The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of November 4, 2023

Saturday: Before you fall back on your bed tonight, set your clock back one hour to the real time. Daylight savings ends early Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m. This means one more hour of sky watching in the evening because the Sun will set one hour earlier. Ben Franklin proposed the idea of “saving daylight” by adjusting our clocks way back in 1784. Daylight savings time was first utilized during World War I as a way to save electricity. After the war, it was abandoned. It was reintroduced during World War II on a year-round basis. From 1945 to 1966, some areas implemented daylight savings and some did not. Also, it was not implemented with any uniformity as to when it should start and stop. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 codified the daylight savings rules. Some states would like to adopt daylight savings year around.

Sunday: The Southern Taurid meteor shower peaks this week. The peak of the peak is the night of November 12/13. These are slow moving meteors that result in the occasional fireball. The Taurid meteor showers produce a few bright meteors every hour. The Last Quarter Moon after midnight will obscure the dim meteors this year. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull, near the open star cluster called the Hyades. This point is about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 8:00 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain one and a half fists to the right of 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. Go to https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/taurid-meteors-all-you-need-to-know/ for more information.

Monday: At 7:00 p.m., Saturn is three fists above the southern horizon. Jupiter is two and a half fists above the eastern horizon.

Tuesday: The bright star Arcturus is about a half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon at 6:00 p.m.

Wednesday: Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, is a half a fist above the southeastern horizon at 11:30 p.m.

Thursday: Venus is just to the upper right of the moon at 6:00 a.m. They are three fists above the southeastern horizon. A couple hours later, you can convince yourself it is possible to see some bright planets during the day. Find the moon at 8:00 am, midway up in the south-southeastern sky. Find it with a pair of binoculars. Venus will be visible to the upper right of the moon. Then move the binoculars away and look in the same location with your naked eyes.

Friday: 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 at about 4:20 pm. For more information, visit http://goo.gl/0hwFQf or visit MIT. While you are at it, challenge yourself to find a similar alignment in your neighborhood.

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 October 28, 2023

Saturday: Jupiter is less than a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length below the Moon at 9:00 p.m. At this same time, Saturn is three fists above due south. 

Sunday: Venus is three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 6:45 a.m. 

Monday: According to the “One world, group hug, love everyone” philosophy, political borders are human-made and can’t be seen from space so why can’t we all just get along. According to real world pragmatic discoveries, some human-made political borders CAN be seen from space. Since 2003, India has illuminated its border with Pakistan to prevent illegal crossings. In 2011, astronaut Ron Garan took a picture of that border from the International Space Station. For more information, including the photo, go to http://goo.gl/mY8xG. 

Tuesday: Today is Halloween. If you need costume ideas, look low in the sky at 7:00 p.m.. Arcturus is one fist above the western horizon. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Arcturus is home to giant ships called Arcturan Megafreighters and oversized megafauna like the Arcturan Megaleech and Arcturan Megacamel. Capella is one fist above the northeastern horizon. In the second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series called Friday’s Child, the Enterprise goes to Capella IV to negotiate a mining contract for an important mineral. While there, they get tangled up with warring factions and a Klingon. These two stars might help you win the costume contest if you go dressed as Captain Kirk, a Klingon, or an Arcturan Megaleech. For more about stars featured in popular fiction, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_and_planetary_systems_in_fiction. 

Wednesday: 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. 

Thursday: Jupiter is in opposition tonight. That doesn’t mean Jupiter disagrees with everything. Opposition means that Jupiter 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. Jupiter is five and a half fists above due south at 1:00 a.m., midnight non-daylight savings time. If you don’t want to stay up so late, you can see it two fists above the eastern horizon at 8:00 p.m. 

Friday: Did you know that moons and dwarf planets 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/. Uranus can easily be seen with typical binoculars. It is about one fist to the lower left of Jupiter, midway between the open star cluster called the Pleiades and Jupiter. In your binoculars, you’ll see it right below a “dome” of four stars of similar brightness. If you are not sure which object is Uranus, observe it for a few nights. It will have moved over the course of a few nights. 

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 October 21, 2023

Saturday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks after midnight tonight and tomorrow night. This is not a meteor shower that typically results in a meteor storm. There will be about 15-20 meteors per hour, many more meteors than are visible on a typical night but not the storm that some showers bring. The Moon is near the first quarter phase, meaning it will set around midnight. The best time to observe will be near dawn. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about one fist held upright and at arm’s length above due east at midnight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. If you fall asleep tonight, you can catch the tail end of the shower every night until early November. For more information, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=27937.

Sunday: At 9:00 p.m., Saturn is three fists above due south and Jupiter is two and a half fists above the eastern horizon.

