Saturday: Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the lion, is one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due east at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday: Mercury will be as far away from the Sun in the sky
as it will get this orbital cycle. This "farthest away" point is
known as the planet's greatest elongation. Since Mercury is in the morning sky,
it is west of the Sun and this occurrence is called the greatest western
elongation. This morning, Mercury is a half a fist above the southeastern horizon
at 7:00 a.m. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the
sky. By late March, it will be visible in the evening sky.
Monday: Are you interested in participating in astronomy
research? You don’t need to go back to school. You don’t need to spend
thousands of dollars getting a fake degree from an online university. The
scientists working on the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or
HiRISE, camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would like your input on
which objects they should target for close-up pictures. While you may think the
scientists are just trying to build interest in their project by having people
look at pretty pictures, there is a real scientific benefit to having many eyes
searching for interesting targets. There aren’t enough scientists to carefully
inspect all of the low power images. And surprisingly, computers are not nearly
as effective as people in making nuanced judgments of images. So, go to https://www.uahirise.org/ and click on the
HiWish button. You’ll be on your way to suggesting close-up targets for NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. If that is too much work for you, just go outside.
Mars is right above the moon, within a full moon diameter, at 8:00 p.m. They’ll
move through the sky together until both set at around 4:00 pm.
Tuesday: Saturn is a half a fist above the west-southwestern
horizon at 5:45 p.m. Venus is much brighter than Saturn and is about a fist
above the west-southwestern horizon. Jupiter is three and a half fists above
the southwestern horizon.
Wednesday: Winter is a good time to see the thick band of
the Milky Way galaxy. It arches high in the early evening sky at 8:00 p.m.
starting in the southeast by Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
Climbing from Sirius through the "horns" of Taurus to the bright star
Capella nearly straight overhead, it drops down toward M-shaped Cassiopeia in
the north and the tail of Cygnus the swan and its bright star Deneb, in the
northwest.
Thursday: Today is Groundhog Day, an important day for pop
culture astronomers and Bill Murray movie fans. If Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t
see his shadow tomorrow morning, he is telling us that he follows the Chinese
calendar and that spring starts early. On the Chinese calendar, equinoxes and
solstices occur in the middle of their respective seasons. In order for the
vernal equinox to occur in the middle of spring, spring must start on February
3 or 4, depending on the year. Thus, if Phil doesn’t see his shadow, legend is
that spring will start on February 3 or 4 as on the Chinese calendar. If Phil
sees his shadow, he is telling us he agrees with the western calendar and that
there will be six more weeks of winter meaning spring will start near March 20.
Friday: The brightest star in the head of Draco the dragon
is called Eltanin, based on the Arabic At-Tinnin or “great serpent”. It is
currently about 150 light years away. Eltanin is moving towards our Solar
System. In 1.5 million years, it will be only 28 light years away and the
brightest star in the night sky, nearly as bright as Sirius is currently.
Eltanin is one fist above due north at 9:00 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment