Saturday: As Lawrence Welk used to say, “wonderful, wonderful”. It is too bad Mr. Welk isn’t around to introduce us to the star Mira, Latin for “the Wonderful”. Mira is a star that undergoes a huge variation in brightness. At its brightest, it is about 600 times brighter than at its dimmest. For the next week, Mira is near its maximum brightness. Look three and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon and two fists below the Moon at 8 p.m. Mira will be the brightest star in that region of the sky, dominated by Mira’s constellation, Cetus the sea monster. At its dimmest, it is not even visible through binoculars. David Fabricius first noted Mira’s variability in 1596 making it the first periodic variable star, other than cataclysmic variables such as novae and supernovae, to be discovered.
Sunday: Have you been shopping all weekend? Do you need an evening sky break? You deserve a big reward so make it a double. A Double Cluster, that is. The Double Cluster, also known as h and Chi Persei, consists of two young open star clusters in the constellation Perseus. Of course, young is a relative term as these clusters are about 13 million years old. Each cluster is spread out over an area about the same size as the full moon. To the naked eye, the Double Cluster shines with a steady, fuzzy glow. Binoculars resolve dozens of individual stars in the clusters. The Double Cluster is six and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 7 p.m., about a fist below the sideways “W” of Cassiopeia.
Monday: Do you like to look in a nursery and say “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl”? Not me. I say, “it’s a star”. Of course, I like looking into a stellar nursery – a star forming region such as the Orion Nebula in the middle of Orion’s sword holder. The Orion Nebula looks like a fuzzy patch to the naked eye. Binoculars reveal a nebula, or region of gas and dust, that is 30 light years across. The center of the nebula contains four hot “baby” stars called the Trapezium. These hot stars emit the ultraviolet radiation that causes the Nebula’s gas to glow. The Orion Nebula is three fists above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. For more information about the Orion Nebula, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/observe.htm and click on December. It is the last “Go Observe” for 2009, the International Year of Astronomy.
Tuesday: Jupiter is about two and a half fists above the south horizon at 6 p.m. So is Neptune. And, thanks to Jupiter and a well-placed line of stars, it is easier to find with binoculars than usual. Place Jupiter in the lower right hand portion of your binocular field of view. There will be a diagonal line of three stars near the middle of the field of view. The upper right star should be the brightest. Neptune is to the upper left of this line of three stars.
Wednesday: December does not seem to be the month to enjoy a full cold drink. But it is the month to enjoy the Full Cold Moon. This is one of the names some Native American tribes have given the December full moon. Another nickname, long night moon is appropriate for two reasons. First, winter nights are much longer than summer nights. Second, the wintertime full moon is above the horizon a much longer time than a summertime full moon. That is because a full moon is our all night, regardless of season. So the season with the longer nights will be the season with full moons that are out longer.
Thursday: Mars is one and a half fists above the east horizon at 11 p.m.
Friday: Saturn is a little over four fists above the south horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 11/21/09
Saturday: The Nature of Night takes place today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Black Hall on the Central Washington University campus in Ellensburg, WA. There will be planetarium shows, fun nature at night experiments, storytelling, soil from Mars and much more. The event is free. The Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at CWU and various community sponsors work together to put on this event.
Sunday: Mars is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 11 p.m.
Monday: Jupiter is about a half a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 7 p.m.
Tuesday: Tonight’s first quarter moon is in the constellation Aquarius the water bearer.
Wednesday: Most constellations don’t look like the object their name refers to. Most constellations don’t have such a simple to object to emulate as Triangulum. As you probably guessed, Triangulum is shaped like a giraffe. Wait…. Just a second…. I read my book wrong. Triangulum is shaped like a thin isosceles triangle. Mothallah is the only named star in the constellation. In Latin it is called Caput Trianguli, the head of the triangle. Triangulum is seven fists above the south horizon at 9 p.m. It is pointing down and to the right with Mothallah being the southernmost star at this time of night. The Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with binoculars about a half a fist to the right of Mothallah.
Thursday: Some of us have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. But, probably not as much as Andromeda had to be thankful for. 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 in order to punish her family. Her mother Queen Cassiopeia and her father King Cepheus didn’t know what to do. It seemed that all was lost. But, along came Andromeda’s boyfriend, the great warrior Perseus. 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. This was the first time in recorded history that a set of parents actually welcomed an uninvited Thanksgiving visit from the boyfriend. Perseus is about five fists above the east-northeast horizon and Andromeda is about seven fists above the east horizon at 7 p.m.