Monday: Venus 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 Venus is in the morning sky, it is west of the Sun and this occurrence is called the greatest western elongation. This morning, Venus is three fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 6:30 a.m. Over the next few months, Venus will move toward the Sun in the sky. By next summer, it will be visible in the evening sky.

Tuesday: Halloween is a week from today so make sure you load up on peanut clusters, almond clusters, and open star clusters this week. That last one will be easy (and cheap… actually free) because two of the most prominent open star clusters in the sky are easily visible in the autumn sky. The sideways V-shaped Hyades Cluster is two fists above due east at 10:00 p.m. Containing over 300 stars; the Hyades cluster is about 150 light years away and 625 million years old. The Pleiades Cluster is a little more than three fists above due east. It has three times as many stars as the Hyades Cluster and is younger. Compared to our 5 billion year old Sun, the 100 million year age of the Pleiades is infant-like.

Wednesday: What time is tea time? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the southwestern horizon by 8:00 p.m. The handle is on top and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea.

Thursday: Fomalhaut is one and a half fists above the southern horizon at 9:30 p.m.

Friday: Halloween weekend is a great time to celebrate the dead. Dead stars, that is. Black holes are and neutron stars are the end result of super massive stars. But intermediate mass stars such as our Sun end up as white dwarfs. After fusing hydrogen into helium for most of its life and fusing helium into heavier elements for a relatively short period at the end of its life, the Sun will end up with a core of carbon and oxygen that no longer produces energy through nuclear fusion. Without the outward radiation pressure from fusion resisting the inward pull of gravity, the Sun will end up as a super-dense sphere of atoms in which the electrons are squished onto the nuclei. It will be an object with nearly all of its mid-life mass but in a volume about the size of the Earth. The easiest white dwarf to see is in the triple star system called Keid, from the Arabic word “qayd” meaning egg shells. Learn more about Keid, also called 40 Eridani, including map of how to find it at

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/trick-or-treat-with-white-dwarfs/. At midnight (scary), Keid is a little more than two fists above due southeast. You’ll need a small telescope to see it. First find Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation Orion. It is one and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon. Then use binoculars to find the right area. With Rigel at the bottom of your field of view. There should be a star near the top of your girls of view that is about one sixth as bright. This star is called Cursa. Next, move your binoculars up and to the right about one and a half field of view diameters. Look for two stars close together, each about one third as bright as Cursa. Finally, move your binoculars straight over to the right about one and a half field of view diameters. The lower of these two stars is Keid or 40 Eridani A. You’ll need a telescope to see the white dwarf, called 40 Eridani B.

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 October 14, 2023

Saturday: This morning, the moon will pass directly between the Earth and the Sun, causing an annular solar eclipse as viewed from part of the United States. In this case, “annual” doesn’t mean it is a yearly occurrence. Annular refers to the ring shape of the Sun. The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun. But it will be relatively far from the Earth meaning it will not appear large enough to fully block the Sun, causing a ring of sunlight to shine around the Sun. This is what you’ll see if you are lucky enough to be along a line from the Oregon coast to the Gulf of Mexico. From the point of view of the rest of the United States, the Moon and Sun won’t be perfectly lined up and observers will see a partial solar eclipse. The Moon will appear about 85% blocked at the peak of the eclipse in Ellensburg.

You should NOT look at an annular or partial solar eclipse without proper eye protection. In Ellensburg, the eclipse starts at about 8:08 a.m. low in the southeastern sky, peaks at 9:17 a.m., and ends at 10:40 a.m. Weather permitting, I will bring a solar telescope to the Ellensburg Farmers Market as a guest of The Friends of the Ellensburg Public Library for the duration of the eclipse. Visit their table and pick up a pair of free safe solar eclipse glasses. These glasses block about 99.9999% of the Sun’s light. For more information about the eclipse, go to https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2023/. 

Sunday: Jupiter is exactly two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due east at 9:00 p.m. That means that Jupiter’s moons can be seen here, as well. Last year, NASA’s Juno spacecraft sent back some of the most detailed images of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. For more about the images and the rest of Juno’s mission, go to https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-gets-highest-resolution-close-up-of-jupiters-moon-europa. With a small telescope, you will be able to see three of Jupiter’s largest moons at this time. Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede and Callisto are from one side of Jupiter, with Callisto being the farthest of all the moons. Europa and Io are on the other side, with Io being the closest of all the moons.

Monday: Saturn is three fists above due south at 9:30 p.m.

Tuesday: Rho Cassiopeiae is the most distant star that can be seen with the naked eye by most people. It is about 8,200 light years away. That means that the light that reaches your eyes from that star left over 8,000 years ago, before the beginning of time according to the Byzantine calendar. Rho Cassiopeiae is six fists above the northeastern horizon at 8:00 p.m., just above the zigzag line that marks the constellation Cassiopeia.

