The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of May 10, 2025

Saturday: Today is a great day to Get Intimate… Get Intimate with the Shrub-Steppe. This annual event organized by the Kittitas Environmental Education Network includes many outdoor educational activities, with most of them taking place in the Yakima River Canyon just south of Ellensburg. There are also planetarium shows at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 p.m. at the CWU Lydig Planetarium on the CWU campus. Go to https://www.ycic.org/giss-and-birdfest for more information about all the events. The planetarium shows are free. The planetarium is in Discovery Hall, found here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NwpH1e5t7qXk5bfE9.

Sunday: So you think your mother has issues on Mother’s Day because she has you as a child? Her issues can’t be as bad as Cassiopeia’s issues. First, she was chained to a chair because she boasted about her beauty. Second, she must revolve around the North Star night after night. Third, a sea monster nearly killed her daughter Andromeda. Look for poor Cassiopeia about one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the northern horizon at 10:00 p.m. Cassiopeia looks like a stretched out “W.”

Monday: Two of the best, and certainly the most available, tools for viewing the night sky are your eyes. Your eyes let you see the entire sky in just a few seconds. Your eyes can read star charts, decipher astronomy apps, and spot meteors while your friend is still setting up her tripod. Your naked eyes are not as effective as gathering light. They work well when the light source is comparatively bright and the detailed features are fairly large. It’s best to practice on a special Solar System body known scientifically as the Magnificent Optical Object of Nearness. Artists such as Jan van Eyck and Leonardo da Vinci produced the first realistic naked eye depictions of the Magnificent Optical Object of Nearness. I challenge you to use your unaided eyes to observe craters on the Magnificent Optical Object of Nearness, better known as the Moon. For a guide to the most prominent craters, go to http://goo.gl/JLhraO.

Tuesday: Have you ever seen a Black Hole? Neither have scientists. But they have seen the effects of a Black Hole. Black holes have a strong gravitational influence on anything that passes close to them, including light. Cygnus X-1, the first Black Hole candidate ever discovered, is two fists above the east-northeastern horizon at 7:00 p.m., in the middle of the neck of Cygnus the swan. NASA launched the Chandra X-ray observatory in 1999 to study black hole candidates and other high-energy events.

Wednesday: At 9:30 p.m., Jupiter is about one fist above the west-northwestern horizon and Mars is four and a half fists above the west-southwestern horizon.

Thursday: If someone gives you a ring and says, “this ring symbolizes our eternal love, just like the rings of Saturn are eternal,” don’t doubt their love. But do doubt their astronomy knowledge. According to data recently analyzed from the Cassini Mission, Saturn’s rings may be only 10 to 100 million years old. As Cassini passed between Saturn and the rings, it was able to get the best estimate yet of the mass of the rings. Saturn’s rings are made mostly of ice and are still very bright and clean. Older rings would be darkened by debris. Also, the ring particles get pulverized by collisions over time. If this relatively low mass of ring particles were older, they would have been destroyed by now. For more information about the lifespan of Saturn’s rings, go to Saturn’s rings https://www.universetoday.com/141272/saturns-rings-are-only-10-to-100-million-years-old/.  Saturn and its young rings are about one fist above the eastern horizon at 4:30 a.m. The bright planet Venus is half a fist above the eastern horizon at this time.

Friday: I am guessing that some of you don’t like the line of reasoning from Tuesday: that seeing the effects of a Black Hole is good enough to claim there are Black Holes. You have never seen the wind. But you have seen the effects of the wind. And no Ellensburg resident doubts the existence of the wind.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of May 3, 2025

Saturday: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks just before dawn this weekend. Since this meteor shower has a fairly broad peak range, you should start looking before dawn every morning this week. The moon is close to the first quarter phase near the peak so it will have set, meaning even dimmer meteors will be visible. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. The meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation Aquarius near the star Eta. This point is about one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon at 4:00 a.m. The Eta Aquarid meteors slam into the Earth at about 40 miles per second. They often leave a long trail. The Eta Aquarid meteors are small rocks that have broken off Halley’s Comet. For more information about the Eta Aquarids, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158833.

Sunday: Jupiter is about two fists above the west-northwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m.

Monday: “Lately, I’ve been, I’ve been losing sleep. Dreaming about the things that we could be. But baby, I’ve been, I’ve been praying hard, said no more counting dollars. We’ll be counting 9,096 stars, yeah, we’ll be counting 9,096 stars.” Luckily, artistic judgment prevailed over scientific precision in the OneRepublic hit “Counting Stars.” According to the Yale Bright Star Catalog, there are 9,096 stars visible to the naked eye across the entire sky if you are observing from a very dark site. In the northern United States, where a part of the sky is never visible, that number drops to about 6,500. In the middle of a small city at mid-latitudes, like Ellensburg, that number drops to a few hundred. No wonder someone has been losing sleep. Learn more about the star count at http://goo.gl/nt8d80.

Tuesday: Venus is about a half a fist above the eastern horizon at 4:45 a.m. Saturn is about a half a fist to the right of Venus.

Wednesday: Give me an “M.” Give me a “3”. What does that spell? “M3.” “Big deal,” you say. It was a big deal to French comet hunter Charles Messier (pronounced Messy A). M3 was the 3^rd comet look-alike that Messier cataloged in the late 1700s. M3 is a globular cluster, a cluster of over 100,000 stars that is 32,000 light years away. It is too dim to be seen with the naked eye but is fairly easy to find with binoculars. First find Arcturus five and a half fists above due southeast at 10:30 p.m. Move your binoculars up one binocular field of view so two stars of nearly identical brightness are in your field of view. When the top star is in the lower left part of your field of view, there should be a fuzzy patch near the center of your field of view. This is M3.

Thursday: Mars’ two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, are not visible in typical backyard telescopes. But they are an interesting study. The former view among astronomers was that both moons are captured asteroids. That makes sense given Mars’ proximity to the asteroid belt. But recent findings by European astronomers indicate that Phobos is very porous and made of material like the surface of Mars. This implies that Phobos may consist of chunks of Martian debris that was blasted off by numerous impacts and gravitationally bound together. Unfortunately, the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe launched late 2011 to collect material from Phobos crashed to Earth after malfunctioning. For more information about this recent model of Phobos’ formation, go to https://sci.esa.int/web/mars-express/-/31031-phobos. For more information about Mars, look four fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Friday: This weekend, celebrate Mother’s Day with the big mom of the sky, Virgo. Ancient Greeks and Romans associated this portion of the sky with their own goddess of the harvest, either Demeter (Greeks) or Ceres (Roman). Demeter was the mother of Persephone and Ceres was the mother of Proserpina. According to myth, each of these daughters was abducted causing their mothers great grief. The first star in Virgo rises in the afternoon. Spica, the bright bluish star in the constellation rises at 7:00 p.m. and is three fists above the south-southeastern horizon at 10:00 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 26, 2025

Saturday: One hundred five years ago tonight, astronomers Heber Curtis and Harlow Shapley were debating the distances of some of our farthest neighbors: galaxies. Curtis argued that the universe consisted of many galaxies millions of light years away. Shapley thought that the spiral structures seen in telescopes were close by as a part of the Milky Way. They also had different views on the size of the Milky Way. Learn more about their debate, called the Great Debate, at https://youtu.be/0MJCqJPMpeY. Learn more about the Milky Way by watching the center of it rise over the southeastern horizon at about 1:00 a.m.

