The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of July 31, 2021

Saturday: The Perseid meteor shower peaks next week. But there will be an increased number of meteors over the next two weeks. If the Moon is out when you want to look, position yourself so you are in the Moon’s shadow. The meteors appear to come from a point just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is about two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the northeast horizon at 11 p.m. By dawn, this point is about seven fists above the northeast horizon. If you fall asleep or forget to set your alarm, you will be able to observe this shower from about 11 p.m. to dawn for the next two weeks in about the same location in the sky. The Perseid shower is one of the longest lasting showers. For tips about optimizing your viewing this year, go tohttps://earthsky.org/?p=165416  As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. These meteors are sand to pea-sized bits of rock that fell off of Comet Swift-Tuttle. They are traveling about 40 miles per second as they collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Sunday: Saturn is in opposition tonight. That doesn’t mean that Saturn is stubborn. Opposition means that Saturn is on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun. When an object is in opposition, it is at its highest point in the sky during the darkest time of the day. Thus, opposition is typically the best time to observe a planet. Saturn is about two and a half fists above due south at 1 a.m. It is about one fist above due southeast at 10 p.m. Careful readers of this column should realize they could be doing something much more interesting. But they also may recall that Saturn is in opposition on nearly the same date every year: June 14, 2017. June 26, 2018, July 9, 2019, July 21, 2020. An outer planet is in opposition when Earth passes it up as both orbit the Sun. The farther out a planet is, the less it has moved along its orbit, and the closer it is to exactly one year from one Earth passing to the next. For comparison, it is about 18 months between successive oppositions for Mars.

Monday: The Moon is right in between two star clusters in the sky at 4:30 this morning. The Pleiades is less than a fist above the Moon and the Hyades is less than a fist below the Moon. The Pleiades is a cluster of about 1,000 stars that is about 400 light years away. The Hyades is a cluster of about 400 stars that is about 150 light years away.

Tuesday: Venus is a half a fist above the western horizon at 9:15 p.m.

Wednesday: It is not winter yet. But Orion, thought of as a winter constellation, is just above the east-southeastern horizon at 5:00 a.m. By the actual winter, it will be visible in the evening sky. 

Thursday: Mizar is a well-known binary star in the constellation Ursa Major. You can find it at the bend in the Big Dipper handle, four fists above due northwest at 11:00 p.m. Its name is Arabic for waistband. Mizar has an optical double called Alcor, which is less than a pinky width away and can easily be seen with the naked eye. Optical doubles are stars that are close together in the sky but do not orbit a common center of mass as true binary stars. Not wanting to deceive sky gazers who call Alcor and Mizar a binary star, two stars that DO orbit a common center of mass, Mizar actually is a binary. It was the first binary star system discovered using a telescope. Mizar A and Mizar B are about 400 astronomical units apart from each other and about 80 light years from Earth. 400 astronomical units is about 10 times the distance between the Sun and Pluto.

Friday: Jupiter is one and a half fists above due southeast at 11:00 p.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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of July 24, 2021

Saturday: The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks this week and on into mid-August. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. This point is about one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeastern horizon at 1 am tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky. The Moon is just past the full phase meaning it is above the horizon during the prime meteor watching time. For more information about this year’s shower, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=159138.  As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Sunday: Jupiter is about a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the Moon at 11:00 p.m. Saturn is about two fists to the upper right of Jupiter. They are low in the southeastern sky.

Monday: Tonight’s challenge: try to find Venus a half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon at 9:30 p.m. Tonight’s bigger challenge: try to find the star Regulus and the planet Mars to the lower right of Venus, about midway between Venus and the horizon.

Tuesday: What you see with the naked eye isn’t all that can be seen. While astronomers can learn a lot from observing the sky in the visible wavelengths, many celestial objects radiate more light, and more information, in wavelengths such as radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma ray. In 2012, NASA launched the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to study objects that radiate in the infrared range such as asteroids, cool dim stars, and luminous galaxies. For an interesting comparison of how different wavelengths show different aspects of celestial objects, go to http://goo.gl/nvuax. For example, if it weren’t for infrared telescopes such as WISE, astronomers would not know about the significant amount of dust in galaxies. We also wouldn’t know how much brighter than the Sun red supergiant stars are. Antares is a red supergiant star, currently sitting at one and a half fists above the southern horizon and a half a fist below the Moon. In the visible wavelengths, Antares shines 10,000 times brighter than the Sun. But since Antares is much cooler than the Sun, its energy distribution peaks in the infrared. So across all wavelengths of light, Antares shines 60,000 times brighter than the Sun.

Wednesday: Altair is nearly five fists above the southeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Thursday: Zubenelgenubi, the second brightest star in the constellation Libra. The name means "southern claw", a holdover from the time when this part of the sky was associated with the neighboring constellation of Scorpius the scorpion. Zubenelgenubi is a binary star system, easily seen with binoculars as a white and yellow pair. To a person living on a planet orbiting the dimmer of the two stars, the brighter star would be nearly as bright as the full Moon appears from Earth. Zubenelgenubi is one and a half fists above due southwest at 10:30 p.m.

Friday: Uranus is one fist to the left of the Moon at 4:30 a.m. With a pair of binoculars, get the Moon in the right hand portion of the field of view. Then move the binoculars a little to the left until you see a little “W” shaped group of stars. The supper left point of light is Uranus.
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 July 17, 2021

Saturday: From left to right, Regulus, Venus, and Mars make a short line segment less than one fist long low in the west-northwestern sky at 9:45 p.m. Venus is the brightest of the three. Mars is just to the lower right of Venus. Regulus is to the left of Venus. 