Wednesday: The constellation Vulpecula, the fox, stands six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due southwest at 9 p.m. It is in the middle of the Summer Triangle, which is defined by the bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. The fox is so faint that you need dark skies to see it.

Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the eastern horizon at 6:00 a.m.

Thursday: Along with the not-so-subtle drug reference in their name, The Doobie Brothers could have made an astronomy reference in their song lyrics if they would have written: “Old Earth water, keep on rollin’, Mississippi moon won’t you keep on shining on me.” Astronomers now think that some of the water on Earth may be older than the Solar System. The chemical signature of the water indicates it came from a very cold source, just a few degrees above absolute zero. The early Solar System was much warmer than this meaning the water came from a source outside the Solar System. For more information about the old Earth water, go to http://goo.gl/QsEu5P.

Friday: The bright star Altair is five fists above due south at 7:00 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 October 7, 2023

Saturday: At 10:00 p.m., Saturn is three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southern horizon. Jupiter is two and a half fists above the eastern horizon.

Sunday: The Draconid meteor shower peaks for the next three nights with tomorrow night being the best. The meteors appear to come from a point in the head of Draco, the dragon constellation. This point is nearly straight overhead at 7:00 p.m. tonight. This point remains near the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco throughout the night. Unlike most meteor showers, this one is best observed in the early evening rather than after midnight. Call this the “early to bed” meteor shower. Draconid meteors are slow moving which means you will have an easy time differentiating true Draconid meteors, from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, from the stray grains of dust that happen to enter the Earth’s atmosphere every day and night. Unfortunately, the moon is nearly full, meaning most of the dimmer meteors will be obscured. For everything you need to know about the Draconid meteor shower, go to https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-draconid-meteor-shower/. 

Monday: It is good to plan ahead while you have meteors on your mind so start thinking about the Orionid meteor shower. This shower, which consists of the earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail, peaks on October 20 and 21 but produces meteors from early October until early November. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeastern horizon at 1:00 a.m.. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain near the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. For more information about the Orionids, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=27937. 

Tuesday: From left to right, the waning crescent moon, the bright star Regulus, and the even brighter planet Venus are in a line in the eastern sky at 6:00 a.m. They are close enough together that you can easily cover them with a fist held at arm’s length.

Wednesday: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly six fists above due south at 8:00 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards. Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him noticing. Sort of like when you would sneak cookies into your parent’s shopping cart, hoping they would not notice.

Thursday: The Milky Way makes a faint white trail from due northeast through straight overhead to due southwest at 9:00 p.m. Starting in the northeast, the Milky Way “passes through” the prominent constellations Auriga the charioteer, Cassiopeia the queen, and Cygnus the swan with its brightest star, Deneb, nearly straight overhead. After Cygnus, you’ll see Aquila the eagle with its brightest star Altair about four and a half fists above the southwest horizon.

Friday: In the 1980s, McGruff the Crime Dog told you to take a bite out of crime. Tomorrow morning, the moon will take a big bite out of the Sun, as viewed from Ellensburg. People viewing from the Oregon coast to the Gulf of Mexico will see the moon take an even bigger bite out of the middle of the Sun, like eating all of the pizza except a thin ring of the crust. Wait….

Now that I’m back from getting a snack, I can use my science words. Tomorrow morning, the moon will pass directly between the Earth and the Sun, causing an annular solar eclipse as viewed from part of the United States. In this case, “annual” doesn’t mean it is a yearly occurrence. Annular refers to the ring shape of the Sun. The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun. But it will be relatively far from the Earth meaning it will not appear large enough to fully block the Sun, causing a ring of sunlight to shine around the Sun. This is what you’ll see if you are lucky enough to be along a line from the Oregon coast to the Gulf of Mexico. From the point of view of the rest of the United States, the Moon and Sun won’t be perfectly lined up and observers will see a partial solar eclipse. The Moon will appear about 85% blocked at the peak of the eclipse in Ellensburg.

You should NOT look at an annular or partial solar eclipse without proper eye protection. The Ellensburg Public Library on 3rd Avenue and Ruby Street is giving away free safe solar eclipse glasses. These glasses block about 99.9999% of the Sun’s light. When properly wearing these eclipse glasses, you may look directly at the Sun. In Ellensburg, the eclipse starts at about 8:08 a.m., peaks at 9:17 a.m., and ends at 10:40 a.m. Weather permitting, I will bring a solar telescope to the Ellensburg Farmers Market as a guest of The Friends of the Ellensburg Public Library for the duration of the eclipse on October 14. Visit their table. A public library should be one of your best friends. For more information about the eclipse, go to https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2023/.

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.