The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of August 29, 2026

Saturday: “Excuse me, do you have the time?”

“No, but the Big Dipper does.”

You can use the orientation of the Big Dipper to tell time with a precision of about 15-30 minutes. First, find the two stars at the far end of the Big Dipper cup, the stars that do not touch the handle. Draw an imaginary line segment starting at the North Star and passing through the two Big Dipper cup stars. Now, draw a big circle around the North Star. Your circle is a 24-hour clock. Number the circle from 0 hours at the top, counterclockwise to 12 hours at the bottom of the circle, and back up to 24 hours at the top. (O hours and 24 hours are the same on this clock because the day is 24 hours long.) The hour number on the big circle closest to where your imaginary line intersects this circle is called your raw time. Due to the location of the Big Dipper compared to the rest of the stars, the time nearest the intersection (the raw time) is correct for March 6. For any other night, subtract two times the number of months the current date is after March 6 from the raw time. For example, let’s say the imaginary line between the North Star and the Dipper stars is pointed to the right. That means the raw time is 18 hours or 6 p.m. If you made this observation tonight, which is six months after March 6, you would subtract two times six or 12 hours from the raw time. Don’t forget to convert for daylight savings time if needed. If you prefer a more visual tool, and a fun project to do with your kids, there is a simple “star clock” template and instructions at https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/make-a-star-clock/. Use this paper star clock whenever your watch is broken. The Big Dipper is in the northwestern sky at 9:00 p.m. tonight.

Sunday: Venus is less than half a fist above the west-southwestern horizon at 8:30 p.m. The bright star Regulus is just to the upper left of Venus.

Monday: Labor Day was the brainchild of labor unions and is dedicated to American workers. The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882. The Greek mythical hero Hercules probably wished there was a Labor Day to commemorate his work. As punishment for killing his family while he was temporarily insane, he had to perform twelve nearly impossible tasks such as killing monsters or stealing things from deities. Hmmm. Maybe we shouldn’t commemorate his labors. But we can enjoy his constellation. The keystone asterism representing the body of Hercules is six fists above the western horizon at 10:00 p.m. For more information about the Labors of Hercules, go to http://goo.gl/ozVF5.

Tuesday: Had the script been written a little differently for a well-known Robin Williams movie, we might have heard Mr. Williams shout, “Goooood Morning Orion the hunter”. Orion is typically thought of as a winter constellation. But it makes its first appearance in the early morning summer sky. The lowest corner of Orion’s body, represented by the star Saiph (pronounced “safe”), rises at 2:45 a.m. By 5:30 a.m., Orion’s belt is three fists above the southeastern horizon.

Wednesday: School starts this week, so it is time for a little geometry review. A square is a regular quadrilateral. This means it has four equal sides, four equal angles, and wears old fashioned clothing. Go outside at 9:30 p.m. tonight with a notebook in hand to sketch one. The Great Square of Pegasus is balancing on its corner about two fists above the eastern horizon. The top corner of the square is two fists above the bottom corner. The other two corners are to the left and right of the line segment connecting the top and bottom corners.

Thursday: Since some of you must get up for school, you might as well check out the sky, as well. At 5:30 a.m., bright Jupiter is one and a half fists above the horizon, a little bit north of due east. Mars is four fists above the horizon, a little bit south of due east. Saturn is way on the other side of the sky, three and a half fists above due southwest.

Friday: Geometry review, part 2. Go outside at 9:30 p.m. tonight with a notebook in hand. (Good teaching involves a little repetition.) A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three-line segments as sides. A good example is the Summer Triangle made up of the bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Altair is five fists above the southern horizon. Vega, the brightest star in the triangle, is seven and a half fists above the southwestern horizon. Deneb is a little bit east of straight overhead.

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 August 22, 2026

Saturday: Every star rotates. Our Sun takes a little less than one Earth month to rotate once on its axis. Astronomers studied the relationship between mass, stellar rotation, and planetary formation by aiming NASA’s recently retired Kepler space telescope toward the Pleiades open star cluster. All 1,000 stars in this group are nearly the same age, 125 million years old. Since all the stars are the same age and formed from the same set of materials, astronomers have the ideal “laboratory” to isolate the role star mass plays on star rotation and evolution. Read more about the findings at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/kepler-watches-stellar-dancers-in-the-pleiades-cluster. See the Pleiades for yourself, about a half a fist above the east-northeastern horizon at 11:30 p.m.

Sunday: School starts soon. One of the most important lessons to learn in science class is to always save your data. Even if the data looks “wrong” or you don’t think it contains essential information, you never know what future researchers might find in it. Two years ago, Kepler space telescope scientists reanalyzed older data and discovered an Earth-sized planet orbiting in the habitable zone of its host star. It turns out the previous computer algorithm misidentified it. Maybe there are other Earth-cousins hiding in the data somewhere. Read more about it at https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/earth-size-habitable-zone-planet-found-hidden-in-early-nasa-kepler-data.

Monday: Look for Venus half a fist above the west-southwestern horizon at 8:45 p.m. Then go inside and read a book. Come back outside at 10:45 p.m. to see Saturn one fist above the eastern horizon.

