Saturday: The “Hot Topic” for February during the 2009 International Year of Astronomy was the Solar System. Even though 2009 has done the way of popular netbooks and a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, the Solar System lives on. Galileo’s discoveries about the Sun, the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter helped move us from a privileged spot in the center of the perfect heavens to one of billions of planets in the turbulent neighborhood known as the Milky Way Galaxy. Some may say that makes them feel small and insignificant. I say it makes me feel empowered. All those planets and very few, perhaps only one, inhabited by beings with the capability to comprehend their surroundings. It is better to understand your situation as one in a billion than to blindly and incorrectly think you are at the center of everything. Go to http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics_feb.htm for more information about the Solar System. Go outside and look two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m. for more information about Jupiter.
Sunday: Venus is a half a fist above the Moon in the southeast sky at 6:30 a.m.
Monday: The bright star Arcturus is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 11 p.m.
Tuesday: The good news is the days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter. The better news is the farther north you go in the United States, the longer the days get. Here in Ellensburg, there is one more hour of daylight than on the first day of winter. In the southern part of the US, there are only 30 more minutes of sunlight. Of course, on the North Pole, the day length goes from zero hours to 24 hours.
Wednesday: Today is Groundhog Day. If Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t see his shadow this morning, 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, spring may 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.
Thursday: One year ago, NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spotted its first of many never-before-seen near Earth asteroids. While there is no danger of this asteroid hitting Earth in the foreseeable future, the United States’ government is worried about the threat of a rogue asteroid hitting Earth. So much so that Congress mandated that by 2020, NASA must find 90% of all potential Earth-impacting asteroids down to 140 meters across. I may write a book about this search called “Going Rogue – An Asteroid Life”. Here is an excerpt.
I’d rather “stand with our North Korean allies” than be in the path of even a small asteroid streaking towards Earth. Would it be dangerous? You betcha! The asteroid that created the mile-wide impact crater in Arizona was only 25 meters in diameter and packed a wallop about 150 times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. I say “Thanks but no thanks” to that kind of risk, even if this size impact occurs only once every few hundred years.
Friday: Saturn is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 11:30 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 1/22/11
Saturday: Draco Malfoy makes an appearance in all seven books of the Harry Potter series. Perhaps you’ve heard of these. But, the constellation Draco the dragon makes an appearance in the sky every night. It is a circumpolar constellation as viewed from Ellensburg meaning it never goes below the horizon. The head of the dragon is one fist held upright and at arm’s length above due north at 9 p.m. Eltanin, the brightest star in the constellation, is at one corner of the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco.
Sunday: Jupiter, the brightest point of light in the evening sky, is two and a half fists above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m. Uranus, one of the dimmest lights sometimes visible to the naked eye can be easily found using binoculars because it is very close to Jupiter in the night sky. First find Jupiter. Then, move your binoculars so Jupiter is in the upper left section. Uranus is in the lower right section. Notice how I wrote that they are very close in the night sky. In actuality, they are about 1.5 billion miles apart. This is 15 times farther than the Sun is from the Earth.
Monday: Deneb Kaitos, the "tail of the whale," tries to swim away from Jupiter in the southern sky tonight. The moderately bright orange star forms the tail of Cetus the whale. At 7 p.m., it appears about two fists above the southwest horizon and less than a half a fist to the lower left of Jupiter.
Tuesday: Venus is one fist above the southeast horizon at 6 a.m.
Wednesday: Saturn, the bright star Spica, and the last quarter Moon line up in the southern sky this morning.
Thursday: Are you interested in participating in astronomy research? You don’t need to go back to school. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars getting a fake degree from an online university. The scientists working on the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would like your input on which objects they should target for close-up pictures. While you may think the scientists are just trying to build interest in their project by having people look at pretty pictures, there is a real scientific benefit to having many eyes searching for interesting targets. There aren’t enough scientists to carefully inspect all of the low power images. And, surprisingly, computers are not nearly as effective as people in making educated judgments of images. So, go to http://www.uahirise.org/ and click on the HiWish button. You’ll be on your way to suggesting close-up targets for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Friday: What is the number one threat to the peaceful use of space? Missiles from rogue nations? Nope. Aliens? You wish after seeing that beer commercial during NFL games. It is space junk. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk orbit the earth, most of it in the main human-made satellite region. The US Department of Defense is tracking over 21,000 objects greater than four inches across to assess the danger they pose. Go to www.heavens-above.com to find out what large pieces of that space junk is visible any night. You may select your location from a map, from a list, or enter it manually.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Jupiter, the brightest point of light in the evening sky, is two and a half fists above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m. Uranus, one of the dimmest lights sometimes visible to the naked eye can be easily found using binoculars because it is very close to Jupiter in the night sky. First find Jupiter. Then, move your binoculars so Jupiter is in the upper left section. Uranus is in the lower right section. Notice how I wrote that they are very close in the night sky. In actuality, they are about 1.5 billion miles apart. This is 15 times farther than the Sun is from the Earth.