Sunday: This morning, Venus is at its greatest illuminated extent of this orbital cycle. The lit part of Venus has an area of 309 square arcseconds. This is larger than any other planet in the sky but much smaller than the full moon, which is about three million square arcseconds. (One arcsecond is one three thousand six hundredths of a degree.) Venus is half a fist above the eastern horizon at 5:00 a.m. Saturn is halfway between Venus and the horizon at this time.

Monday: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks just before dawn on May 5 and 6. Since this meteor shower has a fairly broad peak range, you should start looking before dawn every morning this week. The moon is close to the new moon phase near the peak, meaning that the dimmer meteors will be visible then. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. The meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation Aquarius near the star Eta. This point is about one fist above the east horizon at 4:00 a.m. The Eta Aquarid meteors slam into the Earth at about 40 miles per second. They often leave a long trail. The Eta Aquarid meteors are small rocks that have broken off Halley’s Comet. For more information about the Eta Aquarids, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158833.

Tuesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the western horizon at 9:00 p.m. Mars is five and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at this time.

Wednesday: Celebrate the ending of Global Astronomy Month by reading some poems and short stories submitted by astronomy fans at https://my.astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/astroarts/astropoetry.

Thursday: Some open star clusters are easy to find and see, such as The Pleiades and The Hyades clusters in the constellation Taurus the bull. Some are difficult to see. M35, an open star cluster in the constellation Gemini the Twins, is in the middle. It doesn’t jump out at you, but it is easy to find if you have help. M35 is about three fists above the western horizon at 9:30 p.m., halfway between the moon and the bright planet Jupiter. It is a family of a few thousand stars about 3,000 light years away. Open star clusters are young for stars, this one being about 100 million years old. The cluster is best seen using binoculars or a small telescope.

Friday: Orion stands low in the southwestern sky. At 9:00 p.m., the middle of Orion’s belt is about one fist above the west-southwest horizon. And talk about belt tightening! Alnilam, the middle star in the belt, is losing mass at a rate of about 100 thousand trillion tons a day. That’s a 1 followed by 17 zeros tons per day.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 19, 2025

Saturday: This week is International Dark Sky Week. Lights that are aimed upwards or not properly capped illuminate the atmosphere and obscure dim objects. Having too much light shining where it shouldn’t is considered light pollution. And just like other forms of pollution, light pollution can be hazardous to our health and the health of other animals. That’s right. Harmful. Watch this National Geographic video for more information: https://youtu.be/V_A78zDBwYE. Learn about how you can help at https://idsw.darksky.org/. 

Sunday: The first day of spring was March 20. The most recent full moon was April 12. That means today is Easter. The standard way to figure out the date of Easter for Western Christian churches is that it is the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox, also known as the first day of spring. Of course, the other standard way is to look for the date of church services celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. There is no Bible story of an “Easter star”. If there were, Spica would be a pretty good choice. The name Spica comes from the Latin “spica virginis” which means “Virgo’s ear of grain”. Spica represents life-giving sustenance rising after a long winter just like the risen Jesus represents life-giving redemption to Christians. Spica is two fists above due southeast horizon at 9:00 p.m. For an algorithm on how to calculate the exact date of Easter for any year, go to https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-easter. 

Monday: Mercury will be as far away from the Sun in the sky as it will get this half of its 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. Often, the day of greatest elongation is a good time to observe Mercury. But not this cycle. Mercury is just barely above due east at 5:30 a.m. You are much more likely to see the bright planet Venus, nearly a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the eastern horizon. You should be able to see Mercury with binoculars. Saturn may also be visible with binoculars, about halfway between Venus and the horizon. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. By mid June, it will be visible in the evening sky.

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight. 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 three fists above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight. The best time to see the shower this year is between 11:00 p.m. and moonrise at 4:00 a.m. Typically, this is one of the least interesting major meteor showers of the year, with 10-20 bright, fast meteors per hour. However, it is also one of the most unpredictable. As recently as 1982, there were 90 meteors visible during a single hour. In addition, the Lyrid meteor shower has historical interest because it was one of the first ones observed. Chinese records say “stars fell like rain” in the shower of 687 B.C. As your mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more information, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158735.

Tuesday: Jupiter is nearly three fists above due west at 9:00 p.m. Mars is nearly six fists above the southwestern horizon at this time.

Wednesday: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is getting lower and lower. It is one fist above the southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m. By mid-May, it will be lost in the glare of the setting Sun.

Thursday: On Monday I described Venus as “the bright planet Venus”. This morning, it is at its brightest for this orbital cycle. Its visual magnitude is -4.54. By comparison, Jupiter, the second brightest point of light in the sky, is magnitude -2, only about one tenth as bright. Venus is about a fist above the eastern horizon at 5:30 a.m.

Friday: As the rock group Journey once thought of singing, “Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’. I know where the Dipper’ll be tomorrow.” Every night, the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia make a wheel in the sky that turns around the North Star in a counterclockwise direction. Every year on April 24 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 25 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 26 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Oh, am I boring you? Of course, there are subtle charges in the position from night to night. Each northern constellation moves about one degree counterclockwise from one night to the next. But this is not going to change their position in the sky drastically over a few days. So, if you know where the Big Dipper is tonight, you DO know where it’ll be tomorrow. If you are really struggling to understand this concept, Don’t Stop Believin’ in yourself. Just keep studying Faithfully.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 12, 2025

Saturday: Tonight’s full moon is called the pink moon, named after the pink creeping phlox wildflowers that bloom in the early spring in North America. Also, this moon is a mini-moon because the moon is at apogee - farthest from Earth - a few hours after being full.

Sunday: Do people think you have a magnetic personality? The star Cor Caroli understands how you feel. Cor Caroli has one of the strongest magnetic fields among main sequence stars like our Sun. This strong magnetic field is thought to produce large sunspots that cause the brightness of Cor Caroli to vary. Cor Caroli is nearly straight overhead at 12:30 a.m.

Monday:  Did you get binoculars for the holidays? Like Celebrate Scientists Day or Science Education Day (both celebrated today)  If so, start using them on some of the easy to find binocular targets found here: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/best-targets-for-binoculars-moon-planets-nebula-clusters/. The first item on the list, the Moon, is a great choice because it is full this week, meaning it is out most of the night. One of my favorite binocular objects is the Hyades Open Star Cluster. It is a V-shaped set of stars found about two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon at 9:00 p.m. The bright star Aldebaran is in the upper left-hand part of the V, just below Aldebaran is the double star system Theta1 and Theta2 Tauri. Theta2 Tauri is a blue giant star and Theta1 Tauri is an orange giant star. Through binoculars, you should get a hint of their color. In the mythology of the Maya, the Theta Tauri pair is known as Chamukuy, meaning “small bird” in the Yucatec Maya language. The bright planet Jupiter is about a fist above the cluster.

