What's up in the sky 11/26/11
Today: Venus is less than a half a fist to the left of the 2-day-old Moon, just above the southwest horizon at 5 p.m. Tomorrow night at this time, Venus will be in nearly the same place but the Moon will have moved up and to the left.
Sunday: 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 princess. 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 this star is called Caput Trianguli, the head of the triangle. Triangulum is seven fists held upright and at arm’s length 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.
Monday: 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.
Tuesday: Jupiter is five fists above the south horizon at 10 p.m.
Wednesday: 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.
Thursday: Have you even seen a Black Hole? Neither have scientists. But they have seen the effects of a Black Hole. Black holes have a strong gravitational influence on anything that passes close to them, including light. Cygnus X-1, the first Black Hole candidate ever discovered, is four and a half fists above the west horizon, in the middle of the neck of Cygnus the swan.
Friday: Finally. You can see Mars in the night sky and still get to bed before midnight. Mars is a half a fist above the east horizon at 11:57 p.m. Now, quick, run off to bed.
I am guessing that some of you don’t like the line of reasoning from Thursday: that seeing the effects of a Black Hole is good enough to claim there are Black Holes. You have never seen the wind. But, you have seen the effects of the wind. And no Ellensburg resident doubts the existence of the wind.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 11/19/11
Saturday: The Nature of Night event 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, telescopes, animals, cookies and much more. The event is free. Go to http://www.cwu.edu/~cesme/ for more information. Wait, don’t go to a computer. Go directly to Black Hall, G-12 on the map found at http://www.cwu.edu/newmap.html. The Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at CWU and various community sponsors work together to put on this event.
Sunday: You know winter is coming when Orion is visible in the evening sky. It is about a fist above the east-southeast horizon at 9 p.m.
Monday: When you think of space, the first image that comes to mind is a few large, massive bodies surrounded by a lot of empty space. After all, it is called “outer space”, not “outer stuff”. But that so-called empty space is filled powerful radiation and high-speed sub-microscopic particles. Much of this is dangerous to life. However, many planets, including Earth, have a shield against these called a magnetic field. Jupiter’s magnetic field is the strongest of all the planets. Find Jupiter four and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 8 p.m. For more information about magnetic fields, go to http://goo.gl/OYShj.
Tuesday: Saturn, Spica, and the waning crescent moon are huddled together in the early morning sky. The Moon is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon. Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, is a couple of finger widths to the upper left of the Moon. Saturn is less than a half a fist to the upper left of Spica.
Wednesday: 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.
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 staying up late Thursday or getting up super early this morning to catch those Black Friday sales? Mars is about a half a fist above the east horizon at midnight. By 5 am, it is four fists above the southeast horizon. If you find Mars this morning, you’ll be doing a lot better than the poor Phobos-Grunt mission. It launched on November 9, only to have its final booster rocket fail. For more (extremely detailed) information, go to http://goo.gl/1Wfdu.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: You know winter is coming when Orion is visible in the evening sky. It is about a fist above the east-southeast horizon at 9 p.m.
Monday: When you think of space, the first image that comes to mind is a few large, massive bodies surrounded by a lot of empty space. After all, it is called “outer space”, not “outer stuff”. But that so-called empty space is filled powerful radiation and high-speed sub-microscopic particles. Much of this is dangerous to life. However, many planets, including Earth, have a shield against these called a magnetic field. Jupiter’s magnetic field is the strongest of all the planets. Find Jupiter four and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 8 p.m. For more information about magnetic fields, go to http://goo.gl/OYShj.
Tuesday: Saturn, Spica, and the waning crescent moon are huddled together in the early morning sky. The Moon is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon. Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, is a couple of finger widths to the upper left of the Moon. Saturn is less than a half a fist to the upper left of Spica.
Wednesday: 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.