Tuesday: “The sky is black (or light polluted), the stars are white (or red or orange or yellow or blue), the whole world gazes upon the sight (except where there are too many city lights or people are lazy.” Wow. It is difficult to write a flowing set of lyrics when there are so many parenthetical thoughts. Most people think of the sky’s blackness as a lack of stars. But dark patches in the Milky Way are actually massive clouds of dust that are blocking the stars behind them. Two of the most prominent are dark nebulae B142 and B143 in the constellation Aquila the eagle. These are easy to find and enjoy with binoculars. First find the bright white star Altair, five fists above due south at 10:30 p.m. Then move your binoculars up and to the right a little bit to the next bright star Tarazed, about one fifth as bright. B142 and B143 are to the upper right of Tarazed. They make an “E” shape in the sky; fitting because American astronomer E. E. Barnard first proposed that these were dust clouds and not simply big spaces between the stars. For more information about dark nebulae, including many more to look at with binoculars, go to https://goo.gl/9tiqdh.

Wednesday: If you’d like to learn more about planets and moons, 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.

Thursday: The August full moon is traditionally called the full sturgeon moon by Midwest and northeastern Native American tribes because the sturgeon in lakes in this part of the country were easiest to catch during this full moon time. Tonight, you’ll be tempted to call it a blood moon because it is a nearly total lunar eclipse visible throughout the whole USA. During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a prism and spreads the Sun’s white light into its component colors, with the red light hitting the moon. This eclipse will be 93% total as viewed from Ellensburg so it will look red. The partial eclipse will start as the moon rises and will be maximum at 9:12 p.m. The partial eclipse will end at 10:51 p.m. For more information, including where to see it in other parts of the country or world, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2026-august-28.

Friday: The star FG Sagittae, in the constellation Sagitta the arrow, is changing before our eyes. Over the past 60 years, FG Sagittae has turned from blue to white to orange, indicating that it has puffed up and gotten cooler. The star is too dim to be seen with the naked eye, but the constellation looks like a small, horizontal arrow six fists above due south at 10:30 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 August 8, 2026

 Saturday: One minor Harry Potter character actually has two well-known star names: Regulus Arcturus Black, the brother of Harry Potter’s godfather Sirius Black. Regulus Black was a former follower of Voldemort, the bad guy of the Harry Potter series. However, Regulus tried to dissociate himself from Voldemort and was killed. In the sixth book, Harry found an important note written by someone known only by the initials R.A.B. Hmmm. R.A.B. Regulus Arcturus Black perhaps? Regulus the star is right in line with the Sun at this time of year, so it is not visible. Arcturus, the second brightest star visible in the nighttime sky in the northern United States and at Hogwarts, is two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the western horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Sunday: Saturn is half a fist above due east at 11:00 p.m.

Monday: Bellatrix Lestrange is Sirius Black’s cousin. But certainly not kissing cousins. They are killing cousins. Bellatrix kills Sirius in a fight at the Ministry of Magic. Bellatrix the star is the third brightest star in the constellation Orion the hunter. It is about two fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 5:00 a.m.

Tuesday: Of course, Bellatrix is in cahoots with “he who must not be named”. Now, that’s a poorly written sentence, using an obscure synonym for “conspiring” and a vague reference to someone. I must be under the curse “writicus dreadfulium”. Clearly this is the work of Tom Riddle, whose mother is named Merope Gaunt. Merope is a star in the Pleiades, an open star cluster about five fists above the southeastern horizon at 5:00 a.m. Look lower in the sky to find Mars, three fists above the eastern horizon. Mercury is often difficult to spot because it is never far from the Sun in the sky. But this morning it is half a fist above the east-northeastern horizon and just to the lower right of the nearly new moon.

Wednesday: There’s a solar eclipse today. If you are planning to travel to Greenland, Iceland, or Spain, you’re in luck. You’ll see a total solar eclipse. Part of the Midwest and northeastern USA will see a partial solar eclipse. For details about the eclipse, including where to watch it live or by video, go to https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/total-solar-eclipse-on-august-12-2026/. 

The Perseid meteor shower peaks tomorrow morning. In case you decide to stay in bed this week, the shower is active until about September 1 so you may still enjoy an increased number of meteors later. The moon is in the new phase so even the dimmest meteors will be visible in good viewing conditions. The meteors appear to come from a point just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is about three fists above the northeast horizon at 11:00 p.m. By dawn, this point is nearly straight overhead. For tips about optimizing your viewing this year, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=165416 As your mother might say, dress warmly and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. These meteors are sand to pea-sized bits of rock that fell off Comet Swift-Tuttle. They travel about 40 miles per second as they collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Thursday: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s young nemesis, is related to Sirius Black. Draco’s mother, Narcissa Black (Sirius’ cousin), helped develop a plan to trap Harry at the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book. Draco’s namesake, the constellation Draco the dragon, is one of the largest constellations in the sky, winding around the North Star. Draco’s head is a four-sided figure a little on the northwest side of straight overhead at 10:00 p.m.

Friday: Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, is one and a half fists above the south-southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m. Draco Malfoy was so impressed with this constellation name that he used it for the first name of his son. Venus is half a fist above the western horizon at this time.

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.