Tuesday: There is a clump of planets low in the eastern sky at 5:45 this morning. The brightest planet Venus is about one fist above the eastern horizon. Saturn is below Venus, less than a half a fist above the horizon. Mercury is to the lower left of Saturn, and a little bit brighter. Since they are so low in the twilight sky, you may need binoculars to see them. You’ll need a small telescope to see the dim planet Neptune, just to the upper left of Mercury.

Wednesday: “The crow rises in the southeast,” said spy number one. “I’m sorry. I don’t recognize that code,” replied spy number two. Spy one exclaimed, “That’s because it’s not a code, you idiot. I’m talking about the constellation Corvus the crow.” This very bad spy movie dialogue is to remind you that Corvus had a very bad life. According to one myth, Corvus brought the god Apollo the news that his girlfriend was seeing someone else. In a classic case of punishing the messenger, Apollo turned the formerly beautifully colored crow black. The box-shaped Corvus is two fists above the south-southeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Thursday: Mars is six fists above the southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m.

Friday: Remember the old saying: April showers bring… meteors. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks next week, with the peak of the peak occurring from Monday night to Tuesday morning. 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 three fists above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight and close to straight overhead near dawn. The best time to see meteor showers is between midnight and dawn. Typically, this is one of the least interesting major meteor showers of the year, with 10-20 bright, fast meteors per hour. However, it is also one of the most unpredictable. As recently as 1982, there were 90 meteors visible during a single hour. In addition, the Lyrid meteor shower has historical interest because it was one of the first ones seen. Chinese records say “stars fell like rain” in the shower of 687 B.C. As your mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more information, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158735.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 5, 2025

Saturday: Mars is about a half a fist to the lower right of the moon. They are six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwestern horizon at 9:30 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? Until recently, the smallest known stars were about five times the mass of Jupiter. However, in 2023, a pair of astronomers looking at the Orion Nebula think they discovered pairs of binary brown dwarf stars just a little more massive than Jupiter. If confirmed, that could cause a substantial change in the accepted theory of star formation. For more on the smallest star, go to https://www.science.org/content/article/astronomers-may-have-spotted-smallest-possible-stars. You can’t see these stars. But you can see the Orion Nebula one and a half fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 9:30 p.m.

Monday: April is officially known as Global Astronomy Month. Of course, if you are reading this column, every month can be astronomy month. For more information about online events, go to https://my.astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/global-astronomy-month/gam2025-main997

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: 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 seen to have a spiral shape. Since then, astronomers have discovered that 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.

Thursday: Venus is about a half a fist above due east at 5:30 a.m.

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 due northeast at 10:00 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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 29, 2025

Saturday: Some people in town today for the Yakima River Canyon Marathon may have been looking for a little running inspiration. While nothing can take the place of a 20-mile run for marathon preparation (I know), certain objects in the night sky are inspiring. In the Bible, Job specifically mentions the star Arcturus, or the bear keeper, to his friend as a sign of God's majesty. He describes God as that "Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers (constellations) of the south" (Job 9:9, King James Version). Whatever your religious beliefs, it is clear that Job was impressed with this very bright star. See the star that inspired Job about two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due east at 10:30 p.m. Also, Orion is two fists above the southwestern horizon and Pleiades is two fists above the western horizon.

Sunday: The Global Astronomy Month (GAM) of April starts this week. Go to https://my.astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/global-astronomy-month for more information about events. If you want to take a chance on a spur of the moment event, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/astronomerswithoutborders/

Monday: At 9:30 p.m., Jupiter is nearly four fists above the western horizon and Mars is six fists above the southwestern horizon.

Tuesday: Have you ever seen a Black Hole? Neither have scientists. But they have seen the effects of a Black Hole. Black holes have a strong gravitational influence on anything that passes close to them, including light. Cygnus X-1, the first Black Hole candidate ever discovered, is five and a half fists above the eastern horizon at 6:00 a.m., in the middle of the neck of Cygnus the swan. NASA launched the Chandra X-ray observatory in 1999 to study black hole candidates and other high-energy events.

Wednesday: Venus is just above the eastern horizon at 6:15 a.m.

Thursday: Last week you looked at something fuzzy, the Milky Way. So, reward yourself tonight by looking at something sharp and detailed. The OSIRIS-REx mission sent back the highest resolution global map of any Solar System object, the asteroid Bennu. Using pictures taken from just three to five kilometers above the surface, the map has a resolution of five centimeters per pixel, the most detailed map of any object other than Earth. Go to https://www.asteroidmission.org/bennu_global_mosaic/ to download the map.

Friday: I am guessing that some of you don’t like the line of reasoning from Tuesday: that seeing the effects of a Black Hole is good enough to claim there are Black Holes. You have never seen the wind. But you have seen the effects of the wind. And no Ellensburg resident doubts the existence of the wind.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 22, 2025

Saturday: At 9:00, Jupiter is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon and Mars is six and a half fists above

Sunday: Signs of spring: flower buds, leaves on the trees, beetle larvae, and the Spring Triangle. The bright stars Regulus, Arcturus, and Spica rise as evening starts. By 10:00 p.m., Regulus is five and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon, Arcturus is two and a half fists above due east, and Spica is one fist above the east-southeast horizon. For more on the Spring Triangle, go to https://www.livescience.com/space/vernal-equinox-how-to-see-spring-begin-just-by-looking-at-the-stars.

Monday: Because the Earth slowly wobbles like a spinning top, the vernal equinox is slowly moving into the constellation Aquarius. By the year 2597, the vernal equinox will reach the constellation Aquarius, and the “Age of Aquarius” will begin. Until then, we’ll be in “the age of Pisces.”

Tuesday: The red supergiant Antares is one and a half fists above due south at 5:20 a.m.

Wednesday: 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 three fists above the northeastern horizon at midnight.

Thursday: Venus is about a finger width above the eastern horizon at 6:10 a.m., just ahead of the rising Sun.

Friday: The Milky Way is easy to spot in the early spring sky. Just look up. Everything you see in the sky, including that bird that just startled you, is in the Milky Way. But even the path of densely packed stars in the plane of our galaxy that look like a river of milk is easy to find. Face due west at 9:00 p.m. in a fairly open area. The fuzzy Milky Way path starts due south, moves upward past the bright star Sirius, near Mars, towards the bright star Capella, through W-shaped Cassiopeia and down to due north where the bright star Deneb sits just above the horizon.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 15, 2025

Saturday: Mercury and Venus, the brighter of the two, are about a half a fist above the western horizon at 8:00 p.m.

Sunday: If you want to put somebody off, tell her or him to wait until Deneb sets. At Ellensburg’s latitude of 47 degrees, Deneb is a circumpolar star meaning it never goes below the horizon. At 10:05 p.m., it will be as close as it gets to the horizon, about two degrees above due north. Watch it reach this due north position about 4 minutes earlier each night.

