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.
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