Monday: Deneb Kaitos, the "tail of the whale," tries to swim away from Jupiter in the southern sky tonight. The moderately bright orange star forms the tail of Cetus the whale. At 7 p.m., it appears about two fists above the southwest horizon and less than a half a fist to the lower left of Jupiter.
Tuesday: Venus is one fist above the southeast horizon at 6 a.m.
Wednesday: Saturn, the bright star Spica, and the last quarter Moon line up in the southern sky this morning.
Thursday: Are you interested in participating in astronomy research? You don’t need to go back to school. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars getting a fake degree from an online university. The scientists working on the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would like your input on which objects they should target for close-up pictures. While you may think the scientists are just trying to build interest in their project by having people look at pretty pictures, there is a real scientific benefit to having many eyes searching for interesting targets. There aren’t enough scientists to carefully inspect all of the low power images. And, surprisingly, computers are not nearly as effective as people in making educated judgments of images. So, go to http://www.uahirise.org/ and click on the HiWish button. You’ll be on your way to suggesting close-up targets for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Friday: What is the number one threat to the peaceful use of space? Missiles from rogue nations? Nope. Aliens? You wish after seeing that beer commercial during NFL games. It is space junk. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk orbit the earth, most of it in the main human-made satellite region. The US Department of Defense is tracking over 21,000 objects greater than four inches across to assess the danger they pose. Go to www.heavens-above.com to find out what large pieces of that space junk is visible any night. You may select your location from a map, from a list, or enter it manually.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 1/15/11
Saturday: Who can forget that memorable song by Three Dog Constellations Night, “The sky is black. The stars are white. Together we learn to find the light.” Well, maybe it didn’t go like that. This is good because not all stars are white. Most stars are too dim to notice a color. But, the stars in the constellation Orion provide a noticeable contrast. Betelgeuse, five fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 10:30 p.m. is a red giant. Rigel, the bright star about two fists to the lower right of Betelgeuse, is a blue giant.
By the way, the three dog constellations are Canis Major, the greater dog; Canis Minor, the lesser dog; and Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky.
Sunday: Jupiter is three fists above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m.
Monday: Some objects we can observe every day lead to very difficult scientific questions. The star that we call Epsilon Auriga varies in brightness for a two year period every 27 years. Scientists were not sure of the exact cause of this dimming. The most recent episode started in the summer of 2009 and will end this year. But recent images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which sees infrared wavelengths, are helping scientists solve the puzzle. Epsilon Auriga is actually a binary system. The bright star in the Epsilon Auriga system is orbited by a smaller star which is surrounded by a huge cloud of sand grain-sized particles. This cloud, which is approximately the size of Jupiter’s orbit in diameter, causes the main star in the system, creatively called Epsilon Auriga A, to be only half as bright as its maximum. You can follow the cycle with the naked eye. Epsilon Auriga is about a fist to the upper right of Capella, one of the brightest stars in the sky. Capella is seven and a half fists above due east at 8 p.m.
Tuesday: How do you study the life cycle of a dog? Easy. Get a dog from the animal shelter, care for it for 15 years and study it. How do you study the life cycle of a star? Easy. Pick a star, watch it for a few billion years, and…. Wait a minute. Astronomers can’t observe something for a few billion years. Instead, they study stars that are at different points in their long life cycle and piece together the information from those different stars. What they do is like studying a one-year-old dog for a few minutes, then studying a different two-year-old dog for a few minutes, and so on. The sky in and near the constellation Orion provides an example of four objects at different points of star life.