Friday: Are you thankful that you live in a solar system with multiple planets? You should be. A giant planet like Jupiter cleans up planetary debris that could have collided with Earth and hindered the formation of complex life. Any inhabitants of the planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae are thankful for this, as well. Upsilon Andromedae, a star in the constellation Andromeda, was the first Sun-like star discovered to have multiple planets orbiting it. So far, all of its planets are giant planets like Jupiter. But, the system is likely to also contain smaller planets. The dim star, but certainly not its planets, is barely visible straight overhead at 9 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Mars is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 11 p.m.
Monday: Jupiter is about a half a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 7 p.m.
Tuesday: Tonight’s first quarter moon is in the constellation Aquarius the water bearer.
Wednesday: Most constellations don’t look like the object their name refers to. Most constellations don’t have such a simple to object to emulate as Triangulum. As you probably guessed, Triangulum is shaped like a giraffe. Wait…. Just a second…. I read my book wrong. Triangulum is shaped like a thin isosceles triangle. Mothallah is the only named star in the constellation. In Latin it is called Caput Trianguli, the head of the triangle. Triangulum is seven fists above the south horizon at 9 p.m. It is pointing down and to the right with Mothallah being the southernmost star at this time of night. The Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with binoculars about a half a fist to the right of Mothallah.
Thursday: Some of us have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. But, probably not as much as Andromeda had to be thankful for. 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 in order to punish her family. Her mother Queen Cassiopeia and her father King Cepheus didn’t know what to do. It seemed that all was lost. But, along came Andromeda’s boyfriend, the great warrior Perseus. 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. This was the first time in recorded history that a set of parents actually welcomed an uninvited Thanksgiving visit from the boyfriend. Perseus is about five fists above the east-northeast horizon and Andromeda is about seven fists above the east horizon at 7 p.m.
Friday: Are you thankful that you live in a solar system with multiple planets? You should be. A giant planet like Jupiter cleans up planetary debris that could have collided with Earth and hindered the formation of complex life. Any inhabitants of the planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae are thankful for this, as well. Upsilon Andromedae, a star in the constellation Andromeda, was the first Sun-like star discovered to have multiple planets orbiting it. So far, all of its planets are giant planets like Jupiter. But, the system is likely to also contain smaller planets. The dim star, but certainly not its planets, is barely visible straight overhead at 9 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 11/14/09
Saturday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. (No, that is not a euphemism for death.) 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 10 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 in my opinion.
Sunday: November 13, 2009 – the world ends! Wait, maybe it’s December 21, 2012 when the world will end. Maybe you hope it ends the day before your big project that you haven’t even started is due. All of those dates are equally likely. On November 13, 2009, the movie “2012” comes out. (So, I guess that’s the day good movie making ends.) The movie 2012 is about the supposed end of the world predictions made by the Mayan calendar, Nostradamus….What’s that? “Woof, woof”…. And apparently Jack my dog. But, none of the many reasons for the supposed end make sense. There will be no planetary alignment on December 21, 2012. And, even if there was, the gravitational pull of all of the planets on the Earth would not cause a noticeable effect. There is no planet X streaking towards the Earth for a 12/21/2012 rendezvous. And the Earth’s passage through the galactic plane, another theory, can’t be predicted within a few hundred years, much less a precise day. So plan a fun event for December 22, 2012. The day will be there waiting for you. There is a good article about the 2012 scare at http://media.skyandtelescope.com/documents/Doomsday2012-lores.pdf.
Monday: The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow morning. These meteors appear to come from a point in Leo the lion. This point is about one fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night and into the morning as it will remain about one fist above the bright star Regulus. Assuming the weather cooperates, this should be a good night to see a lot of meteors because the sky will be moonless as the Moon is in the new phase. The Leonid meteors are particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet discovered by Ernst Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle around January 1, 1866. Go to http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021116.html to see a picture of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. This year’s shower is expected to be much more active than usual with up to 500 meteors per hour visible throughout the night. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. If there is anything close to 500 meteors per hour, you’ll want to enjoy it.
Tuesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the south horizon at 6 p.m.
Wednesday: Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus the bull, is two and a half fists above due east at 8 p.m.
Thursday: Saturday, November 21, the Nature of Night takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Black Hall on the CWU campus. There will be planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, storytelling, cookies and much more. The event is free. Go to www.cwu.edu/~scied or call 963-2929 for more information. The Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at CWU and various community sponsors work together to put on this event. When you are there, ask about Venus. It is nearly a fist above the southwest horizon at 5:30 p.m. You can even see it in the daytime sky if you know where to look.
