Saturday: Jupiter is one and a half fists above the western horizon at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday: Astronomers are often fascinated with large objects.
Planets that could hold 1000 Earths (Jupiter). Stars that would fill up the
entire inner Solar System (Betelgeuse). Galaxies with 400 billion stars (Milky
Way). But what about the smallest objects? One of the smallest stars is Proxima
Centauri, the closest known star other than our Sun. It is about 12% of the
mass of the Sun. Earlier this year, astronomers announced the discovery of a
possible third planet orbiting Proxima Centauri indicating that even very small
stars can have planets. The smallest theoretically possible star would be about
7.5% of the mass of the Sun. Any smaller and it could not support the nuclear
reactions characteristic of stars. For more on small stars, go to http://goo.gl/EHBdOX.
Monday: The Great North American total solar eclipse happens
today. The shadow path starts off the west coast of Mexico. It enters the
United States in Texas and continues northeast through Maine and into the
eastern provinces of Canada. The entire lower 48 states will at least see a
solar eclipse. The moon will cover about 23% of the Sun from Ellensburg. The
American Astronomical Society (AAS) and Big Kid Science have teamed up to make
a simple and useful app that provides the exact time of the event in your
location. The app, called Totality, it shows the path superimposed on a USA
map. Go to https://eclipse.aas.org/totality
for more information on how to download.
Tuesday: The stars in the Hyades Cluster are all young, as
stars are judged, formed in the same cloud of gas and dust a few hundred
million years ago. But just as children move away from home, the stars of the
Hyades Cluster are slowly drifting apart. Millennia from now, future sky
watchers will see these stars as random points of light in the sky and not as a
family. I hope they at least call home every so often. For more information, go
to https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/end-hyades-star-cluster/.
The Hyades Cluster is two fists above due west at 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Saturn is a pinky width above Mars this morning.
They are on the eastern horizon at 5:30 a.m.
Thursday: You probably didn’t know this but several British
New Wave bands were really into astronomy. Take the band “Dead or Alive”
(please). The original lyrics to their song “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
were actually: “You spin me right round, baby, right round, like the Whirlpool
Galaxy, right round, round, round.” (Well, that’s what I thought they were.)
The Whirlpool Galaxy was the first galaxy observed to have a spiral shape.
Since then, astronomers have discovered many galaxies, including our own Milky
Way Galaxy, have a spiral shape. Go to https://esahubble.org/images/heic0506a/
for more information about the Whirlpool Galaxy. Go to your small telescope to
find the Whirlpool Galaxy in the night sky. It is in the constellation Canes
Venatici, the hunting dogs. At 10:00 p.m., find Alkaid, the end star of the Big
Dipper handle, five and a half fists above the east-northeastern horizon. The
Whirlpool Galaxy is two fingers to the upper right of Alkaid
Friday: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks later this month. But
there will be increased meteor activity in the vicinity of the constellation
Lyra until then. The meteors appear to come from a point to the right of the
bright bluish star Vega in the constellation Lyra the lyre. This point is about
one and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 10:30 p.m. and close to
straight overhead near dawn. Go to https://earthsky.org/?p=158735
for more information.
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.
All times are Pacific Time unless noted.
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