The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 6, 2021

Today:  CWU encourages physical distancing. But astronomy learning lives on! The Physics Department is hosting a First Saturday VIRTUAL planetarium show today from noon to 1:00 p.m. Former CWU and current Green River College professor Tony Smith will give a show called “Love in the Sky”. The show will feature love stories as told through celestial mythologies. Hmm. Why would the February show be about love? There is a virtual planetarium show on the first Saturday of nearly every month of the school year. Register at https://rebrand.ly/Feb2021FirstSaturday. 

Sunday: Are you going to watch the super bowl tonight? Is the bowl really that super? After all, half the night the bowl is tipped upside down, spilling out all of its contents. But don’t just focus on the functionality of the bowl. Think about how it inspires people all across the world to look at the night sky. In Mongolia, participants in the super bowl are known as gods. An Arabian story says the super bowl is a coffin. I encourage you to go outside tonight at about 8:00 p.m., after whatever unimportant thing you have been doing since 3:30 p.m. Look low in the north-northwestern sky and watch the super bowl, also known as the Big Dipper, balancing on the end of its handle, proudly displaying its large bowl. 

Monday: Mars is five fists above the southwestern horizon at 8:00 p.m. Iceland is 1,400 km above Great Britain at all times. What do they have in common? NASA is testing the next-generation Mars mission in an Icelandic lava field. The Rover-Aerial Vehicle Exploration Network, or RAVEN, pairs an autonomous rover with remote-controlled drones. The mission will explore a part of Mars that is similar to the terrain in Iceland. For more information about RAVEN and the use of drones in science, go to https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/iceland-mars-drone-exploration. The article also includes many quotes from geologist, drone advocate, and Central Washington University graduate Angie Diefenbach.

Tuesday: The good news is the days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter. The better news for most readers of this column is the farther north you go in the United States, the longer the days get. Here in Ellensburg, there is almost one and a half more hours of daylight than on the first day of winter. In the southern part of the US, there is only 40 more minutes of sunlight. If you’d like to have your own fun with day lengths and other time questions, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/.

Wednesday: The bright star Arturus is one and a half fists above the eastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Thursday: The moon is almost directly between the Earth and the Sun today. That means you won’t be able to see it. But that does not mean it doesn’t exist. Contrary to the belief of toddlers and immature politicians, just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. (Note a double negative statement followed by a triple negative statement. I’m not unsorry about that.) Now, back to the science. What would happen to the earth if the moon really didn’t exist? In that 2013 blockbuster Oblivion, aliens destroy the moon and Tom Cruise survives. But the long-term effects on the earth would be devastating to life as we know it. The moon stabilizes the spin axis of the earth keeping the seasons fairly uniform over time. For more information on what would happen to the earth if the moon were destroyed, go tohttps://www.popsci.com/what-would-happen-if-moon-suddenly-disappeared/. For more information on Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise. 

Friday: Your first Friday morning challenge: eat a healthy breakfast. Your second challenge: find Saturn just above the east-southeastern horizon at 6:45 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.