Friday: Mars is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 11 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: November 13, 2009 – the world ends! Wait, maybe it’s December 21, 2012 when the world will end. Maybe you hope it ends the day before your big project that you haven’t even started is due. All of those dates are equally likely. On November 13, 2009, the movie “2012” comes out. (So, I guess that’s the day good movie making ends.) The movie 2012 is about the supposed end of the world predictions made by the Mayan calendar, Nostradamus….What’s that? “Woof, woof”…. And apparently Jack my dog. But, none of the many reasons for the supposed end make sense. There will be no planetary alignment on December 21, 2012. And, even if there was, the gravitational pull of all of the planets on the Earth would not cause a noticeable effect. There is no planet X streaking towards the Earth for a 12/21/2012 rendezvous. And the Earth’s passage through the galactic plane, another theory, can’t be predicted within a few hundred years, much less a precise day. So plan a fun event for December 22, 2012. The day will be there waiting for you. There is a good article about the 2012 scare at http://media.skyandtelescope.com/documents/Doomsday2012-lores.pdf.
Monday: The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow morning. These meteors appear to come from a point in Leo the lion. This point is about one fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night and into the morning as it will remain about one fist above the bright star Regulus. Assuming the weather cooperates, this should be a good night to see a lot of meteors because the sky will be moonless as the Moon is in the new phase. The Leonid meteors are particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet discovered by Ernst Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle around January 1, 1866. Go to http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021116.html to see a picture of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. This year’s shower is expected to be much more active than usual with up to 500 meteors per hour visible throughout the night. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. If there is anything close to 500 meteors per hour, you’ll want to enjoy it.
Tuesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the south horizon at 6 p.m.
Wednesday: Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus the bull, is two and a half fists above due east at 8 p.m.
Thursday: Saturday, November 21, the Nature of Night takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Black Hall on the CWU campus. There will be planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, storytelling, cookies and much more. The event is free. Go to www.cwu.edu/~scied or call 963-2929 for more information. The Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at CWU and various community sponsors work together to put on this event. When you are there, ask about Venus. It is nearly a fist above the southwest horizon at 5:30 p.m. You can even see it in the daytime sky if you know where to look.
Friday: Mars is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 11 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 11/7/09
Saturday: The North Taurid meteor shower peaks for the next few late nights and early mornings with the night of the 12th being the peak of the peak. This is not a prominent shower but it occasionally produces a couple of bright “fireballs”. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull. This point is about six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain midway between the bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran) and the open star cluster, the Pleiades. If you miss the peak tonight, don’t worry. Taurid meteor showers result in a slight increase on meteor activity from mid-October to the beginning of December.
Sunday: The bees are buzzing around both the Moon and Mars tonight. Mars is a half a fist above the Moon at 11:30 p.m. The open star cluster called the Beehive Cluster is about a finger’s width to the right of the Moon. Keep your eye on this part of the sky for the next few nights. The Moon will move eastward, away from Mars and the Beehive Cluster. That means the cluster will much easier to find in the sky and see in detail with binoculars.
Monday: Did you look up Antonia Maury and Edward Pickering based on last week’s Halloween costume suggestion? Antonia Maury developed one of the first comprehensive methods of classifying stars. Edward Pickering was director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1877 until his death in 1919. He recruited many women, including Antonia Maury, to work at the observatory where they made significant contributions to astronomy. They make much better, and more realistic, heroes than rock stars, actors and super models.
Tuesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday: We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. And a happy Wednesday. Martinmas is a holiday in many parts of the world commemorating Saint Martin of Tours. He was buried on November 11, 397. What does this have to astronomy? Not much except that the celebration on November 11 often doubles as a cross-quarter day celebration, a day that is halfway between an equinox and a solstice.
Thursday: Saturn is about one fist to the upper left of the Moon at 6:30 a.m.
Friday: The constellation Lepus the hare is right under the feet of Orion. At 11 p.m., the middle of the hare is one fist above the southeast horizon. Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation Orion, is just above the head of the hare.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: The bees are buzzing around both the Moon and Mars tonight. Mars is a half a fist above the Moon at 11:30 p.m. The open star cluster called the Beehive Cluster is about a finger’s width to the right of the Moon. Keep your eye on this part of the sky for the next few nights. The Moon will move eastward, away from Mars and the Beehive Cluster. That means the cluster will much easier to find in the sky and see in detail with binoculars.