First, find Rigel, the bright star in the lower right corner of the constellation Orion. This star, rapidly burning its fuel for a high energy but short lived existence, is three and a half fists above due south at 9:30 p.m. About one fist up and to the left are the three objects of Orion’s sword holder. The middle “star” is really a star forming region called the Orion nebula. There you’ll find baby Suns. Now, look about two fists to the right and a little below Rigel. You should be looking at a star that is about one tenth as bright as Rigel but still the brightest in its local region. The third star to the right of that star is Epsilon Eridani, the most Sun-like close and bright star. Betelgeuse, in the upper left corner of Orion, is a star at the end of its life that started out life a bit larger than the Sun.
Wednesday: It’s cold. The snow is blowing in your face. Food is scarce. Packs of wild animals are wondering around howling. Does this describe your house after someone broke your window during your New Year’s party? It also describes wolf packs around Native American villages. That’s why many tribes call January’s full moon, which occurs this morning at 5:36 the Full Wolf Moon. It is also called the Moon after Yule.
Thursday: Saturn finally makes its way into the late evening sky. It is a half a fist above the east horizon at midnight.
Friday: Venus is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
By the way, the three dog constellations are Canis Major, the greater dog; Canis Minor, the lesser dog; and Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky.
Sunday: Jupiter is three fists above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m.
Monday: Some objects we can observe every day lead to very difficult scientific questions. The star that we call Epsilon Auriga varies in brightness for a two year period every 27 years. Scientists were not sure of the exact cause of this dimming. The most recent episode started in the summer of 2009 and will end this year. But recent images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which sees infrared wavelengths, are helping scientists solve the puzzle. Epsilon Auriga is actually a binary system. The bright star in the Epsilon Auriga system is orbited by a smaller star which is surrounded by a huge cloud of sand grain-sized particles. This cloud, which is approximately the size of Jupiter’s orbit in diameter, causes the main star in the system, creatively called Epsilon Auriga A, to be only half as bright as its maximum. You can follow the cycle with the naked eye. Epsilon Auriga is about a fist to the upper right of Capella, one of the brightest stars in the sky. Capella is seven and a half fists above due east at 8 p.m.
Tuesday: How do you study the life cycle of a dog? Easy. Get a dog from the animal shelter, care for it for 15 years and study it. How do you study the life cycle of a star? Easy. Pick a star, watch it for a few billion years, and…. Wait a minute. Astronomers can’t observe something for a few billion years. Instead, they study stars that are at different points in their long life cycle and piece together the information from those different stars. What they do is like studying a one-year-old dog for a few minutes, then studying a different two-year-old dog for a few minutes, and so on. The sky in and near the constellation Orion provides an example of four objects at different points of star life.
First, find Rigel, the bright star in the lower right corner of the constellation Orion. This star, rapidly burning its fuel for a high energy but short lived existence, is three and a half fists above due south at 9:30 p.m. About one fist up and to the left are the three objects of Orion’s sword holder. The middle “star” is really a star forming region called the Orion nebula. There you’ll find baby Suns. Now, look about two fists to the right and a little below Rigel. You should be looking at a star that is about one tenth as bright as Rigel but still the brightest in its local region. The third star to the right of that star is Epsilon Eridani, the most Sun-like close and bright star. Betelgeuse, in the upper left corner of Orion, is a star at the end of its life that started out life a bit larger than the Sun.
Wednesday: It’s cold. The snow is blowing in your face. Food is scarce. Packs of wild animals are wondering around howling. Does this describe your house after someone broke your window during your New Year’s party? It also describes wolf packs around Native American villages. That’s why many tribes call January’s full moon, which occurs this morning at 5:36 the Full Wolf Moon. It is also called the Moon after Yule.
Thursday: Saturn finally makes its way into the late evening sky. It is a half a fist above the east horizon at midnight.
Friday: Venus is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 1/8/11
Saturday: One Family Affair explored the trials of well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor Bill Davis as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children in his luxury New York City apartment (as described on Wikipedia). Another family affair explores the set of planets, dwarf planets, comets, and asteroids that orbits our Sun. Just as studying your own family history can tell you about yourself, one reason astronomers study the rest of the solar system is to learn more about the Earth. Comets and asteroids hold many more detectable clues about the early solar system than the Earth does because the Earth’s surface is constantly changing. For more information about this Family Affair go to http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/yss/display.cfm?Year=2010&Month=1.
