The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of June 8, 2024

CWU graduation is this weekend. Your favorite graduate deserves a gift. Why not get her, him, or them a star? I don’t mean from one of those organizations that offer to “register the name of YOUR star with the U.S. Patent Office”. No company owns the right to name stars after people. Besides, the stars that those companies “name” are so dim you can’t find them. In this column, I’ll pick a constellation and representative star for each of the four colleges at CWU. Then, I’ll briefly tell the story of the constellation and relate that story to the aspect of public service CWU graduates from that college are highly qualified to engage in based on my version of sky interpretation. If different couples can have “their” song, then your favorite college graduate can have their star. If you can’t make it to campus, celebrate with your favorite CWU 2024 graduate at the virtual ceremony shown here: http://www.cwu.edu/commencement/. 

Saturday: College of Arts and Humanities: You are the people who interpret the world in unique ways. Then, you share those ways with others. According to Greek mythology, Orpheus charmed everyone he met when he played the lyre or harp. After his wife died tragically, he journeyed to the underworld to charm its inhabitants in an effort to win his wife back to the living world. Your service reminder: use your talent to bring joy to others. The constellation Lyra and its bright star Vega should remind you of the power of the arts. Vega is five and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the eastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Sunday: The open star cluster called The Beehive Cluster is less than a half a fist to the lower left of the waxing crescent moon at 10:30 p.m. They are low in the west-northwestern sky. If you can find this with the naked eye, you are in good, and ancient, company. The Greek poet Aratos called this object “Little Mist” in 260 BCE. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy described it as the “Nebulous Mass in the Breast of Cancer” in his famous book, “The Almagest”, published in about 150 CE.

Monday: College of Business. You are the future movers and shakers. The future CEOs. The future big donors to Central. Auriga represented a king of Athens who happened to be mobility impaired. Instead of sitting around waiting for others to transport him, he took the initiative to invent the four-wheeled chariot. He solved a problem for a special need. Your service reminder: address the problems of those in the most need. To remind you of that, look to the constellation Auriga. Its bright star Capella is about a half a fist above the north-northwestern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Tuesday: "Do I have to wake up yet? It's so early!" The next few days have the earliest sunrises for the northern part of the United States, including Ellensburg.  "Wait, I thought this happened on the longest day of the year, which hasn't occurred yet." Because the Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle, the sunrise and sunset time is not symmetric. The earliest sunrise occurs before the longest day and the latest sunset occurs after the longest day. Go to http://earthsky.org/?p=4027 to read more about this phenomenon.

Wednesday: College of Education and Professional Studies. You are the teachers. The craftspeople. The technical experts. Bootes, the herdsman, was such a person. Bootes’ job was to guide the northern constellations to the feeding place and the watering hole. He and his dogs were especially in charge of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the greater and lesser bears. Your service reminder: guide others to a better place in life. Look to the constellation Bootes and its bright star Arcturus to remind you of this. Arcturus is five and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Thursday: See three naked eye planets this morning. At 4:30 a.m., Jupiter is just above the east-northeastern horizon, Mars is one and a half fists above due east, and Saturn is two and a half fists above the southeastern horizon.

Friday: College of the Sciences. You are the people who will systematically study how the world works. Agriculture is an important scientific application. Each year, farmers must use the findings of science to be successful. Who better to represent the College of the Sciences than Virgo, the goddess of the harvest? Virgo looms large in the sky holding an ear of wheat in her hand. Your service reminder: study the practical aspects of the scientific world. The ear of wheat, and your service reminder, is represented by the bright star Spica. Spica is two and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 11:00 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.