Monday: Did you look up Antonia Maury and Edward Pickering based on last week’s Halloween costume suggestion? Antonia Maury developed one of the first comprehensive methods of classifying stars. Edward Pickering was director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1877 until his death in 1919. He recruited many women, including Antonia Maury, to work at the observatory where they made significant contributions to astronomy. They make much better, and more realistic, heroes than rock stars, actors and super models.
Tuesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday: We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. And a happy Wednesday. Martinmas is a holiday in many parts of the world commemorating Saint Martin of Tours. He was buried on November 11, 397. What does this have to astronomy? Not much except that the celebration on November 11 often doubles as a cross-quarter day celebration, a day that is halfway between an equinox and a solstice.
Thursday: Saturn is about one fist to the upper left of the Moon at 6:30 a.m.
Friday: The constellation Lepus the hare is right under the feet of Orion. At 11 p.m., the middle of the hare is one fist above the southeast horizon. Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation Orion, is just above the head of the hare.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/31/09
Saturday: Halloween. The pumpkins. The candy. The children going door-to-door dressed up has their favorite astronomers Antonia Maury and Edward Pickering. At least they should because Halloween is, in part, an astronomical holiday. Halloween is a “cross-quarter date”, a day approximately midway between an equinox and a solstice. Historically, the Celts of the British Isles used cross-quarter dates as the beginnings of seasons. For the Celts, winter began with Halloween. So when all those little Maurys and Pickerings come to your door, honor the Celts and give them a wintry treat.
Don’t forget to “fall back” tonight. Before you fall back on to your bed, set your clock back one hour to the real time. Daylight savings ends early Sunday morning at 2 a.m. This means one more hour of sky watching at night because the Sun will set one hour earlier. Ben Franklin proposed the idea of “saving daylight” by adjusting our clocks way back in 1784. Daylight savings time was first utilized during World War I as a way to save electricity. After the war, it was abandoned. It was reintroduced during World War II on a year-round basis. From 1945 to 1966, some areas implemented daylight savings and some did not. But, it was not implemented with any uniformity as to when it should start and stop. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 codified the daylight savings rules.
Sunday: Happy Celtic New Year! Many historians think that this day, known for the festival of Samhain, was the ancient Celtic new year’s day. Samhain, Old Irish for “summer’s end”, was a harvest festival that may have contributed to some of the customs of our current “holiday” of Halloween.
Monday: Tonight’s full Moon and the waning gibbous phase of the next few nights will obscure many meteorites. But, the one or two bright fireballs per hour you can see during the typical Southern Taurid meteor shower may make it worth your while to say up. The Southern Taurid meteor shower reaches a maximum over the next few nights with a peak on November 5. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull. This point is about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist to the right of the Hyades Cluster with its bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran). Meteors are tiny rocks that burn up in the atmosphere when the Earth runs into them. These rocks are broken off parts of Comet 2P/Encke. If you stay up all night, you may notice Venus less than one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 6 a.m.
Tuesday: Orion is about two fists above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. If you are having trouble finding things in the sky, Orion is a good confidence builder.
Wednesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the south horizon at 7 p.m.
Thursday: The weather may be getting cold. But, NASA still has Hot Topics for the International Year of Astronomy. November’s topic is very hot. Starting at a few thousand degrees Celsius for most of their productive lives and moving on to 100,000 degrees Celsius for new white dwarf stars, stars can definitely heat up a room. (Not as much as an episode of Grey’s Anatomy with all of those good looking doctors but close.) Not all stars start at the same temperature or die the same way. The temperature of a star for most of its productive life can tell an astronomer a lot about how the star was formed and how it will end up. Four hundred years ago, Galileo would have never dreamed that the descendants of his telescope would see such a variety of stars, objects that many uninformed people still call little points of white light. For more information about the lives of stars, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics.htm and click on November.
Friday: Mars is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 11:30 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Don’t forget to “fall back” tonight. Before you fall back on to your bed, set your clock back one hour to the real time. Daylight savings ends early Sunday morning at 2 a.m. This means one more hour of sky watching at night because the Sun will set one hour earlier. Ben Franklin proposed the idea of “saving daylight” by adjusting our clocks way back in 1784. Daylight savings time was first utilized during World War I as a way to save electricity. After the war, it was abandoned. It was reintroduced during World War II on a year-round basis. From 1945 to 1966, some areas implemented daylight savings and some did not. But, it was not implemented with any uniformity as to when it should start and stop. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 codified the daylight savings rules.