Sunday: Hit the road Mercury and Venus. And don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more. For the past few weeks in the case of Mercury or months in the case for Venus, these two planets have been hitting the road and moving away from the Sun in the morning sky. Today, both are as far away from the Sun as they will get in the morning this cycle. This is known as a planet’s greatest western elongation. Mercury is about a fist above the southeast horizon and Venus is about two fists above the south-southeast horizon at 7:00 a.m. Over the next few weeks, Mercury and Venus will move toward the Sun in the sky, eventually passing behind the Sun and appearing in the evening sky.
Monday: Another boring Monday night? Not this week. Go to the CWU Astronomy Club’s Monday Astronomy Event from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. We will meet in Lind Hall, room 215 for a brief introduction to the night sky and an impressive demonstration of the size of the galaxy. There will be numerous telescopes in use to view Jupiter and other interesting celestial objects. Dress warmly. If the sky is overcast, come anyway to hear a presentation about the Solar System. Lind Hall is on the corner of Chestnut Street and University Way. There is ample close free parking near Lind Hall at this time of night. If you are staying home, at least go outside and look for Jupiter, one fist held upright and at arm’s length below the Moon in the southwest sky at 8 p.m.
Tuesday: You never see a giraffe on the ground in Ellensburg. But you can look for one every night in the sky. The constellation Camelopardalis the giraffe is circumpolar from Ellensburg’s latitude of 47 degrees north meaning it is always above the horizon. Don’t expect to be overwhelmed by the appearance of the stars in Camelopardalis. The brightest star in the constellation appears only about half as bright as the dimmest star in the Big Dipper. However, the actual luminosities of the three brightest stars in Camelopardalis are very high, each at least 3,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Alpha Camelopardalis, a mind boggling 600,000 times more luminous than the Sun, is seven fists above due north at 10 p.m.
Wednesday: 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. Last year, 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 different aspects of a galaxy, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/different_universe.pdf. If it wasn’t for infrared telescopes such as WISE, astronomers would not know about the significant amount of dust in galaxies.
Thursday: January is the coldest month of the year so it is time to turn up the furnace. Fornax the furnace one fist above due south at 7 p.m.
Friday: Saturn is four fists above the south horizon at 6 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Hit the road Mercury and Venus. And don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more. For the past few weeks in the case of Mercury or months in the case for Venus, these two planets have been hitting the road and moving away from the Sun in the morning sky. Today, both are as far away from the Sun as they will get in the morning this cycle. This is known as a planet’s greatest western elongation. Mercury is about a fist above the southeast horizon and Venus is about two fists above the south-southeast horizon at 7:00 a.m. Over the next few weeks, Mercury and Venus will move toward the Sun in the sky, eventually passing behind the Sun and appearing in the evening sky.
Monday: Another boring Monday night? Not this week. Go to the CWU Astronomy Club’s Monday Astronomy Event from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. We will meet in Lind Hall, room 215 for a brief introduction to the night sky and an impressive demonstration of the size of the galaxy. There will be numerous telescopes in use to view Jupiter and other interesting celestial objects. Dress warmly. If the sky is overcast, come anyway to hear a presentation about the Solar System. Lind Hall is on the corner of Chestnut Street and University Way. There is ample close free parking near Lind Hall at this time of night. If you are staying home, at least go outside and look for Jupiter, one fist held upright and at arm’s length below the Moon in the southwest sky at 8 p.m.
Tuesday: You never see a giraffe on the ground in Ellensburg. But you can look for one every night in the sky. The constellation Camelopardalis the giraffe is circumpolar from Ellensburg’s latitude of 47 degrees north meaning it is always above the horizon. Don’t expect to be overwhelmed by the appearance of the stars in Camelopardalis. The brightest star in the constellation appears only about half as bright as the dimmest star in the Big Dipper. However, the actual luminosities of the three brightest stars in Camelopardalis are very high, each at least 3,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Alpha Camelopardalis, a mind boggling 600,000 times more luminous than the Sun, is seven fists above due north at 10 p.m.
Wednesday: 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. Last year, 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 different aspects of a galaxy, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/different_universe.pdf. If it wasn’t for infrared telescopes such as WISE, astronomers would not know about the significant amount of dust in galaxies.
Thursday: January is the coldest month of the year so it is time to turn up the furnace. Fornax the furnace one fist above due south at 7 p.m.