Sunday: The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower has a long gradual peak for the next few weeks into mid-August. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. This point is about two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 3 am early this morning. You can follow this point throughout the night and for the next few weeks, as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky. Read about the shower, at https://earthsky.org/?p=159138.  As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Monday: The bright star Vega is is nearly straight overhead at 11:00 p.m. While you can easily find Vega with the naked eye, there are many binocular and small telescope targets in the vicinity. The most well known of these is the four star system called the “double double”. Read more about it at http://tiny.cc/mhcauz. 

Tuesday: Take a two and a half hour walk today. Too long, you say? Fifty one years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first ever walk by humans on another world. They spend two and a half hours setting up scientific instruments and collecting rocks for study back on Earth. Their colleague Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the spacecraft the astronauts would use to return to Earth. While everyone seems to know about Armstrong and Aldrin, spend some time learning more about Collins by reading https://time.com/5624528/michael-collins-apollo-11/.

Wednesday: Saturn is one and a half fists above due southeast at 11:00 p.m.. Jupiter and its largest moon Ganymede is two and a half fists to the lower left of Saturn.  Last month, NASA’s Juno probe passed close by Ganymede, taking the best ever images of the icy and rocky body. For more information about Ganymede, go to http://tiny.cc/9hcauz. 

Thursday: The Gemini twins, Castor and then Pollux, rise just before the Sun. They are both less than a fist above the northeastern horizon at 4:45 a.m. Pollux is the brightest star, as measured from Earth, with a confirmed planet in orbit. It is likely that there are brighter stars with undiscovered planets.

Friday: You’ve seen all of the top 100 lists: top 100 ways to use Duct Tape, top 100 Somali restaurants in Washington, etc. Now get excited for this week’s full Moon by reading about and finding some of the lunar 100 at http://goo.gl/ldGvH6 This list describes 100 interesting landmarks on the Moon that are visible from Earth. They are listed from easiest to see, starting with the entire moon itself at number 1, to most difficult (Mare Marginis swirls, anyone?). Stay up all night to binge watch the moon or just make a few observations a month. It’s your decision. It’s our moon. Start your viewing tonight at 10:00 p.m. when the Moon is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southern horizon and one fist above the bright reddish star Antares. I suggest starting with Mare Crisium, the circular, dark, basaltic plain in the upper right-hand portion of the moon. Items such as Crisium were named "Mare" by early astronomers who mistook them for seas, instead of the hardened lava beds that they really are. 

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 July 10, 2021

Saturday: Star light. Star bright. The first star you see tonight might be Arcturus, six fists above the southwestern horizon right after sunset.

Sunday: If your wish was to see the Moon near two bright planets, your wish will be met tonight. At 10:00 p.m., Mars and Venus are less than a half a fist to the left of the waxing crescent Moon. You’ll barely be able to fit your pinky between Mars and the much brighter Venus.

Monday:  Stonehenge was created on the island of Great Britain by Neolithic people. “Manhattanhenge” was created on the island of Manhattan by modern day architects and construction workers. Twice a year, the end of May and mid-July, the setting Sun aligns perfectly with the Manhattan grid pattern. That means observers will see the Sun set at the end of the street. The first Manhattanhenge sunset is tonight at 8:20 p.m. Eastern time and then again tomorrow at 8:21 p.m. Eastern time. For more information about Manhattanhenge, go to http://tiny.cc/cd7ytz. 

Tuesday: Let’s learn about Capella. It is the fourth brightest star we can see in Ellensburg. It is the most northerly bright star. It is a binary star consisting of two yellow giant stars that orbit each other every 100 days. At 10:00 p.m., Capella is a half a fist above the northern horizon. You can also use the Big Dipper to find it.  First, find the two “cap” stars on the cup of the Big Dipper, the stars on the top of the cup. Draw a line from the “cap” star closest to the handle to the cap star farthest from the handle. Then, continue that line to the next very bright star, which is Capella. Thus, you can “cap” to Capella. If you can’t “cap” tonight, don’t worry. Capella is the brightest circumpolar star meaning it is the brightest star that never goes below the horizon from our point of view in Ellensburg.

Wednesday: Six years ago today, NASA’s New Horizons probe passed by Pluto. If the band Nirvana was still together, they’d probably rewrite one of their hit songs to be called Heart-Shaped Spot, after one of Pluto’s most distinctive features. “She eyes me like a dwarf planet when I am weak. I’ve been imaging your heart-shaped spot for weeks.” Astronomers think this heart-shaped spot is a large plain of nitrogen ice that consists of convective cells 10-30 miles across. Solid nitrogen is warmed in the interior of Pluto, becomes buoyant, and bubbles up to the surface like a lava lamp. You will find great pictures and information about what New Horizons found this past year at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/. Pluto, itself, is about one and a half fists above the southeastern horizon, and one and a half fists to the upper right of the much brighter Saturn.

Hey, wait, I’ve got a new complaint. People should be more interested in astronomy. The best group to start with is children. If you are stuck at home, wondering what to do, go to the NASA Kids Club website at https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/. There are fun and educational activities for younger children. Older children may like my favorite NASA website about planets outside our Solar System. I suggest first exploring the “Galaxy of Horrors!” at https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/galaxy-of-horrors/. 

Thursday: Jupiter is one fist above the east-southeastern horizon at midnight.

Friday: Say "Cheese". 170 years ago tomorrow, Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, became the first star ever photographed. The photograph was taken at the Harvard Observatory using the daguerreotype process. Vega is the third brightest night time star we can see in Ellensburg, behind Sirius and Arcturus. Vega is nearly straight overhead at 11:00 tonight. 

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.