Sunday: Happy Celtic New Year! Many historians think that this day, known for the festival of Samhain, was the ancient Celtic new year’s day. Samhain, Old Irish for “summer’s end”, was a harvest festival that may have contributed to some of the customs of our current “holiday” of Halloween.
Monday: Tonight’s full Moon and the waning gibbous phase of the next few nights will obscure many meteorites. But, the one or two bright fireballs per hour you can see during the typical Southern Taurid meteor shower may make it worth your while to say up. The Southern Taurid meteor shower reaches a maximum over the next few nights with a peak on November 5. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull. This point is about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist to the right of the Hyades Cluster with its bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran). Meteors are tiny rocks that burn up in the atmosphere when the Earth runs into them. These rocks are broken off parts of Comet 2P/Encke. If you stay up all night, you may notice Venus less than one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 6 a.m.
Tuesday: Orion is about two fists above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. If you are having trouble finding things in the sky, Orion is a good confidence builder.
Wednesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the south horizon at 7 p.m.
Thursday: The weather may be getting cold. But, NASA still has Hot Topics for the International Year of Astronomy. November’s topic is very hot. Starting at a few thousand degrees Celsius for most of their productive lives and moving on to 100,000 degrees Celsius for new white dwarf stars, stars can definitely heat up a room. (Not as much as an episode of Grey’s Anatomy with all of those good looking doctors but close.) Not all stars start at the same temperature or die the same way. The temperature of a star for most of its productive life can tell an astronomer a lot about how the star was formed and how it will end up. Four hundred years ago, Galileo would have never dreamed that the descendants of his telescope would see such a variety of stars, objects that many uninformed people still call little points of white light. For more information about the lives of stars, go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics.htm and click on November.
Friday: Mars is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 11:30 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/24/09
Saturday: “It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.” Constellations can be considered neighborhoods in the nighttime sky. But, the stars in those constellations are not necessarily neighbors in real life. For example, the bright stars in the constellation Cassiopeia range from 19 to over 10,000 light years away from Earth. One constellation that consists of real neighbors is Ursa Major. Or, more specifically, the Big Dipper. Five stars in the Big Dipper are all moving in the same direction in space, are about the same age and are all about 80 light years from Earth. “Please won’t you be my neighbor?” Skat, the third brightest star in the constellation Aquarius is a neighbor to these five Big Dipper stars, all of which are about 30 light years from each other. They are thought to have originated in the same nebula about 500 million years ago. Just like human children do, these child stars are slowly moving away from home. Skat is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 10 p.m. The much brighter Fomalhaut is a fist and a half below Skat. And, it’s not fun being below Skat.
Sunday: Tonight’s first quarter moon is in the constellation Capricornus the sea goat.
Monday: Jupiter is about as finger’s width to the lower left of the Moon. They are two and a half fists above due south at 8 p.m.
Tuesday: The Stargate movies and TV shows have access to a portal to other planets. Harry Potter has access to a portal to the Chamber of Secrets. You have access to a Portal to the Universe. This portal, available not in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom but on the web at http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/, is a repository of up-to-date astronomy news, blogs, and podcasts.
Wednesday: Venus is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 7 a.m. It is near the belly button of the maiden depicted in the constellation Virgo. Great. I hope this does start a new trend – tattooing a planet near your belly button.
Thursday: A few stars appear to be a color other than white to the naked eye. The reddish Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion and the bluish Vega in the constellation Lyra come to mind. But if you look with binoculars, the star Mu Cephei appears to be more vividly colored than either of these - a surprisingly deep red. This star, named the Garnet star by the astronomer William Herschel, is eight fists above the north horizon, very close to being straight overhead, at 8 p.m. It is a red supergiant star that varies in brightness by about a factor of five over a two-year period. If our Sun were replaced by Mu Cephei, it would fill up the solar system out to halfway between Jupiter and Saturn.
Friday: Finally, you don’t have to be an insomniac or work the late shift to see Mars before you go to bed! Mars is a half a fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Tonight’s first quarter moon is in the constellation Capricornus the sea goat.
Monday: Jupiter is about as finger’s width to the lower left of the Moon. They are two and a half fists above due south at 8 p.m.
Tuesday: The Stargate movies and TV shows have access to a portal to other planets. Harry Potter has access to a portal to the Chamber of Secrets. You have access to a Portal to the Universe. This portal, available not in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom but on the web at http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/, is a repository of up-to-date astronomy news, blogs, and podcasts.