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 staying up late Thursday or getting up super early this morning to catch those Black Friday sales? Mars is about a half a fist above the east horizon at midnight. By 5 am, it is four fists above the southeast horizon. If you find Mars this morning, you’ll be doing a lot better than the poor Phobos-Grunt mission. It launched on November 9, only to have its final booster rocket fail. For more (extremely detailed) information, go to http://goo.gl/1Wfdu.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Friday, November 11, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 11/12/11
Saturday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 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 of a rating in my opinion.
Sunday: Saturn is about a half a fist to the upper left of Spica for the next few mornings at 6 a.m. a fist above the east-southeast horizon.
Monday: Hit the road Mercury. And don’t you come back no more, no more. For a few weeks, Mercury has been hitting the road and moving away from the Sun in the sky. Today, Mercury is as far away from the Sun as it will get on the evening half of this cycle. This is known as its greatest eastern elongation. Yet, this distance does not translate into good viewing because Mercury will be very low in the sky. Mercury is less than a half a fist above the southwest horizon at 5:00 p.m., right below the much brighter Venus. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. After it passes in front of the Sun, it will appear in the morning sky by mid- December.
Tuesday: Jupiter is five fists above the southeast horizon at 9 p.m.
Wednesday: Chinese astronomers in 185 A.D. reported a “guest star” that mysteriously appeared in the sky for eight months. By the 1960s, only 1800 years later, astronomers had determined that this was the first recorded supernova. But they could not explain the excessive size of the surrounding nebula, the cloud of gas and dust expelled by the exploding star. Given the age of the supernova and the typical rate of expansion, this supernova remnant should have been smaller. But images from NASA’s Spitzer and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescopes, astronomers discovered that the star exploded in a hollowed-out cavity meaning the material expelled by the star traveled much faster and farther than it would have in a denser region of the galaxy. Go to http://goo.gl/3jLZD for more information.
Thursday: 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. Even if the weather cooperates, this will not be a great night to see a lot of meteors because the last quarter moon rising at midnight will illuminate the sky. 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://goo.gl/OPP6D to see a picture of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Even if there are only a dozen meteors visible per hour, you’ll want to enjoy it.
Friday: Mars is about a fist to the upper left of the Moon at 6 a.m. in the southern sky.
Tomorrow, the Nature of Night event 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, telescopes, animals, cookies and much more. The event is free. Call 963-2929 or go to http://www.cwu.edu/~cesme/ 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.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Saturn is about a half a fist to the upper left of Spica for the next few mornings at 6 a.m. a fist above the east-southeast horizon.
Monday: Hit the road Mercury. And don’t you come back no more, no more. For a few weeks, Mercury has been hitting the road and moving away from the Sun in the sky. Today, Mercury is as far away from the Sun as it will get on the evening half of this cycle. This is known as its greatest eastern elongation. Yet, this distance does not translate into good viewing because Mercury will be very low in the sky. Mercury is less than a half a fist above the southwest horizon at 5:00 p.m., right below the much brighter Venus. Over the next few weeks, Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. After it passes in front of the Sun, it will appear in the morning sky by mid- December.
Tuesday: Jupiter is five fists above the southeast horizon at 9 p.m.
Wednesday: Chinese astronomers in 185 A.D. reported a “guest star” that mysteriously appeared in the sky for eight months. By the 1960s, only 1800 years later, astronomers had determined that this was the first recorded supernova. But they could not explain the excessive size of the surrounding nebula, the cloud of gas and dust expelled by the exploding star. Given the age of the supernova and the typical rate of expansion, this supernova remnant should have been smaller. But images from NASA’s Spitzer and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescopes, astronomers discovered that the star exploded in a hollowed-out cavity meaning the material expelled by the star traveled much faster and farther than it would have in a denser region of the galaxy. Go to http://goo.gl/3jLZD for more information.
Thursday: 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. Even if the weather cooperates, this will not be a great night to see a lot of meteors because the last quarter moon rising at midnight will illuminate the sky. 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://goo.gl/OPP6D to see a picture of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Even if there are only a dozen meteors visible per hour, you’ll want to enjoy it.
Friday: Mars is about a fist to the upper left of the Moon at 6 a.m. in the southern sky.
