Saturday: Venus is one fist held upright and at arm’s length above due west at 9:30 p.m.
Sunday: Zubenelgenubi, the second brightest star in the
constellation Libra. The name means "southern claw", a holdover from
the time when this part of the sky was associated with the neighboring
constellation of Scorpius the scorpion. Zubenelgenubi is a binary star system,
easily seen with binoculars as a white and yellow pair. To a person living on a
planet orbiting the dimmer of the two stars, the brighter star would be nearly
as bright as the full Moon appears from Earth. Zubenelgenubi is two fists above
the southwestern horizon at 10:30 p.m.
Monday: Take a two and a half hour walk today. Too long, you
say? 57 years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first ever
walk by humans on another world. They spend two and a half hours setting up
scientific instruments and collecting rocks for study back on Earth. Their
colleague Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the spacecraft the astronauts
would use to return to Earth. While everyone seems to know about Armstrong and
Aldrin, spend some time learning more about Collins by reading https://time.com/5966399/michael-collins-appreciation/.
The bright star Spica is a half a fist above the moon, low in the southwestern
sky at 10:00 p.m.
Tuesday: Mars is two fists above the east-northeastern
horizon at 4:30 a.m. Saturn is four fists above the southeastern horizon at
this time.
Wednesday: Capella is the fourth brightest star we can see
in Ellensburg. It is the most northerly bright star. It is a binary star
consisting of two yellow giant stars that orbit each other every 100 days. At
10:17 p.m., Capella is less than a half a fist above due north.
Thursday: What you see with the naked eye isn’t all that can
be seen. While astronomers can learn a lot from observing the sky in the
visible wavelengths, many celestial objects radiate more light, and more
information, in wavelengths such as radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet,
x-ray, and gamma ray. In 2012, NASA launched the Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (WISE) to study objects that radiate in the infrared range such as
asteroids, cool dim stars, and luminous galaxies. For an interesting comparison
of how different wavelengths show various aspects of celestial objects, go to http://goo.gl/nvuax. If it weren’t for infrared
telescopes such as WISE, astronomers would not know about the significant
amount of dust in galaxies. If you’d like to learn more about galaxies, the CWU
Lydig Planetarium has free shows at 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. today. They are in
Discovery Hall, room 101. Here is a Google maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Nwp1e5t7qXk5bfE9.
Parking on campus is free after 4:30 p.m.
Friday: The bright star Antares is about a half a fist to
the upper right of the moon, low in the southern sky at 10:00 p.m. Being bright
doesn’t necessarily mean being big. But in this case, it does. Antares is a red
supergiant star. In the visible wavelengths, Antares shines 10,000 times
brighter than the Sun. But since Antares is much cooler than the Sun, its
energy distribution peaks in the infrared. So, across all wavelengths of light,
Antares shines 60,000 times brighter than the Sun.
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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