Wednesday: Venus is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 7 a.m. It is near the belly button of the maiden depicted in the constellation Virgo. Great. I hope this does start a new trend – tattooing a planet near your belly button.
Thursday: A few stars appear to be a color other than white to the naked eye. The reddish Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion and the bluish Vega in the constellation Lyra come to mind. But if you look with binoculars, the star Mu Cephei appears to be more vividly colored than either of these - a surprisingly deep red. This star, named the Garnet star by the astronomer William Herschel, is eight fists above the north horizon, very close to being straight overhead, at 8 p.m. It is a red supergiant star that varies in brightness by about a factor of five over a two-year period. If our Sun were replaced by Mu Cephei, it would fill up the solar system out to halfway between Jupiter and Saturn.
Friday: Finally, you don’t have to be an insomniac or work the late shift to see Mars before you go to bed! Mars is a half a fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/17/09
Saturday: Tonight’s Moon is new. Don’t bother looking for it. The new moon is the phase where the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun. Hence the side of the Moon facing Earth is not receiving any sunlight and cannot be seen. This is a little like the morning of October 9 when the NASA satellite crashed into the lunar south pole crater Cabeus. The expected giant plume of dust that would be visible on Earth never materialized. But the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the warmth of the collision in the infrared wavelength band.
Sunday: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards. Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him noticing. The Daily Record (shop Ellensburg) would never let anything like that get into their newspaper. Their editing (shop Ellensburg) staff is too good. Nothing (pohs grubsnellE) evades their gaze.
Monday: Venus is one fist above the east horizon and Mars is six fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
Tuesday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks this tonight into early tomorrow morning. This is not a meteor shower that results in a meteor storm. There will be about 15-20 meteors per hour, many more meteors than are visible on a typical night. The chance of seeing meteors this year is greater than usual because the waxing crescent moon will set early this evening, before the peak viewing time. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about three fists above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. If you fall asleep tonight, you can catch the tail end of the shower every night until early November.
Wednesday: What time is tea time? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the south-southwest horizon by 8 p.m. The handle is on top and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea.
Thursday: In order to celebrate Galilean Nights, a world-wide astronomy outreach event, the CWU Astronomy Club is hosting a star party from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Lind Hall on the NW corner of University Way and Chestnut Street. The evening will start with a presentation about Jupiter and its moons. At 7:30, we’ll go upstairs to the CWU Observatory and view the night sky. Interested participants can participate in the Worldwide Star Count. In honor of you, the participant, we have rewritten an England Dan and John Ford Coley song for the event: “I didn’t know light would be so strong. Waiting and wondering about you. I didn’t know stars would last so long. Galilean Nights are forever without you.”
Friday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 8 p.m. For more information about Jupiter’s four largest moons, discovered by Galileo, go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/3307071.html.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly six fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards. Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him noticing. The Daily Record (shop Ellensburg) would never let anything like that get into their newspaper. Their editing (shop Ellensburg) staff is too good. Nothing (pohs grubsnellE) evades their gaze.
Monday: Venus is one fist above the east horizon and Mars is six fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
Tuesday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks this tonight into early tomorrow morning. This is not a meteor shower that results in a meteor storm. There will be about 15-20 meteors per hour, many more meteors than are visible on a typical night. The chance of seeing meteors this year is greater than usual because the waxing crescent moon will set early this evening, before the peak viewing time. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about three fists above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. If you fall asleep tonight, you can catch the tail end of the shower every night until early November.
Wednesday: What time is tea time? Certainly not during an autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature teapot shape, is sinking into the south-southwest horizon by 8 p.m. The handle is on top and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last cup of tea.
Thursday: In order to celebrate Galilean Nights, a world-wide astronomy outreach event, the CWU Astronomy Club is hosting a star party from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Lind Hall on the NW corner of University Way and Chestnut Street. The evening will start with a presentation about Jupiter and its moons. At 7:30, we’ll go upstairs to the CWU Observatory and view the night sky. Interested participants can participate in the Worldwide Star Count. In honor of you, the participant, we have rewritten an England Dan and John Ford Coley song for the event: “I didn’t know light would be so strong. Waiting and wondering about you. I didn’t know stars would last so long. Galilean Nights are forever without you.”
Friday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above due south at 8 p.m. For more information about Jupiter’s four largest moons, discovered by Galileo, go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/3307071.html.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
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