Monday: Ask someone which day in March has the same duration day and night. Go ahead, ask someone. Why are you still reading this? I can wait. If that person said the first day of spring, they are wrong. Today, a few days before the first day of spring, is the date in which day and night are closest in duration in central Washington. There are two main reasons for this. First, the atmosphere acts like a lens, bending light from the Sun above the horizon when the Sun is already below the horizon. This makes the Sun appear to rise before it actually rises and appear to set after it actually sets. Second, spring starts when the center of the Sun passes through the point called the vernal equinox. But the Sun is not a point. The upper edge of the Sun rises about a minute before the center of the Sun and the lower edge sets a minute after the center of the Sun. Thus, even if we didn’t have an atmosphere that bends the sunlight, daytime on the first day of spring would still be longer than 12 hours.

Tuesday: Many artists have sung the song “Blue Moon.” But few have sung the song “Blue Planet.” It goes, in part “Blue Planet, you saw me standing with 28 others. Rolling around like a barrel. Without close sisters or brothers.” It’s about the planet Uranus, which orbits the Sun in a rolling motion and has 28 moons. 25 of Uranus’ moons are named after characters in works by William Shakespeare and three are from the poem “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope. Uranus is two and a half fists above due west at 9:30 p.m. It is a half a fist below the Pleiades open star cluster.

Wednesday: At 8:30 p.m., Mars is nearly seven fists above the southern horizon and Jupiter is five fists above the west-southwestern horizon.

Thursday: Look up in the sky. It’s a plane. It’s a bird. No, it’s the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox!? Spring starts at 1:59 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The first day of spring is often called the vernal equinox. This label for the day is misleading. The vernal equinox is actually the point in the sky where the Sun’s apparent path with respect to the background stars (called the ecliptic) crosses the line that divides the stars into northern and southern celestial hemispheres (called the celestial equator). This point is in the constellation Pisces the fishes. At the vernal equinox, the Sun is moving from the southern region of background stars to the northern region.

Friday: If you know exactly where to look in the sky, you can see a few bright planets when the Sun is out. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, is always watching the sky when the Sun is out… because it is always watching the Sun! Most of the SOHO images are filtered images of the Sun’s photosphere, the top of the visible layer. But two images, the LASCO C2 and C3, place a mask over the Sun to observe the Sun’s corona as well as solar system objects that pass near the Sun. For the next few days, For more about using SOHO to observe Solar System objects, go to https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/planets-and-comets-cant-hide-from-sohos-eye/.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 8, 2025

Saturday:  Don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour tonight for the annual ritual called daylight savings. Daylight savings originated in the United States during World War I to save energy for the war effort. But a recent study by two economists shows that switching to daylight savings time may actually lead to higher utility bills. When the economists compared the previous few years of energy bills in the section of Indiana that just started observing daylight savings, they discovered that switching to daylight savings cost Indiana utility customers $8.6 million in electricity. In an even more important consequence of daylight savings, Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia discovered a 7% jump in traffic accidents on the Monday after we "spring ahead". Blame it on the lost hour of sleep. And sky watchers will lose even more sleep because the sky stays light for an additional hour.

Sunday: The bright planet Venus is about a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon at 8:00 p.m. Mercury is a half a list to the lower left of Venus.

Monday: Avast ye matey. Swab the poop deck. Pirates love astronomy. In fact, the term “poop” in poop deck comes from the French word for stern (poupe) which comes from the Latin word Puppis. Puppis is a constellation that represents the raised stern deck of Argo Navis, the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts in Greek mythology. Argo Nevis was an ancient constellation that is now split into the constellations Puppis, Vela and Carina. The top of Puppis is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south and about a fist and a half to the left of the bright star Sirius at 9:45 p.m. Zeta Puppis, the hottest, and thus the bluest, naked eye star in the sky at 40,000 degrees Celsius, is about a half a fist above due south at this time.

Tuesday: “Oooo, they’re little runaways. Orion’s stars moved fast. Tried to make a getaway. Ooo-oo, they’re little runaways,” sang Bon Jovi in his astronomical hit “Runaway. At least that’s what I hear when I listen to the song. After all, it fits the recently calculated trajectory of AE Aurigae, Mu Columbae, and 53 Arietis. Extrapolating the actual motion of these three stars back in time, they were all in the location of the star-forming region called the Orion Nebula a few million years ago. What kicked these stars out? Not paying rent? Excessive partying? No, it was simply gravitational interactions with near-by stars. Find out more about the eviction at http://goo.gl/UeLwKQ. The Orion Nebula is visible with the naked eye from a very dark site, about two and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Wednesday: At 9:00 p.m., Jupiter is five fists above the southwestern horizon and Mars is nearly seven fists above due south.

Thursday: There is a total lunar eclipse tonight. Total lunar eclipses are not as noticeable as total solar eclipses because light still reaches the Moon even when it is completely blocked by the Earth. That is because the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lens and bends rays of light toward the Moon that would normally miss the Moon. However, that doesn’t mean the Moon looks the same during a total lunar eclipse as it does during a normal full moon.

Sunlight is white. White light is the sum of all the colors in the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Our atmosphere scatters the blue component of the Sun’s white light. That is why our sky is blue. (If our atmosphere consisted of different gasses, we would likely have a different colored sky.) When the Sun or Moon is near the horizon, the light passes through a lot of the atmosphere meaning more of the blue end of the spectrum is scattered and the Sun or Moon looks redder than when it is high in the sky. During a total lunar eclipse, sunlight passes through a large slice of the Earth’s atmosphere. The remaining light that reaches the Moon is reddish. Some people say the fully eclipsed Moon looks Blood Red! These people exaggerate. It appears a dull reddish color.

From the perspective of Ellensburg in the Pacific Time Zone, the partial eclipse stage will start at 10:09 p.m. The Moon will slowly move into the Earth’s shadow and get dark from left to right. By 11:26 p.m., the Moon will be fully eclipsed. The total eclipse lasts until 12:31 a.m. The moon will be moving out of the earth’s darkest shadow or umbra until 1:47 a.m. After that, the moon will look white, just like a normal full moon. Thus, during the entire eclipse, the moon looks white, then black, then red all over. For more information about the eclipse, including information about the specific times for your location, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2025-march-14.

Friday: “The crow rises in the southeast,” said spy number one. “I’m sorry. I don’t recognize that code,” replied spy number two. Spy one exclaimed, “That’s because it’s not a code, you idiot. I’m talking about the constellation Corvus the crow.” This bad spy movie dialogue is to remind you that Corvus had a bad life. According to one myth, Corvus brought the god Apollo the news that his girlfriend was seeing someone else. In a classic case of punishing the messenger, Apollo turned the formerly beautifully colored crow black. The box-shaped Corvus is one fist above the southeastern horizon at 9:30 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 1, 2025

Saturday: At 7:00 p.m. Venus is a half a fist to the upper right of the moon, about a fist and a half above the western horizon. Neptune is about a finger width to the left of Mercury at this time.

