The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 25, 2020

Saturday: As the rock group Journey once thought of singing, “Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’. Know where the Dipper’ll be tomorrow.” Every night, the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia make a wheel in the sky that turns around the North Star in a counter clockwise direction. Every year on April 25 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 26 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 27 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 28 at 10:00 p.m., well, you get the idea. Of course, there are subtle charges in the position from night to night. Each northern constellation moves about one degree counterclockwise from one night to the next. But this is not going to change their position in the sky drastically over a few days. So, if you know where the Big Dipper is tonight, you DO know where it’ll be tomorrow. If you are really struggling to understand this concept, Don’t Stop Believin’ in yourself. Just keep studying Faithfully.

Sunday: Venus is at its brightest and is less than one fist held at arm’s length to the right of the Moon at 9:00 p.m. These objects are our closest celestial neighbors. One hundred years ago tonight, the astronomers Heber Curtis and Harlow Shapley were debating the distances of some of our farthest neighbors: galaxies. Curtis argued that the universe consisted of many galaxies millions of light years away. Shapley thought that the spiral structures seen in telescopes were actually a part of the Milky Way. They also had different views on the size of the Milky Way. Learn more about their debate, called the Great Debate, at https://stardate.org/radio/program/2020-04-24. Learn more about the Milky Way by watching the center of it rise over the southeastern horizon at about 1:00 a.m.

Monday: Are you getting bored with our Solar System? Looking to move but don’t like the available options? In 2018, astronomers announced the discovery of a system of three Super-Earths orbiting a star located only 100 light-years away. Of course, we have no way of travelling that far yet. But, you can dream. And your dreams should involve two of the planets being in the size range in which planets could be either rocky like Earth or gas planets like Neptune. Also, no need to dress warm because all three of the planets likely have surface temperatures over 400 degrees Celsius (760 degrees Fahrenheit). Once the James Webb Space Telescope is operational in about 2022, it will be able to study the atmosphere of these planets. For more information and to start planning your trip, go to https://goo.gl/eSpmJx. 

Tuesday: The early modern astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote about the “music of the spheres”, exploring the relationship between planetary orbits and musical intervals. It turns out there is no actual relationship. On the other hand, Italian pianist and composer Giovanni Renzo gets inspiration from astronomy videos and photos from around the world to put on the Cosmic Concert. Original music and videos will flow together to form one coherent work of art. Listen and watch the concert starting at today noon Pacific Daylight Time by going to 

https://astronomerswithoutborders.org/gam2020-programs/astroarts/5376-cosmic-concert-2020.html. 

Wednesday:  An asteroid the size of a small town will pass within six million kilometers (four million miles) of the Earth at about 3:00 a.m., Pacific Daylight Time (6:00 Eastern Daylight Time) this morning. It will be too dim to be seen with the naked eye or binoculars. But it will be within the range of 8-inch telescopes. And the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome will host a free online viewing. For more information, go to

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/asteroid-52768-1998-or2-april-2020-how-to-see.

Thursday: Mars is exactly one and a half fists above due southeast at 5:00 a.m. Saturn is two fists to the upper right of Mars and the very bright Jupiter is a half a fist to the right of Saturn.

Friday: The CWU campus is closed. But astronomy learning lives on! The Physics Department and the College of the Sciences is hosting a First Saturday VIRTUAL planetarium show tomorrow from noon to 1:00 p.m. CWU professor Bruce Palmquist will give a tour of interesting objects to observe with binoculars. He will use the browser-based Worldwide Telescope program found at http://worldwidetelescope.org/webclient/. There will be a virtual planetarium show on the first Saturday of every month for the rest of the school year. Stay at home, practice good physical distancing, and visit https://cwu.zoom.us/s/94923725113 using the password 092888 to participate in the Virtual tour.

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.