Tomorrow, the Nature of Night event 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, telescopes, animals, cookies and much more. The event is free. Call 963-2929 or go to http://www.cwu.edu/~cesme/ 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.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 11/5/11
What's up in the sky 11/5/11
Today: 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: Did you look up Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Henry Draper based on last week’s Halloween costume suggestion? Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an 18th and 19th century astronomer who discovered the relationship between the luminosity and brightness fluctuations of a certain type of variable star. This led to a fundamental change in our understanding of the size of the universe. Henry Draper was a pioneer of astrophotography and was the first person to photograph the Orion Nebula. You can become about the one-millionth person to photograph the Orion Nebula it you look two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. This fuzzy patch in the middle of Orion’s scabbard is about a half a fist to the left of the brightest star in Orion, Rigel.
Monday: The North Taurid meteor shower peaks for the next few late nights and early mornings with the night of the 11th and 12th being the peak of the peak. This is not a prominent shower but it occasionally produces a couple of bright “fireballs”, larger rocks that take a few seconds to burn up in the atmosphere. 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 nearly six fists 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 called the Pleiades. If you miss the peak this week, don’t worry. Taurid meteor showers result in a slight increase on meteor activity from mid-October to the beginning of December.
Tuesday: Jupiter is less than a fist to the lower left of the Moon due southeast at 9 p.m.
Wednesday: While Stonehenge is an ancient burial ground visited by religious people for thousands of years, MIThenge is an 825-foot long hallway on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology visited by the Sun’s rays twice a year. Every year in November and January, the setting Sun lines up with a narrow window at the end of the long hall and the light shines down to the opposite end. This season’s alignment is from November 10-13. For more information, visit http://goo.gl/NGbOj of visit MIT.
Thursday: Mars is five and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6 a.m. The star Regulus is about a finger width to the lower right of Mars.
Friday: We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. And a happy Friday. 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.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Today: 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: Did you look up Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Henry Draper based on last week’s Halloween costume suggestion? Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an 18th and 19th century astronomer who discovered the relationship between the luminosity and brightness fluctuations of a certain type of variable star. This led to a fundamental change in our understanding of the size of the universe. Henry Draper was a pioneer of astrophotography and was the first person to photograph the Orion Nebula. You can become about the one-millionth person to photograph the Orion Nebula it you look two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. This fuzzy patch in the middle of Orion’s scabbard is about a half a fist to the left of the brightest star in Orion, Rigel.
Monday: The North Taurid meteor shower peaks for the next few late nights and early mornings with the night of the 11th and 12th being the peak of the peak. This is not a prominent shower but it occasionally produces a couple of bright “fireballs”, larger rocks that take a few seconds to burn up in the atmosphere. 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 nearly six fists 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 called the Pleiades. If you miss the peak this week, don’t worry. Taurid meteor showers result in a slight increase on meteor activity from mid-October to the beginning of December.
Tuesday: Jupiter is less than a fist to the lower left of the Moon due southeast at 9 p.m.
Wednesday: While Stonehenge is an ancient burial ground visited by religious people for thousands of years, MIThenge is an 825-foot long hallway on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology visited by the Sun’s rays twice a year. Every year in November and January, the setting Sun lines up with a narrow window at the end of the long hall and the light shines down to the opposite end. This season’s alignment is from November 10-13. For more information, visit http://goo.gl/NGbOj of visit MIT.
Thursday: Mars is five and a half fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6 a.m. The star Regulus is about a finger width to the lower right of Mars.
Friday: We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. And a happy Friday. 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.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Friday, October 28, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/29/11
Saturday: Dead October flowers lead to November meteor showers. While the Lyonid meteor shower is the big name among November meteor showers, the one or two bright fireballs per hour you can see during the typical Southern Taurids meteor shower may make it worth your while to say up. This shower reaches a maximum over the next few nights with a peak on November 6th. 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 V-shaped 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.
Sunday: Halloween. The pumpkins. The candy. The children going door-to-door dressed up as their favorite astronomers Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Henry Draper. 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 Leavitts and Drapers come to your door tomorrow night, honor the Celts and give them a wintry treat. If they ask you for a trick, point out Venus, a half a fist above the southwest horizon.
