Saturday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The fish are attached to lines of stars that branch out at one o’clock and three o’clock from Alrescha. By the way, “The Fishing Hole”, The Andy Griffith Show’s theme song, was rated the 20th best TV theme song of all time by ign.com. That’s too low of a ranking in my opinion.
Sunday: The earliest sunset of the year in Ellensburg occurs
today: 4:12 p.m. This seems odd because the shortest day of the year, the
winter solstice, isn’t for about two more weeks. The Sun is at its southernmost
point with respect to the background stars on the day of the winter solstice.
This means the Sun spends the least amount of time above the horizon on that
day. But, the sunrise and sunset times depend on more than the Sun’s apparent
southward motion in the sky. It also depends on where the Sun is on the
analemma, that skinny figure-8 you see on globes and world maps. During the
second week in December, the Sun is not quite to the bottom of the analemma.
But, it is on the leading edge of the analemma, the first section to go below
the horizon. For a slightly better explanation of this, including a diagram, go
to https://go.shr.lc/2NOMOQC. Or just
go watch the sunset. But don’t stare at the Sun.
Monday: The bright star Capella is nearly straight overhead
at midnight.
Tuesday: Mercury is just above the southwestern horizon at
5:00 p.m. Saturn is three fists above due south and Jupiter is three fists
above the east-southeastern horizon at this time
Wednesday: The Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight and
tomorrow morning. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which
the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in
Gemini the twins. This point is about four fists above due east at midnight
tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain near
the bright star Castor, the right hand star of the “twin” stars Pollux and
Castor. By 4:00 a.m., it is four fists above the southwest horizon. This shower
is typically one of the best ones of the year producing bright, medium speed
meteors with up to 80 meteors per hour under ideal conditions near the peak.
This year, the moon will be below the horizon, leaving the sky dark enough for
you to see the dimmer meteors.
Most meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the
orbital trail of a comet. The broken off comet fragments collide with the Earth
and burn up in the atmosphere. Astronomers had searched for a comet source for
this shower since 1862 when the shower was first observed. Finally, in 1983,
astronomers discovered the object that created the fragments that cause the
meteor shower each year. To their surprise, it was a dark rock that looked like
an asteroid, not a shiny icy comet. Astronomers named this object Asteroid 3200
Phaethon. For more information about the Geminid shower, go to https://goo.gl/f4qMqg.
Thursday: While the sky is getting darker earlier, the
nighttime sky is actually getting brighter due to the greater use of low energy
LED bulbs. While these bulbs use much less energy than incandescent or compact
fluorescent bulbs, researchers think that people and communities are using more
of the bulbs and leaving them on longer. This is increasing light pollution
near cities. You can get more illumination on the subject at https://www.latimes.com/environment/light-pollution-latt-123.
Friday: Venus is two fists above due southeast at 6:30 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.
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