Sunday: March to-do list: 1) Move clocks ahead an hour for daylight saving time, 2) Start Spring cleaning, 3) Discover exoplanets. Hmm. One of these is not like the other. NASA has set up a program through which you can learn about exoplanets, observe exoplanets, analyze their data, and submit it to a repository for astronomers to use for their research. Exoplanets are any planets outside our solar system. For more information about this project, go to https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-watch/.

Monday: Antares is a fist and a half above due south at 5:45 a.m.

Tuesday: Tonight is a great night to look for the Big Dipper. Tomorrow will be a great night to look for the Big Dipper. In fact, every night for many centuries will be great nights to look for the Big Dipper. But the Big Dipper’s shape slowly changes over many centuries. Tens of thousands of years ago, it didn’t look like a dipper and tens of thousands of years from now, it will no longer look like a dipper. For a short video simulation of the changing Big Dipper, go to https://youtu.be/txJH8RlIoXQ. For a look at the current Dipper, face northeast at 8:00 p.m. The lowest star, Alkaid, is two and a half fists above the horizon.

Wednesday: Over the past two weeks, all seven planets were visible in the evening sky. This was called a planetary conjunction. A good planetary conjunction. On the morning of March 25, 185 BCE, there was a great planetary conjunction. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were within seven degrees of each other. That means they could have all fit into the cup of the Big Dipper. Two astronomers recently identified a small piece of clay with a cuneiform description of the conjunction. Read more about this conjunction at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/ancient-babylonians-witnessed-unique-planetary-gathering/.

Thursday: If you ask an astrobiologist for the three most likely places to find evidence of life in the Solar System, other than Earth, they’d probably say Mars, Europa (“Didn’t they sing “The Final Countdown” in the 1980?”), and Enceladus. Mars makes sense because you know scientists have sent many probes there. Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, is an up-and-coming interest that first piqued astrobiologists’ interest a few years ago when NASA’s Cassini probe discovered organic materials in jets of water shooting out of it. Between the pop culture alien hot spot of Mars and the new favorite Enceladus is Jupiter’s moon Europa. Astronomers first discovered compelling evidence of a large water ocean on Europa in 1989 during a Galileo flyby. Over the next few years, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will be on their way to Europa. For a preview of the ESA JUICE mission and the NASA Europa Clipper mission, go to https://youtu.be/dAW2uPPS2A4. At 8:00 p.m., Jupiter is five fists above the southwestern horizon and Mars is nearly seven fists above the southern horizon. Saturn is too close to being in line with the Sun to be visible.

Friday: The bright star Sirius is two fists above the southwestern horizon at 10:00 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 22, 2025

Saturday: Mercury and Saturn are neighbors in the sky, about a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west-southwestern horizon at 6:00 p.m. Mercury is the lower of the two. Mercury is moving upward with respect to the background stars over the next few weeks. By Tuesday, it will be above Saturn in the sky.

Sunday: You’ve likely heard of the Big Dipper, the measuring cup-shaped set of stars that are part of the constellation Ursa Major. At 8:00 p.m., the end of the handle is two fists above the northeastern horizon with the rest of the dipper straight above it. But not all people saw these stars as a dipper. The Aztec, who lived 500 years ago in what is now central Mexico between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, saw this part of the sky as the god Tezcatlipoca (Tez-kuht-luh-po’-kuh). Tezcatlipoca was typically an evil god who clashed with his brother, the kinder god Quetzalcoatl (Ket-suhl--kuh-wah’-tl). One day Tezcatlipoca tried to ruin Quetzalcoatl’s handiwork. Out of anger, Quetzalcoatl tossed Tezcatlipoca into the northern sky where he is forced to dance around the North Star, sometimes on his head, sometimes below the horizon.

Monday: The weather has been chilly. It will feel good to think ahead about spring. The spring triangle, the nearly equilateral triangle of Spica, Arcturus, and Denebola, is called the spring triangle because the three stars are rising as the Sun is setting near the start of spring. Since spring is currently a month away, the three stars rise a few hours after sunset. By 11:00 p.m., the bright star Arcturus is two and a half fists above due east. Spica is one fist above the southeastern horizon. Denebola, the dimmest of the three but still the 60th brightest star in the night sky, is four and a half fists above the southeastern horizon.

Tuesday: At 7:00 p.m., Venus is two fists above the western horizon, Jupiter is about six fists above the south-southwestern horizon, and Mars is six fists above the east-southeastern horizon. Mars makes a little triangle with the bright stars Pollux and Castor.

Wednesday: On these late winter mornings, it is still difficult to get going. You just want to plop into a chair and sit still. But are you really sitting still? You’re moving at about 700 miles per hour due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis and 66,000 miles per hour due to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. If that’s not enough, the entire solar system is orbiting the center of the galaxy at a whopping 480,000 miles per hour! So, while you may be sitting still with respect to your living room (and all the overachievers in your house), you are NOT sitting still with respect to the center of the galaxy. For more information about this concept, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/HowFast.pdf.

Thursday: More celestial evidence that spring is around the corner. The wintertime constellation Orion is moving towards the western horizon. Orion’s belt is two and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Friday: A group of crows is called a murder of crows. A group of porcupines is (appropriately) called a prickle of porcupines. A group of planets is called… a group of planets? Whatever it is called, there is one in the sky tonight and for the next few weeks. At 6:15 p.m., starting from near the western horizon there is Saturn, the waxing crescent moon, and Mercury. Neptune is to the upper left of Mercury but too dim to be seen in the twilight, even with binoculars. Very bright Venus is about two fists above the western horizon. Next comes Uranus, five and a half fists above the southwestern horizon. You’ll need binoculars to see it. Near Uranus in the sky, Jupiter is six and a half fists above due south. Finally, Mars is five and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 15, 2025

Saturday: On February 18, 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, at that time classified as the ninth planet. However, as astronomers started discovering a lot of similar objects in that part of the Solar System, they realized that they had a classification crisis on their hands. Should everything in this region of the Solar System be named a planet? Eventually the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto and all future Pluto-like objects as dwarf planets. This week you can celebrate the discovery with the people at Lowell Observatory, the “home” of Pluto’s discovery. Go to https://iheartpluto.org/ for more information about online events this weekend.

Sunday: Venus is two and a half fists and Saturn is a half a fist above the west-southwestern horizon at 6:30 p.m. Does Venus look exceptionally bright tonight? It is at its brightest of the year.

Monday: This Presidents Day, let’s remember Abraham Lincoln: 16^th president, country lawyer, man on the penny, wrestler, and astronomer. Astronomer? Well, maybe not an astronomer, but someone who used observational evidence from the sky to solve a problem. In 1858, Lincoln defended Duff Armstrong, a family friend who was accused of murder. The prosecution thought they had a strong case because their primary witnesses claimed to have observed the killing by the light of the nearly full moon, which they called “Moon bright”. Let’s listen in on the trial courtesy of the 1939 film, Young Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln: How’d you see so well?