Friday: Saturn is four fists above the south horizon at 6 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 1/1/11
Saturday: Today is the day we celebrate the anniversary of something new – a new classification of celestial objects. Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres [pronounced sear’-ease], the first of what are now called “asteroids”, on January 1, 1801. Ceres is the largest asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. At first, Piazzi thought it was a star that didn’t show up on his charts. But, he noted its position changed with respect to the background stars from night to night. This indicated to him that it had to be orbiting the Sun. In August of 2006, Ceres got promoted to the status of “dwarf planet” by the International Astronomical Union.
Has it been tough to wake up this past week? It should have been because the sunrise has been getting a little later since summer started. I know. I know. December 22 was the shortest day of the year. But, because the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical and not circular, the Earth does not travel at a constant speed. It moves faster when it is closer to the Sun and slower when it is farther away. This leads to the latest sunrise occurring in early January, tomorrow for 2011, and the earliest sunset occurring in early December, not on the first day of winter, the shortest day of the year. On the first day of winter, however, the interval between sunrise and sunset is the shortest.
Sunday: Today’s weather forecast: showers. Meteor showers, that is. The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks over the next two nights. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. That makes this shower mysterious because there isn’t any constellation with this name now. The shower was named after Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation found in some early 19th century star atlases. These meteors appear to come from a point in the modern constellation Draco the dragon. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the northeast horizon at 1 a.m. In good years, careful observers can spot about 100 meteors per hour. Fortunately, 2011 is going to be a good year because the moon will be new during the peak nights meaning less ambient light to obscure the dimmer meteors. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. Most meteors are associated with the path of a comet. This shower consists of the debris from an asteroid discovered in 2003. Keeping with the comet-origin paradigm, astronomers think the asteroid is actually an “extinct” comet, a comet that lost all of its ice as it passed by the Sun during its many orbits.
Monday: If the Sun looks big today, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The Earth is at perihelion at about 11 a.m. If you dig out your Greek language textbook, you’ll see that peri- means “in close proximity” and helios means “Sun”. So, perihelion is when an object is closest to the Sun in its orbit, about 1.5 million miles closer than its average distance of 93 million miles. Since it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere now, the seasonal temperature changes must not be caused by the Earth getting farther from and closer to the Sun. Otherwise, we’d have summer when the Earth is closest to the Sun. The seasons are caused by the angle of the sunlight hitting the Earth. In the winter, sunlight hits the Earth at a very low angle, an angle far from perpendicular or straight up and down. This means that a given “bundle” of sunlight is spread out over a large area and does not warm the surface as much as the same bundle in the summer.
Tuesday: Jupiter is about three fists above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m.
Wednesday: As a follow-up to the 1982 hit “Southern Cross”, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Palmquist are working on this: “When you see the Northern Cross for the first time. You’ll understand now why swans fly this way”. The Northern Cross, also known as Cygnus the swan, appears to standing up on the northwest horizon at 8 p.m. The bottom of the cross about one fist and the bright star Deneb at the top of the cross is three fists above the northwest horizon.
Thursday: The holidays are family time. Now that the time you have spent with your human family is over, spend some time with your solar system family. This year begins the International Year of the Solar System. Nearly each month has a different theme. The theme for January is “A Family Affair”. Your solar system family has some great 3-D pictures posted at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/slideshows/index.cfm?id=22&page=1. They’re a lot better than the pictures of your aunt’s dog and that stupid doggy sweater he wears.
Friday: Saturn is nearly four fists above the south horizon and Venus is nearly two fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Has it been tough to wake up this past week? It should have been because the sunrise has been getting a little later since summer started. I know. I know. December 22 was the shortest day of the year. But, because the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical and not circular, the Earth does not travel at a constant speed. It moves faster when it is closer to the Sun and slower when it is farther away. This leads to the latest sunrise occurring in early January, tomorrow for 2011, and the earliest sunset occurring in early December, not on the first day of winter, the shortest day of the year. On the first day of winter, however, the interval between sunrise and sunset is the shortest.
Sunday: Today’s weather forecast: showers. Meteor showers, that is. The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks over the next two nights. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. That makes this shower mysterious because there isn’t any constellation with this name now. The shower was named after Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation found in some early 19th century star atlases. These meteors appear to come from a point in the modern constellation Draco the dragon. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the northeast horizon at 1 a.m. In good years, careful observers can spot about 100 meteors per hour. Fortunately, 2011 is going to be a good year because the moon will be new during the peak nights meaning less ambient light to obscure the dimmer meteors. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. Most meteors are associated with the path of a comet. This shower consists of the debris from an asteroid discovered in 2003. Keeping with the comet-origin paradigm, astronomers think the asteroid is actually an “extinct” comet, a comet that lost all of its ice as it passed by the Sun during its many orbits.
