The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 28, 2020

 

Saturday: “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 today 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 above the east-northeastern horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Sunday: There is a lunar eclipse tonight visible throughout the entire United States. But don’t get too excited. It is a penumbral eclipse, when the Moon passes through the penumbral, or partial, shadow of the Earth. The Moon will get a little dimmer but will not be obscured or look red, like during a total lunar eclipse. The eclipse goes from 11:32 Pacific Standard Time tonight to 3:53 tomorrow morning, with the maximum eclipse occurring at 1:43 a.m..

Monday: Have you been online 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 above the northeastern horizon at 6:00 p.m., about a fist below the sideways “W” of Cassiopeia and three fists above the bright star Capella.

Tuesday: Venus is just over one fist above the southeastern horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Wednesday: Jupiter is one and a half fists above the south-southwestern horizon at 5:00 p.m. Saturn is less than a half a fist to the upper left of Jupiter.

Thursday: Did you miss taking a Thanksgiving weekend vacation because of COVID-19? 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 soon at https://tinyurl.com/y4z5pm2p. 

Friday: The CWU campus is mostly closed. But astronomy learning lives on! The Physics Department is hosting a First Saturday VIRTUAL planetarium show tomorrow from noon to 1:00 p.m. CWU professor Bruce Palmquist will give a show called “Put a ring on it: a tour of the Saturn system”. This tour will visit all of Saturn’s largest moons to learn about their surface features and other characteristics. There is a virtual planetarium show on the first Saturday of nearly every month of the school year. Stay at home, practice good physical distancing, and visit https://cwu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkce-qpjouHdBch42LCnF-XCLW62c4n8t_ to register for the show.

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 21, 2020

What's up in the sky 11/21/20

Today:  “It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.” Constellations can be considered neighborhoods in the nighttime sky. But, the stars in those constellations are not necessarily neighbors in real life. For example, the bright stars in the constellation Cassiopeia range from 19 light years to over 10,000 light years away from Earth. One constellation that consists of real neighbors is Ursa Major. Or, more specifically, the Big Dipper. Five stars in the Big Dipper are all moving in the same direction in space, are about the same age, and are all about 80 light years from Earth. “Please won’t you be my neighbor?” Skat, the third brightest star in the constellation Aquarius is a neighbor to these five Big Dipper stars, all of which are about 30 light years from each other. They are thought to have originated in the same nebula about 500 million years ago. Just like human children do, these child stars are slowly moving away from home. Skat is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 7:00 p.m. The much brighter Fomalhaut is a fist and a half below Skat. And, it’s not fun being below Skat. 

Sunday: Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky, is about one and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m. Mercury is to the lower left of Venus, between Venus and the horizon.

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 9:00 p.m. Jupiter has set by then. You can see it one and a half fists above the south-southwestern horizon at 5:30 p.m. Saturn is less than a half a fist to the upper left of Jupiter.

Tuesday: Deneb Kaitos, Arabic for whale’s tail, is two and a half fists above due south at 8:30 p.m. This is the brightest star in the constellation Cetus the sea monster. Or, if you are less prone to hyperbole, Cetus the whale.

Wednesday: Mars is about a half a fist from the Moon tonight. At 6:00 p.m., it is right above the Moon. You can watch their relative positions change slightly throughout the night, until they set at 3:00 tomorrow morning.

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-northeastern horizon and Andromeda is about seven fists above the eastern horizon at 7:00 p.m.

Friday: We are just a few days away from the earliest sunsets of the year in Ellensburg. (No, the earliest sunsets  are 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 7:00 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 7, 2020

 

Saturday: The CWU campus is mostly closed. But astronomy learning lives on! The Physics Department is hosting a First Saturday VIRTUAL planetarium show today from noon to 1:00 p.m. CWU Teach STEM students Grace Warren and Isabella Sullivan present the planetarium show Stars: past, present, and future! In addition, Professor Bruce Palmquist will highlight other stellar features from the November sky. The show is free and open to all ages. There will be a show at noon on the first Saturday of every month hosted by different CWU astronomers and astronomy educators. Stay at home, practice good physical distancing, and visit http://www.cwu.edu/campus-notices/lydig-virtual-planetarium-show-life-stars to register for the show and to attend online using Zoom.

Sunday: The bright planets Venus and Mercury and bright star Spica make a small triangle in the east-southeastern morning sky all week. Both Venus, which is at the top of the triangle, and Mercury, which is at the bottom, will be moving closer to the horizon as the days go by. Look for the triangle just above the east-southeastern horizon at 6:00 a.m.

Monday: At 6:00 p.m., the brightest point of light in the evening sky, Jupiter, is one and a half fists above the south-southwest horizon. Saturn is a half a fist to the upper left of Jupiter. Mars, which is about the same brightness as Jupiter, is two and a half fists above the east-southeast horizon at this time.

Tuesday: While Stonehenge is an ancient burial ground visited by religious people for thousands of years, MIThenge is an 825-foot long hallway on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology visited by the Sun’s rays twice a year.  Every year in November and January, the setting Sun lines up with a narrow window at the end of the long hall and the light shines down to the opposite end. This season’s alignment is from November 10-12. For more information, visit http://goo.gl/0hwFQf or visit MIT. In addition, challenge yourself to find a similar alignment in your neighborhood.

Wednesday: The Northern Taurid meteor shower peaks tonight, November 11/12. These are slow moving meteors that result in the occasional fireball. The Taurid meteor showers produce a few bright meteors every hour. The Moon is in the waning crescent phase so it doesn’t rise until well after will obscure a lot of the meteors. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull, near the open star cluster called the Pleiades. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon at 8 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain one fist above the V-shaped Hyades Cluster with its bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran). Meteors are tiny rocks that burn up in the atmosphere when the Earth runs into them. These rocks are broken off parts of Comet 2P/Encke. For more information, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=136475. 

Thursday: Did you open your Martinmas gifts yesterday? Martinmas is a holiday in many parts of the world commemorating Saint Martin of Tours. He was buried on November 11, 397. What does this have to do with astronomy? Not much except that the celebration on November 11 often doubles as a cross-quarter day celebration, a day that is halfway between an equinox and a solstice. Also, according to an agricultural calendar, November 11 marks the practical beginning of winter.

Friday: The Moon joins the Venus-Spica-Mercury to make an astronomical quadrilateral in the morning sky. Look for the foursome about one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 6:00 a.m.

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.