Saturday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The fish are attached to lines of stars that branch out at one o’clock and three o’clock from Alrescha. By the way, “The Fishing Hole”, The Andy Griffith Show’s theme song, was rated the 20th best TV theme song of all time by ign.com. That’s too low of a ranking in my opinion.
Sunday: Mercury will be as far away from the Sun in the sky
as it will get this 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. This morning, Mercury is nearly one fist above the southeastern
horizon at 6:45 a.m. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun
in the sky. By mid-February, it will be visible in the evening sky.
Monday: The bright star Capella is nearly straight overhead
at midnight.
Tuesday: Regulus is less than half a fist to the upper right
of the moon at 11:00 p.m. Both are about a fist above the eastern horizon.
Wednesday: The earliest sunset of the year in Ellensburg
occurs at 4:14 p.m. today. This seems odd because the shortest day of the year,
the winter solstice, isn’t for about two more weeks. The Sun is at its
southernmost point with respect to the background stars on the day of the
winter solstice. This means the Sun spends the least amount of time above the
horizon on that day. But the sunrise and sunset times depend on more than the
Sun’s apparent southward motion in the sky. It also depends on where the Sun is
on the analemma, that skinny figure-8 you see on globes and world maps. During
the second week in December, the Sun is not quite to the bottom of the
analemma. But it is on the leading edge of the analemma, the first section to
go below the horizon. For a slightly better explanation of this, including a
diagram, go to https://go.shr.lc/2NOMOQC.
Or just go watch the sunset. But don’t stare at the Sun.
Thursday: While the days are getting shorter, the nighttime
sky is actually getting brighter due to the greater use of low energy LED
bulbs. While these bulbs use much less energy than incandescent or compact
fluorescent bulbs, researchers think that people and communities are using more
of the bulbs and leaving them on longer. This is increasing light pollution
near cities. You can get more illumination on the subject at https://www.latimes.com/environment/light-pollution-latt-123.
Friday: At 9:00 p.m., Saturn is three fists above due
southeast and Jupiter is two and a half fists above the eastern 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.
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