Saturday: Have you ever sat around waiting for a long distance
call from another state? Another country? How about another star system? In
2019, astronomers thought they heard a radio signal from a planet orbiting
Proxima Centauri, our Sun’s nearest neighbor at about 4.2 light years away.
This signal showed many signs of being extraterrestrial in origin, including
coming from a specific location in the sky, having a pure tone, and changing in
frequency similar to something moving exactly towards or exactly away from the
Earth. However, a more recent analysis showed that the signal was more like a
crank call. Read more about the discovery and undiscovery at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/the-true-nature-of-the-candidate-et-signal-from-proxima-centauri/.
Proxima Centauri is part of the three star Alpha Centauri system, the third
brightest star in the sky. You need to go down to the southern tip of Texas or
Florida to see Alpha Centauri.
Sunday: Halloween. The pumpkins. The candy. The children
going door-to-door dressed up as their favorite Saturnian astronomers: Carolyn
Porco and Christiaan Huygens. At least they should because Halloween is, in
part, an astronomical holiday. Halloween is a “cross-quarter date”, a day
approximately midway between an equinox and a solstice. Historically, the Celts
of the British Isles used cross-quarter dates as the beginnings of seasons. For
the Celts, winter began with Halloween. So when all those little Saturn fans
come to your door tonight night, honor the Celts and give them a wintry treat.
If they ask you for a trick, point out Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter is nearly
three fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:00 p.m.
Saturn is about one and a half fists to the lower right of Jupiter.
Monday: Happy Celtic New Year! Many historians think that
November 1, known for the festival of Samhain, was the ancient Celtic New
Year’s Day. Samhain, Old Irish for “summer’s end”, was a harvest festival that
may have contributed to some of the customs of our current “holiday” of
Halloween.
Tuesday: Venus is nearly a fist above the south-southwestern
horizon at 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday: The waning crescent moon, the planet Mercury, and
the bright star Spica make a small triangle in the east-southeastern sky, a half
a fist above the horizon at 7:00 a.m. Just a few minutes later, Mars will rise
right below the triangle.
Thursday: Uranus will be in opposition tonight. That doesn’t
mean that Uranus always says no. Opposition means that Uranus 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 an object. Uranus is about
five fists above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. Unless you have an
exceptionally dark sky, you’ll need binoculars to see it. First find the
moderately bright reddish star Menfar, which is exactly four fists above due
southeast. Once Menfar is in your field of view, move your binoculars up about
one or two fields of view until you see four points of light of similar
brightness that make a tall diamond. The top point of light is Uranus. For more
about Uranus and other interesting Solar System phenomena, go to https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/explore-night-bob-king/uranus-queues-up-for-opposition/
Friday: You’ve heard of moons. You may have heard of dwarf
planets. Did you know that they can share similar features? The five largest
moons of Uranus have the same heat signatures as the largest dwarf planets such
as Pluto and Eris. That means they are relatively dense and don’t immediately
radiate away all of their daytime-absorbed heat at night. Read more about
Uranian moons at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/uranian-moons-are-like-dwarf-planets/.
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.
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