Monday: Are you thinking of dressing up like a student and visiting a scary museum? Then the Museum of Culture and Environment at Central Washington University has an event for you, an interdisciplinary symposium called "Fabricating the Fantastic: The Pleasures and Perils of Exaggeration," at 4:30 p.m. Monday in Dean Hall. The symposium is inspired by the museum's exhibit "Storytelling Through the Mail: Tall Tale Postcards." CWU professors will talk about how exaggeration plays a role in certain fields, including astronomy. Go to http://goo.gl/C8Ynf for more information. If you doubt that museums can be scary, check out the size of the bugs on some of the postcards. Buzzzzzz, indeed!
Tuesday: 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.
Wednesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the east horizon at 8 p.m.
Thursday: Lacerta, the faint lizard constellation, is straight overhead at 9 p.m. It was named by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687 to fill the space between the much brighter and well-defined constellations Pegasus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cygnus going clockwise from the constellation just south of Lacerta. Chinese know this group of stars as a flying serpent or dragon.
Friday: Mars is five and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 7 a.m. Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo is a half a fist to the lower left.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Halloween. The pumpkins. The candy. The children going door-to-door dressed up as their favorite astronomers Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Henry Draper. 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 Leavitts and Drapers come to your door tomorrow night, honor the Celts and give them a wintry treat. If they ask you for a trick, point out Venus, a half a fist above the southwest horizon.
Monday: Are you thinking of dressing up like a student and visiting a scary museum? Then the Museum of Culture and Environment at Central Washington University has an event for you, an interdisciplinary symposium called "Fabricating the Fantastic: The Pleasures and Perils of Exaggeration," at 4:30 p.m. Monday in Dean Hall. The symposium is inspired by the museum's exhibit "Storytelling Through the Mail: Tall Tale Postcards." CWU professors will talk about how exaggeration plays a role in certain fields, including astronomy. Go to http://goo.gl/C8Ynf for more information. If you doubt that museums can be scary, check out the size of the bugs on some of the postcards. Buzzzzzz, indeed!
Tuesday: 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.
Wednesday: Jupiter is two and a half fists above the east horizon at 8 p.m.
Thursday: Lacerta, the faint lizard constellation, is straight overhead at 9 p.m. It was named by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687 to fill the space between the much brighter and well-defined constellations Pegasus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cygnus going clockwise from the constellation just south of Lacerta. Chinese know this group of stars as a flying serpent or dragon.
Friday: Mars is five and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 7 a.m. Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo is a half a fist to the lower left.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/22/11
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: Would you like to contribute to science? Participate in the Great World Wide Star Count this week. Go to http://www.windows2universe.org/citizen_science/starcount/ to download instructions. Basically, you’ll count the stars you can see in Cygnus the Swan, a constellation that is nearly straight overhead at 8 p.m.
Monday: 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. A recent story highlights NASA’s Spitzer Space telescope’s discovery of a comet “storm” in a nearby star system that resembles what astronomers think occurred in our own solar system nearly four billion years ago. By studying the evidence of ice, organic material, and rocks near the one billion year old star Eta Corvi, astronomers may learn more about how the Earth was affected by a similar environment early in its formation.
Tuesday: Mars is five and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m. The slightly dimmer star Regulus is a fist to the lower left of Mars.
Wednesday: 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. But it can be felt, especially by the oceans. The Moon is at perigee tonight meaning the Moon is the closest it will be this month. When the Moon is at perigee during the new or full stage, the high tides are especially high because the Sun, Earth and Moon are all lined up.
Thursday: This weekend is Halloween so make sure you load up on peanut clusters, almond clusters, and open star clusters. That last one will be easy (and cheap, actually free) because two of the most prominent open star clusters in the sky are easily visible in the autumn sky. The sideways V-shaped Hyades Cluster is two fists above due east at 10 p.m. Containing over 300 stars; the Hyades cluster is about 150 light years away and 625 million years old. The Pleiades Cluster, a little more than three fists above due east, is larger at over 1000 stars and younger. Compared to our 5 billion year old Sun, the 100 million year age of the Pleiades is infant-like.