Monday: If the Sun looks big today, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The Earth is at perihelion at about 11 a.m. If you dig out your Greek language textbook, you’ll see that peri- means “in close proximity” and helios means “Sun”. So, perihelion is when an object is closest to the Sun in its orbit, about 1.5 million miles closer than its average distance of 93 million miles. Since it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere now, the seasonal temperature changes must not be caused by the Earth getting farther from and closer to the Sun. Otherwise, we’d have summer when the Earth is closest to the Sun. The seasons are caused by the angle of the sunlight hitting the Earth. In the winter, sunlight hits the Earth at a very low angle, an angle far from perpendicular or straight up and down. This means that a given “bundle” of sunlight is spread out over a large area and does not warm the surface as much as the same bundle in the summer.
Tuesday: Jupiter is about three fists above the southwest horizon at 7 p.m.
Wednesday: As a follow-up to the 1982 hit “Southern Cross”, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Palmquist are working on this: “When you see the Northern Cross for the first time. You’ll understand now why swans fly this way”. The Northern Cross, also known as Cygnus the swan, appears to standing up on the northwest horizon at 8 p.m. The bottom of the cross about one fist and the bright star Deneb at the top of the cross is three fists above the northwest horizon.
Thursday: The holidays are family time. Now that the time you have spent with your human family is over, spend some time with your solar system family. This year begins the International Year of the Solar System. Nearly each month has a different theme. The theme for January is “A Family Affair”. Your solar system family has some great 3-D pictures posted at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/slideshows/index.cfm?id=22&page=1. They’re a lot better than the pictures of your aunt’s dog and that stupid doggy sweater he wears.
Friday: Saturn is nearly four fists above the south horizon and Venus is nearly two fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 12/25/10
Saturday: Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw Jupiter being eclipsed by the Moon in the east and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2, Bruce Palmquist version, informed by Michael Molnar). There are many theories as to the physical explanation of the Star of Bethlehem, the celestial object that guided the wise men to the location of Jesus. Some people think it was a recurring nova, a star that explodes again and again. Some think it was a close alignment of bright planets. Some think it was a miracle that requires no physical explanation. In 1991, astronomer Michael Molnar bought an ancient Roman Empire coin that depicted a ram looking back at a star. Aries the ram was a symbol for Judea, the birthplace of Jesus. The Magi, or “wise men”, who visited the baby Jesus practiced astrology and would have been looking in that region of the sky for the king prophesied in the Old Testament. Molnar, a modern day wise person, used sky simulation software to model the positions of planets and the Moon in the region of Aries. According to his model, Jupiter was eclipsed, or blocked, by the Moon on the morning of April 17, 6 BC. Molnar’s theory is supported by a book written by the astrologer of Constantine the Great in 334 AD. The book describes an eclipse of Jupiter in Aries and notes a man of divine nature born during this time. See http://www.eclipse.net/~molnar/ for more information.
Aries and Jupiter make an appearance in the Christmas sky tonight. At 7 p.m., the dim constellation Aries is about six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon and Jupiter is three and a half fists above the southwest horizon.
Sunday: Columbia the dove, representing the bird Noah sent out to look for dry land as the flood waters receded, is perched just above the ridge south of Ellensburg. Its brightest star Phact is about one fist above due south at 11 p.m.
Monday: The rapper Lil Bow Wow, now known by his adult name, Bow Wow, has a new album coming out next year. The sky has its own lil bow wow coming out every night this winter. Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor, the lesser dog, is about three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Tuesday: Have you ever looked down on the ground and spotted a penny? In Yakima? While you were standing in Ellensburg? If you have, then you may be able to see the star Hamal as more than just a point of light. It has an angular diameter that can be detected from Earth. Hamal, the brightest star in the constellation Aries the ram, has the same angular diameter as a penny 37 miles away. (For comparison, the moon is about half the diameter of a penny held at arm’s length.) Hamal is six and a half fists above due south at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Are you celebrating New Year Eve eve by staying up late? If so, check out the ringed planet Saturn, one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 2 a.m.
Thursday: Venus is about a fist to the left of the crescent moon at 6 a.m.
