00 p.m., Venus is a half a fist above due southwest. Jupiter is about a half a fist to the upper left of Venus. The much dimmer Saturn is one and a half fists above the south-southwestern horizon.

Thursday: Mercury, Mars, and the star Spica make a line segment pointing away from the soon to be rising Sun. At 6:30 a.m., Mercury is nearly one fist above the east-southeastern horizon, Mars is one and a half fists above the southeastern horizon, and Spica is two fists above due southeast.

Friday: The Nature of Night event takes place tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Science Building at the intersection of Wildcat Way and 11th Avenue, J-9 on the map found at http://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map. There will be planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, animals, cookies and much more. Go to cwu.edu/sciences for more information.

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.