Friday: Jupiter is in opposition tonight. No, that doesn’t mean it will disagree with everything you say. (Yes it does. No it doesn’t. Yes it does. No it doesn’t) Opposition means that a planet is on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun. An object is in opposition when it is due south 12 hours after the Sun. When an object is in opposition, it is at its highest point in the sky during the darkest time of the night. A planet in opposition shines brighter and appears larger in a telescope than any other night of its orbital cycle. Jupiter is five and a half fists above due south at 1 a.m. daylight savings time which is midnight standard time. If you’d rather not stay up so late, you can find it three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 9 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Sunday: Would you like to contribute to science? Participate in the Great World Wide Star Count this week. Go to http://www.windows2universe.org/citizen_science/starcount/ to download instructions. Basically, you’ll count the stars you can see in Cygnus the Swan, a constellation that is nearly straight overhead at 8 p.m.
Monday: 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. A recent story highlights NASA’s Spitzer Space telescope’s discovery of a comet “storm” in a nearby star system that resembles what astronomers think occurred in our own solar system nearly four billion years ago. By studying the evidence of ice, organic material, and rocks near the one billion year old star Eta Corvi, astronomers may learn more about how the Earth was affected by a similar environment early in its formation.
Tuesday: Mars is five and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m. The slightly dimmer star Regulus is a fist to the lower left of Mars.
Wednesday: 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. But it can be felt, especially by the oceans. The Moon is at perigee tonight meaning the Moon is the closest it will be this month. When the Moon is at perigee during the new or full stage, the high tides are especially high because the Sun, Earth and Moon are all lined up.
Thursday: This weekend is Halloween so make sure you load up on peanut clusters, almond clusters, and open star clusters. That last one will be easy (and cheap, actually free) because two of the most prominent open star clusters in the sky are easily visible in the autumn sky. The sideways V-shaped Hyades Cluster is two fists above due east at 10 p.m. Containing over 300 stars; the Hyades cluster is about 150 light years away and 625 million years old. The Pleiades Cluster, a little more than three fists above due east, is larger at over 1000 stars and younger. Compared to our 5 billion year old Sun, the 100 million year age of the Pleiades is infant-like.
Friday: Jupiter is in opposition tonight. No, that doesn’t mean it will disagree with everything you say. (Yes it does. No it doesn’t. Yes it does. No it doesn’t) Opposition means that a planet is on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun. An object is in opposition when it is due south 12 hours after the Sun. When an object is in opposition, it is at its highest point in the sky during the darkest time of the night. A planet in opposition shines brighter and appears larger in a telescope than any other night of its orbital cycle. Jupiter is five and a half fists above due south at 1 a.m. daylight savings time which is midnight standard time. If you’d rather not stay up so late, you can find it three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 9 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
The Ellensburg sky for the week of 10/15/11
Saturday: The Ellensburg weather is cooling down. But the space weather is heating up. More specifically, the Sun is moving toward a sunspot maximum which means an increase in solar storms. Keep your eye on the space weather by going to http://www.spaceweather.com.
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: Jupiter is three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Tuesday: 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.
Wednesday: Tonight’s last quarter Moon is in the constellation Cancer the Crab.
Thursday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks for the next two nights and early mornings. 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. However, the chance of seeing meteors this year is less than usual because the waning crescent Moon will be out during most of the prime viewing hours. 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.
Friday: Mars is less that a fist to the upper left of the Moon at 6 a.m.
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: Jupiter is three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Tuesday: 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.
Wednesday: Tonight’s last quarter Moon is in the constellation Cancer the Crab.
Thursday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower peaks for the next two nights and early mornings. 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. However, the chance of seeing meteors this year is less than usual because the waning crescent Moon will be out during most of the prime viewing hours. 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.
Friday: Mars is less that a fist to the upper left of the Moon at 6 a.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.
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