Witness: I told you it was Moon bright, Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln: Moon bright.

Witness: Yes.

(Dramatic pause as Lincoln reaches for something)

Lincoln: Look at this. Go on, look at it. It’s the Farmer’s Almanack (sic). You see what it says about the Moon. That the Moon… set at 10: 21, 40 minutes before the killing took place. So you see it couldn’t have been Moon bright, could it?

Lincoln used the known information about Moon rising and setting times for August 29, 1858 as evidence in a trial. This is one of the earliest uses of forensic astronomy. For more information about Lincoln’s “almanac trial”, go to http://goo.gl/r83q4X.

Tuesday:  Are you going to skip a winter vacation because flights are too expensive? Then take a virtual vacation to a black hole. NASA scientists have just developed a visualization to show how light moves in the vicinity of a black hole. Book your ticket at https://www.nasa.gov/universe/nasa-visualization-shows-a-black-holes-warped-world/. 

 

Wednesday: It’s getting dark. The last remnant of twilight has disappeared. Suddenly, you notice a large softly radiant pyramid of light in the western sky. The base of this ghostly triangle is along the west horizon and the peak stretches two or three fists above the horizon. It is not really a ghost. It is an effect called the zodiacal light. This light comes from sunlight reflecting off dust grains in our solar system. The effect is the most visible when the band of constellations called the zodiac makes a steep angle with the horizon. You need a clear dark sky with no haze or light pollution to see the zodiacal light. At its brightest, the zodiacal light rivals the light of the central Milky Way. Look for the ghostly patch after twilight for the next few weeks.

Thursday: Two bright stars, Vega and Deneb, are hugging the northern horizon together at 11:00 p.m. Vega, the brighter of the two, is less than a half a fist above the north-northeastern horizon. Supergiant Deneb to two and a half fists to the left of Vega, closer to due north.

Friday: Jupiter is six fists above due southwest and Mars is six and a half fists above the southeastern horizon at 8:00 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 8, 2025

Saturday: Venus is two and a half fists held upright and at arm's length above the west-southwestern horizon at 6:30 p.m. Saturn is right below it, about one fist above the horizon.

Sunday: Are you going to watch the super bowl tonight? Is the bowl really that super? After all, half the night the bowl is tipped upside down, spilling out all its contents. But don’t just focus on the functionality of the bowl. Think about how it inspires people across the world to look at the night sky. In Mongolia, participants in the super bowl are known as gods. An Arabian story says the super bowl is a coffin. I encourage you to go outside tonight at about 8:00 p.m., after whatever unimportant thing you have been doing since 3:30 p.m. Look low in the north-northwestern sky and watch the super bowl, also known as the Big Dipper, balancing on the end of its handle, proudly displaying its large bowl.

Monday: The Galileo spacecraft, launched in 1989 to explore the solar system, found evidence of life on a planet. Astronomers studied a highly pixelated image of the overall light emitted from the planet to detect the presence of oxygen. By analyzing the changes in pixel brightness as the planet rotated, astronomers got a rough idea of its surface characteristics. They determined that the planet has a mixture of both water and land, making it well suited for life. If you’d like to observe this planet tonight, just look down. The planet Galileo studied in this superficial way is called Earth. You might wonder why astronomers would gather such sparse data to study the Earth. The data Galileo gathered about Earth is the same as what Earth-based and Earth-orbiting telescopes can gather from objects in the outer solar system now and will be able to gather about planets orbiting other stars over the coming years. By gathering the data and comparing it to what we know about Earth, astronomers can catalog what data about other planets may indicate about those planets. For more information about this study, go to https://www.universetoday.com/165652/did-the-galileo-mission-find-life-on-earth/.

Tuesday: Jupiter is five and a half fists above due southwest at 9:00 p.m. Mars is six and a half fists above the southeastern horizon. It makes a small equilateral triangle with the stars Pollux and Castor.

Wednesday: The sky is so wondrous. It makes me want to sing. Who can forget that memorable song by Three Dog Constellations Night, “The sky is black. The stars are white. Together we learn to find the light.” Well, maybe it didn’t go like that. Which is good. Because not all stars are white. Most stars are too dim to notice a color. But two of the stars in the constellation Orion provide a noticeable contrast with each other. Betelgeuse, five fists above due south at 8:30 p.m. is a red giant. Rigel, the bright star about two fists to the lower right of Betelgeuse, is a blue giant.

By the way, the three dog constellations are Canis Major, the greater dog, found one and a half fists to the lower left of Orion; Canis Minor, the lesser dog, found two and a half fists to the left of Betelgeuse; and Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs, found low in the northeast sky, halfway between the Big Dipper and the horizon. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky.

Thursday: The good news is the days are getting longer, and the nights are getting shorter. The better news for most readers of this column is the farther north you go in the United States, the longer the days get. Here in Ellensburg, there are almost two more hours of daylight than on the first day of winter. In the southern part of the US, there is only 50 more minutes of sunlight. If you’d like to have your own fun with day lengths and other time questions, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/.

Friday: According to Greek mythology, the beautiful princess Andromeda was chained to a rock next to the ocean. Cetus the sea monster was about to devour her to punish her family. It seemed that all was lost. But along came the great warrior Perseus, fresh off his defeat of the evil Gorgon, Medusa. The only similarity between Andromeda and Medusa was that Andromeda caused people to stand still and stare at her beauty while Medusa turned people to stone because of her ugliness. (And you thought you looked bad in the morning.) Even though Perseus’ standing as the son of King Zeus and the slayer of Medusa was probably enough to win Andromeda under normal circumstances, Andromeda’s impending death-by-sea-monster was not a normal circumstance. So, Perseus drove his sword into the sea monster's neck and killed it. In a little-known addendum to the story, Perseus carved “Percy (heart symbol) Andi” in the rock, thus originating the use of the heart symbol as a substitute for the word “love”.

You can find these lovers in the sky this Valentine’s Day. Just remember it is rude to stare – because you never know who might turn to stone. First, find the Great Square of Pegasus at 7:00 p.m. between one and a half and three and a half fists above the west horizon. The lowest star in Andromeda is the top star in the square. This represents Andromeda’s head. Perseus is at her feet, nearly straight overhead. Mirphak, the brightest star in Perseus, is about eight fists above the west horizon. Perseus’ body is represented by the line of stars to the left and right of Mirphak.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 1, 2025

Saturday: Let’s review three important sets of three cats. There’s Josie, Valerie, and Melody of Josie and the Pussycats. Felix, Tom, and Sylvester from old time cartoons. And, if you want to get away from the mind-numbing effects of television, there’s Leo the lion, Leo Minor, and Lynx in the night sky. Leo is by far the most prominent of these three constellations. Its brightest star called Regulus is four fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 10:00 p.m. The backwards question mark-shaped head of Leo is above Regulus, and the trapezoid-shaped body is to the left of it. Leo Minor consists of a few dim stars right above Leo. Pretty wimpy. The long dim constellation called Lynx spans from just above Leo Minor to nearly straight overhead. You and fellow stargazers won’t need to wear a fake tail or ears on a headband to enjoy these stellar cats.