Friday: Forget about that big bright ball in Times Square. You can mark the start of the new year with one of the sky’s own big bright balls. That perennial favorite New Year’s Day marker, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, rises to its highest point in the sky a little after midnight on January 1. Thus, when Sirius starts to “fall”, the new year has begun. Look for Sirius about two and a half fists above due south at midnight.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Aries and Jupiter make an appearance in the Christmas sky tonight. At 7 p.m., the dim constellation Aries is about six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon and Jupiter is three and a half fists above the southwest horizon.
Sunday: Columbia the dove, representing the bird Noah sent out to look for dry land as the flood waters receded, is perched just above the ridge south of Ellensburg. Its brightest star Phact is about one fist above due south at 11 p.m.
Monday: The rapper Lil Bow Wow, now known by his adult name, Bow Wow, has a new album coming out next year. The sky has its own lil bow wow coming out every night this winter. Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor, the lesser dog, is about three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Tuesday: Have you ever looked down on the ground and spotted a penny? In Yakima? While you were standing in Ellensburg? If you have, then you may be able to see the star Hamal as more than just a point of light. It has an angular diameter that can be detected from Earth. Hamal, the brightest star in the constellation Aries the ram, has the same angular diameter as a penny 37 miles away. (For comparison, the moon is about half the diameter of a penny held at arm’s length.) Hamal is six and a half fists above due south at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Are you celebrating New Year Eve eve by staying up late? If so, check out the ringed planet Saturn, one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 2 a.m.
Thursday: Venus is about a fist to the left of the crescent moon at 6 a.m.
Friday: Forget about that big bright ball in Times Square. You can mark the start of the new year with one of the sky’s own big bright balls. That perennial favorite New Year’s Day marker, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, rises to its highest point in the sky a little after midnight on January 1. Thus, when Sirius starts to “fall”, the new year has begun. Look for Sirius about two and a half fists above due south at midnight.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 12/18/10
This week, we’ll all be reminded of the lyrics of the song Bonnie Tyler almost sang, Total Eclipse of the Moon. “Turn around. Twice a year I move into the shadow of Terra and I become very dark. Turn around. Five years out of ten I get a little bit tired of becoming red like blood from a shark.”
Saturday: Jupiter is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 6 p.m. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time.
Sunday: Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, is about a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 7 p.m.
Monday: Tonight’s moon is full. Ho hum. A full moon happens every month. But, this month, the moon is very close to being in the same plane as the Earth and Sun. Not ho hum. That means there will be a lunar eclipse tonight. Even less ho hum. It will be a total lunar eclipse. Total lunar eclipses are not as obvious as total solar eclipses because light still reaches the Moon even when it is completely blocked by the earth. That is because the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lens and bends rays of light that would normally miss the moon towards the moon. That doesn’t mean the moon looks the same during a total lunar eclipse as it does during a normal full moon.
Sunlight is white. White light is the sum of all of the colors in the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Our atmosphere scatters the blue component of the Sun’s white light. That is why our sky is blue. (If our atmosphere consisted of different gasses, we would likely have a different colored sky.) When the Sun or moon is near the horizon, the light passes through a lot of the atmosphere meaning a lot of the blue light is scattered and the Sun or moon looks redder than when it is high in the sky. During a total lunar eclipse, sunlight passes through a large slice of the Earth’s atmosphere. The remaining light that reaches the moon is reddish. Thus, the moon looks red during a total lunar eclipse.
From our perspective in central Washington, the moon will begin the partial eclipse stage at 10:32 p.m. The moon will slowly move into the Earth’s shadow and get dark from left to right. At 11:40 p.m., the moon will be fully eclipsed. The total eclipse lasts until 12:52 a.m. The moon will be moving out of the earth’s darkest shadow or umbra until 2:00 a.m. After that, the moon will look white just like a normal full moon. Thus, during the entire eclipse, the moon looks white, then black, then red all over. For more information, go to NASA’s eclipse website at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html.
Tuesday: At 3:43 p.m., the Sun reaches its lowest point in the sky with respect to the background stars. This point is called the Winter Solstice. During the day that the Sun reaches this point, your noon time shadow is longer than any other day of the year. Also, the Sun spends less time in the sky on the day of the Winter Solstice than any other day making this the shortest day of the year. Even though it is the shortest day of the year, it is not the day with the latest sunrise or the earliest sunset. The latest sunrise is during the first week in January and the earliest sunset is during the second week in December. 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 Sun rise and set time depends on more than its apparent vertical motion. 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 first part of the analemma to go below the horizon. During the first week in January, it is on the last part of the analemma to rise above the horizon. For more information on this, go to http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/astronomical-information-center/dark-days.
Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time. Yes, I know I wrote this about Jupiter. Venus is brighter than Jupiter but it is not above the horizon in the evening this month.
Thursday: I know you’re staying up late to train yourself to wait up for Santa. So look out a south-facing window at 1 a.m. and see Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, as high as it ever gets in the sky. It is two and a half fists above sue south.
Friday: What would that special someone want to see on the back of Santa’s sleigh when she gets up early Christmas morning to eat one of Santa’s cookies? A fruit cake? No. A barbell? Maybe to work off the fruitcake. A subscription to The Daily Record? Of course. But what she really wants is a ring. And if she looks out a south-facing window, she’ll see her ring. Saturn the ringed planet, that is. Saturn is nearly 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.
Saturday: Jupiter is four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 6 p.m. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time.
Sunday: Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, is about a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 7 p.m.
Monday: Tonight’s moon is full. Ho hum. A full moon happens every month. But, this month, the moon is very close to being in the same plane as the Earth and Sun. Not ho hum. That means there will be a lunar eclipse tonight. Even less ho hum. It will be a total lunar eclipse. Total lunar eclipses are not as obvious as total solar eclipses because light still reaches the Moon even when it is completely blocked by the earth. That is because the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lens and bends rays of light that would normally miss the moon towards the moon. That doesn’t mean the moon looks the same during a total lunar eclipse as it does during a normal full moon.
Sunlight is white. White light is the sum of all of the colors in the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Our atmosphere scatters the blue component of the Sun’s white light. That is why our sky is blue. (If our atmosphere consisted of different gasses, we would likely have a different colored sky.) When the Sun or moon is near the horizon, the light passes through a lot of the atmosphere meaning a lot of the blue light is scattered and the Sun or moon looks redder than when it is high in the sky. During a total lunar eclipse, sunlight passes through a large slice of the Earth’s atmosphere. The remaining light that reaches the moon is reddish. Thus, the moon looks red during a total lunar eclipse.
From our perspective in central Washington, the moon will begin the partial eclipse stage at 10:32 p.m. The moon will slowly move into the Earth’s shadow and get dark from left to right. At 11:40 p.m., the moon will be fully eclipsed. The total eclipse lasts until 12:52 a.m. The moon will be moving out of the earth’s darkest shadow or umbra until 2:00 a.m. After that, the moon will look white just like a normal full moon. Thus, during the entire eclipse, the moon looks white, then black, then red all over. For more information, go to NASA’s eclipse website at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html.
Tuesday: At 3:43 p.m., the Sun reaches its lowest point in the sky with respect to the background stars. This point is called the Winter Solstice. During the day that the Sun reaches this point, your noon time shadow is longer than any other day of the year. Also, the Sun spends less time in the sky on the day of the Winter Solstice than any other day making this the shortest day of the year. Even though it is the shortest day of the year, it is not the day with the latest sunrise or the earliest sunset. The latest sunrise is during the first week in January and the earliest sunset is during the second week in December. 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 Sun rise and set time depends on more than its apparent vertical motion. 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 first part of the analemma to go below the horizon. During the first week in January, it is on the last part of the analemma to rise above the horizon. For more information on this, go to http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/astronomical-information-center/dark-days.
Wednesday: Venus is two and a half fists above the southeast horizon. It is by far the brightest point of light in the sky visible at this time. Yes, I know I wrote this about Jupiter. Venus is brighter than Jupiter but it is not above the horizon in the evening this month.
Thursday: I know you’re staying up late to train yourself to wait up for Santa. So look out a south-facing window at 1 a.m. and see Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, as high as it ever gets in the sky. It is two and a half fists above sue south.
Friday: What would that special someone want to see on the back of Santa’s sleigh when she gets up early Christmas morning to eat one of Santa’s cookies? A fruit cake? No. A barbell? Maybe to work off the fruitcake. A subscription to The Daily Record? Of course. But what she really wants is a ring. And if she looks out a south-facing window, she’ll see her ring. Saturn the ringed planet, that is. Saturn is nearly 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.
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