Sunday: Today is Groundhog Day, an important day for pop culture astronomers and Bill Murray movie fans. If Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t see his shadow, 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.

Monday: 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.

Tuesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 6:30 p.m. Saturn is halfway between Venus and the horizon.

Wednesday: At 9:45 p.m., the blue giant star called Adhara is one and a half fists above due south. It is the 22nd brightest star in the sky. Currently over 430 light years away, Adhara was only 34 light years away five million years ago. That proximity made it the brightest star in the nighttime sky at the time.

Thursday: Jupiter is a half a fist to the lower left of the moon at 8:00 p.m. They are about six and a half fists above the southern horizon. Mars is five and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon at this time.

Friday: You can set your watch tonight by carefully observing Caph, the bottom star in the E-shaped Cassiopeia. It will be due northwest at exactly 8:00 p.m. However, another star in Cassiopeia is causing astronomers to doubt whether they can use neutron stars as the most precise known clocks in the universe. Neutron stars have such a precise spin rate that they are used to set super accurate clocks on Earth. In 2013, astronomers using NASA’s Swift x-ray telescope noticed that the neutron star called 1E 2259+586 exhibited a spin glitch that had never been seen before. The spin rate of about eight times a minute decreased by 2.2 millionths of a second. Read more about this at http://goo.gl/C4V8R1. In 2016, astronomers using NASA’s Swift x-ray telescope observed the slowest rotating neutron star, once every 6.5 hours. What is it with using a telescope named Swift to make discoveries about something slowing? Maybe that slow developing question will be answered at https://tinyurl.com/y6ag6g7c.

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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 25, 2025

Saturday: Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky, is two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwestern horizon. Saturn is a half a fist below it, nearly two fists above the horizon.

Sunday: Are you interested in taking part 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 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 this evening at 8:00 p.m. Mars is four and a half fists above the eastern horizon. The star Pollux is just to the left of Mars and the star Castor is to the upper left of Mars. Astronomers have evidence that a planet orbits Pollux, which would make it the brightest star, as seen from Earth, with a planet.

Monday: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, rises at 5:30 p.m. By 7:00 p.m., it is one fist above the southeastern horizon.

Tuesday: Sure, you can look at the planets with your naked eyes. Or even a small telescope. But do you ever wonder what the planets look like up close? This video takes you on a short tour of the surface of each planet, using images and landers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF1E_u5EvZg.

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: Mercury is too close to the Sun in the sky to be easily seen. Luckily, the European Space Agency spacecraft called BepiColombo just sent back the best ever images of Mercury. Go to https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo to watch the movie.

Friday: Jupiter is six and a half fists above due south at 8:00 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 18, 2025

Saturday: Saturn is just to the lower left of the very bright Venus, two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due southwest at 6:00 p.m. And this is just the start of Solar System neighborliness, also called a planetary alignment. Neptune is about a fist to the upper left of Venus. Neptune is difficult to find, even with binoculars. Also visible with binoculars is Uranus. However, it is easier to find than Neptune for two reasons. First, it is about seven times brighter. Second, it is close to an easy-to-find object. First find the bright open star cluster called the Pleiades, a tiny cup-looking object nearly six fists above the southeastern horizon. With the Pleiades on the far left of your binocular field of view, there will be a little arch of four stars of similar brightness near or just outside the right of your field of view. Under this arch is a point of light that is a little dimmer. This point of light and the arch make an ice cream cone shape. The point of light at the bottom is Uranus. You’ll know you’ve found the correct point of light if it moves a tiny bit compared to the neighboring stars over the next few weeks. The next planet is easy to see - Jupiter - nearly six fists above due southeast. Finally, Mars is nearly three and a half fists above due east.

Sunday: Winter is the best season for finding bright stars. And if you only want to set aside a few minutes, 10:00 p.m. tonight is a great time because the winter hexagon is due south. Starting at the bottom, find Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, two and a half fists above the southern horizon. Going clockwise, Procyon (8^th brightest star in the night sky) is about two and a half fists to the upper left of Sirius. Pollux (17^th brightest) is about two and a half fists above Procyon (and right above the planet Mars). Capella (6^th brightest) is about two and a half fists to the upper right of Procyon and close to straight overhead. Going back to Sirius at the bottom, Rigel (7^th brightest) is about two and a half fists to the upper right of Sirius. Aldebaran (14^th brightest) is about three fists above Rigel (and right below the planet Jupiter). Adhara (22nd brightest) is a little more than a fist below Sirius and Castor (24^th brightest) is right above Pollux. Betelgeuse (10th brightest) is in the center of the hexagon, five fists above due south. That’s nine of the 24 brightest stars visible in the night sky congregated in one small section of the sky.

Monday: Spica is less than a fist to the right of the moon in the southwestern sky at 7:00 a.m. Tomorrow at this time, it will be a half a fist to the right of the moon, providing a great way to determine how much the moon appears to move in the sky over one day.

Tuesday: This week is, on average, the coldest of the year so it is time to turn up the furnace. Fornax the furnace is one fist above due south at 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday: Wintertime weather in the northern USA can be crazy cold. Astronomers have recently discovered some brown dwarf stars have crazy hot weather. Brown dwarfs and small stars that are not massive enough to fuse hydrogen atoms and fuse hydrogen. But they are active enough to have a toxic chemical atmosphere that is as hot as a candle flame with clouds of hast moving silicate particles. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have the most detailed “weather map” of brown dwarfs ever. Read more about them at https://www.reuters.com/science/webb-telescope-reveals-wild-weather-cosmic-brown-dwarfs-2024-07-15/. 

Thursday: Do you ever take photos to spy on your neighbors? The Hubble Space Telescope does. In 2019, Hubble scientists released the best image of the Triangulum Galaxy, the second closest spiral galaxy to Earth. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys weaved together 54 separate images to provide enough detail to see 10 million individual stars out of the estimated 40 billion stars in the galaxy. See the pictures at https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1901/. At 8:00 p.m., the Triangulum Galaxy is six and a half fists above the southwestern horizon. It is barely visible with binoculars. First find the Great Square of Pegasus, centered four fists above the western horizon. It is tripped so it appears to be balanced on a corner. Go to the top star in the tilted square, called Alpheratz. Move your binoculars about one binocular field of view, about a half a fist above the corner star. You’ll see a pair of stars of similar brightness in that field of view. Then move your binoculars up another field of view to two stars that are a little brighter and a little farther apart than the previous pair. The brighter of the two is named Mirach. About one binocular field of view, or about a half a fist to the right of Mirach is the largest galaxy in our neighborhood and the brightest in the sky: the Andromeda Galaxy. About one binocular field of view, or about a half a fist to the left of Mirach is the Triangulum Galaxy, also known as Messier 33 (M 33). The Triangulum is much more challenging to see with binoculars, which makes the Hubble image even more impressive.

Friday: Draco Malfoy makes an appearance in all seven books of the Harry Potter series. Perhaps you’ve heard of these. But the constellation Draco the dragon makes an appearance in the sky every night. It is a circumpolar constellation as viewed from Ellensburg meaning it never goes below the horizon. The head of the dragon is one fist above due north at 9:30 p.m. Eltanin, the brightest star in the constellation, is at the lower left-hand corner of the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically correct 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.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 11, 2025

Saturday: How do you study the life cycle of a dog? Easy. Get a dog from the animal shelter, care for it for 15 years and study it. How do you study the life cycle of a star? Easy. Pick a star, watch it for a few billion years, and…. Wait a minute. Astronomers can’t observe something for a few billion years. Instead, they study stars that are at different points in their long life cycle and piece together the information from those different stars. What they do is like studying a one-year-old dog for a few minutes, then studying a different two-year-old dog for a few minutes, and so on. The sky in and near the constellation Orion provides an example of four objects at different points of star life.

First, find Rigel, the bright star in the lower right corner of the constellation Orion. This star, rapidly burning its fuel for a high energy but short-lived existence, is three and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 10:00 p.m. It was not, is not, and never will be like our Sun. However, about one fist up and to the left are the three objects of Orion’s sword holder. The middle “star” is really a star-forming region called the Orion nebula. There you’ll find baby Suns. Now, look about two fists to the right and one fist down from Rigel. You should be looking at a star that is about one tenth as bright as Rigel but still the brightest in its local region. The third star to the right of that star is Epsilon Eridani, the most Sun-like close and bright star. Betelgeuse, in the upper left corner of Orion, is a star at the end of its life that started out life larger than the Sun.

Sunday: Tonight Mars is as close to Earth as it will be this orbital cycle. Find it in the southeastern sky at 10:00 p.m., about one fist to the lower left of the full moon. Jupiter is to the right of the moon, six fists above the south-southwestern horizon.

Monday: The very bright planet Venus is one and a half fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 7:00 p.m. Saturn is a half a fist to the upper left of Venus. Over the next few days, Venus will move up towards Saturn in the night sky.

Tuesday: Most constellations don’t look like the object their name refers to. That’s because most constellations don’t have such a simple object to emulate as Triangulum does. Triangulum is shaped like a… wait for it…. wait for it…. A thin isosceles triangle. Metallah is the only mononymous star in the constellation. In Latin this star is called Caput Trianguli, the head of the triangle. Triangulum is four and a half fists above due west at 10:00 p.m. The triangle is pointing straight down with Metallah. The Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with binoculars about half a fist to the lower right of Metallah. This is the galaxy that the USS Enterprise travels to after the warp drive engine malfunctions in The Next Generation episode called “Where No One Has Gone Before”.

Wednesday: Have you ever looked down on the ground and spotted a penny? In Yakima? While you were standing in Ellensburg? If you have, then you may be able to see the star Hamal as more than just a point of light. It has an angular diameter that can be directly measured from Earth. Hamal, the brightest star in the constellation Aries the ram, has the same angular diameter as a penny 37 miles away. (For comparison, the moon is about half the diameter of a penny held at arm’s length.) Hamal is three fists above due west at 11:00 p.m. Hamal is just to the left of Triangulum and is the brightest star in that region of the sky.

Thursday: Mercury is just above the southeastern horizon at 7:15 a.m.

Friday: You never see a giraffe on the ground in Ellensburg. But you can look for one every night in the sky. The constellation Camelopardalis the giraffe is circumpolar from Ellensburg’s latitude of 47 degrees north meaning it is always above the horizon. Don’t expect to be overwhelmed by the appearance of the stars in Camelopardalis. The brightest star in the constellation appears only about half as bright as the dimmest star in the Big Dipper. However, the actual luminosities of the three brightest stars in Camelopardalis are very high, each at least 3,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Alpha Camelopardalis, a mind boggling 600,000 times more luminous than the Sun, is seven fists 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. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 4, 2025

Saturday: If the Sun looks big today, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The Earth is at perihelion at 7:30 this morning. If you dig out your Greek language textbook, you’ll see that peri- means “in close proximity” and helios means “Sun”. So, perihelion is when an object is closest to the Sun in its orbit, about 1.5 million miles closer than its average distance of 93 million miles. Since it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere now, the seasonal temperature changes must not be caused by the Earth getting farther from and closer to the Sun. Otherwise, we’d have summer when the Earth is closest to the Sun. The seasons are caused by the angle of the sunlight hitting the Earth. In the winter, sunlight hits the Earth at a very low angle, an angle far from perpendicular or straight up and down. This means that a given “bundle” of sunlight is spread out over a large area and does not warm the surface as much as the same bundle in the summer. For the Northern Hemisphere, that very low angle occurs in December, January, and February.

Sunday: Has it been tough to wake up this past week? It should have been because the sunrise has been getting a little later since summer started. I know. I know. December 21 was the shortest day of the year. But, because the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical and not circular, the Earth does not travel at a constant speed. It moves faster when it is closer to the Sun and slower when it is farther away. This leads to the latest sunrise occurring in late December/early January and the earliest sunset occurring in early December. Neither of these happen on the first day of winter. On the first day of winter, however, the interval between sunrise and sunset is the shortest, making it the shortest day of the year. For more information, go to http://goo.gl/SJC5r.

Monday: At 8:30 p.m., Jupiter is six fists above due southeast and Mars is three fists above due east.

Tuesday: Let’s review three important sets of three cats. There’s Josie, Valerie, and Melody of Josie and the Pussycats. Felix, Tom, and Sylvester from old time cartoons. And, if you want to get away from the mind-numbing effects of television, there’s Leo the lion, Leo Minor, and Lynx in the night sky. Leo is by far the most prominent of these three constellations. Its brightest star called Regulus is two fists above the eastern horizon at 10:00 p.m. The backwards question mark-shaped head of Leo is above Regulus and the trapezoid-shaped body is to the left of it. Leo Minor consists of a few dim stars right above Leo. Pretty wimpy. The long dim constellation called Lynx spans from just above Leo Minor to close to straight overhead. You and fellow stargazers won’t need to wear a long tail or ears to enjoy these stellar cats.

Wednesday: In 1984, American singer Rockwell released the song “Somebody’s Watching Me”, backed up by Michael Jackson. In 2020, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope released a picture of two bubbles of gas and dust that look like eyes watching you. Stare back at them by going to https://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/image/ssc2020-17a-something-out-there-is-watching-you.

Thursday: Tonight, Venus is as far away from the Sun in the sky as it will get this orbital cycle. Since Venus is in the evening sky, it is east of the Sun so this occurrence is called the greatest eastern elongation. This evening will be the best evening to observe Venus for the next few weeks. Venus is two fists above the southwestern horizon at 6:30 p.m. Saturn is a fist to the upper left of Venus tonight. By mid-April, Venus will be visible in the morning sky.