The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 30, 2022

Saturday: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks just before dawn on May 4, 5, and 6. Since this meteor shower has a fairly broad peak range, you should start looking before dawn every morning this week. The moon is close to the New phase all week, meaning it won’t obscure the meteors. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. The meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation Aquarius near the star Eta. This point is about one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the east horizon at 4:00 a.m. The Eta Aquarid meteors slam into the Earth at about 40 miles per second. They often leave a long trail. The Eta Aquarid meteors are small rocks that have broken off Halley’s Comet. For more information about the Eta Aquarids, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158833.

Sunday: Mother’s Day is next Sunday. What are you going to get her? Get her a Gem(ma). The star Gemma, also known as Alphekka, is the brightest star in the constellation Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. Gemma, Latin for jewel, is the central gemstone for the crown. It is four fists above due east at 10:00 p.m.

Monday: Mercury is one fist above the west-northwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m., to the lower right of the waxing crescent moon. The open star cluster The Pleiades is just to the right of Mercury.

Tuesday: Four naked eye planets line up in the morning sky all week at 5:00 a.m. Venus is the brightest, lowest, and farthest to the left. It is a half a fist above the eastern horizon. Jupiter is the second brightest, about a half a fist to the upper right of Venus. Mars is one fist above the east-southeastern horizon. Saturn is one and a half fists above the southeastern horizon.

Wednesday: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is moving towards the horizon and out of the evening sky. It is a half a fist above the southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m.

Thursday: The daytime is bright and the nighttime is dark. Place the Earth and its atmosphere in fairly close orbit around any star and the daytime rule would still apply. But put the Earth and its atmosphere in orbit around a star at the center of a globular cluster and the night sky would never be dark. Astronomers estimate that the sky would be 10 to 20 times brighter than Earth’s sky when our Moon is full. One of the brightest globular clusters, M3, is six and a half fists above due southeast at 10:45 p.m. It is a little more than one fist above the bright orangeish star Arcturus. It will look like a fuzzy patch in your binoculars. For a hypothetical view of what the night sky would look like at the center of this or a similar globular cluster, go to https://tinyurl.com/yyp88w7x.

Friday: This weekend, celebrate Mother’s Day with the big mom of the sky, Virgo. Ancient Greeks and Romans associated this portion of the sky with their own goddess of the harvest, either Demeter (Greeks) or Ceres (Roman). Demeter was the mother of Persephone and Ceres was the mother of Proserpina. According to myth, each of these daughters was abducted causing their mothers great grief. The first star in Virgo rises in the afternoon. Spica, the bright bluish star in the constellation rises at 7:00 p.m. and is three fists above the south-southeastern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 23, 2022

Saturday: As the rock group Journey once thought of singing, “Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’. I know where the Dipper’ll be tomorrow.” Every night, the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia make a wheel in the sky that turns around the North Star in a counter clockwise direction. Every year on April 24 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 25 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Every year on April 26 at 10:00 p.m., the Big Dipper is straight overhead and W-shaped Cassiopeia is low on the northern horizon. Oh, am I boring you? Of course, there are subtle charges in the position from night to night. Each northern constellation moves about one degree counterclockwise from one night to the next. But this is not going to change their position in the sky drastically over a few days. So, if you know where the Big Dipper is tonight, you DO know where it’ll be tomorrow. If you are really struggling to understand this concept, Don’t Stop Believin’ in yourself. Just keep studying Faithfully.

Sunday: The Moon is taking a tour of the planets for the next few mornings at 5:00 a.m. This morning Saturn is less than a fist to the upper left of the moon, just above the southeastern horizon.

Monday: This morning, the moon, Mars, and Saturn make a small triangle low in the southeastern sky at 5:00 a.m. Mars is about a fist to the upper left of the moon and Saturn is about a fist to the upper right of the moon.

Tuesday: Mercury is one fist above the west-northwest horizon at 9:00 p.m. Venus is a half a fist above the eastern horizon at 5:00 a.m. These objects are two of our closest celestial neighbors. One hundred years ago tonight, the astronomers Heber Curtis and Harlow Shapley were debating the distances of some of our farthest neighbors: galaxies. Curtis argued that the universe consisted of many galaxies millions of light years away. Shapley thought that the spiral structures seen in telescopes were actually a part of the Milky Way. They also had different views on the size of the Milky Way. Learn more about their debate, called the Great Debate, at https://stardate.org/radio/program/2020-04-24. Learn more about the Milky Way by watching the center of it rise over the southeastern horizon at about 1:00 a.m.

Wednesday: Sure, it’s fun to go to a star party. But what if the star party could come to you? Today at 20:00 UTC, or 1:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, the Stars for All Virtual Star Party will start at the Virtual Telescope project. Watch at  https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2022/03/31/stars-for-all-online-cosmic-journey-27-april-2022/.

Thursday: In this busy world, it is important to know what time it is. We have many devices that give us the time. A phone. A computer. A watch. But who has time to build a phone, computer or even a watch. Not you. But everyone has enough time to build a simple Sun Clock. All you need is a pencil, a compass and a print out of the clock template. Go to https://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/sunclock.html for more information. 

Friday: Orion stands low in the southwestern sky. At 9:00 p.m., the middle of Orion’s belt is one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west-southwest horizon. And talk about belt tightening! Alnilam, the middle star in the belt, is losing mass at a rate of about 100 thousand trillion tons a day. That’s a 1 followed by 17 zeros tons per day.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm. 

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 16, 2022

Saturday: “Oooo, they’re little runaways. Orion’s stars moved fast. Tried to make a getaway. Ooo-oo, they’re little runaways,” sang Bon Jovi in his astronomical hit “Runaway. At least that’s what I hear when I listen to the song. After all, it fits the recently calculated trajectory of AE Aurigae, Mu Columbae, and 53 Arietis. Extrapolating the actual motion of these three stars back in time, they were all in the location of the star-forming region called the Orion Nebula a few million years ago. What kicked these stars out? Not paying rent? Excessive partying? No, it was simply gravitational interactions with near-by stars. Find out more about the eviction at http://goo.gl/UeLwKQ. The Orion Nebula is visible with the naked eye from a very dark site, about one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west-southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m.

Sunday: Mercury is about a half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon at 8:45 p.m.

Monday: Four naked eye planets line up low in the east-southeastern sky at 5:30 am. Jupiter is closest to due east, just above the eastern horizon. Very bright Venus is a little more than a half a fist above the east-southeastern horizon and a fist to the upper right of Jupiter. Mars is a fist to the upper right of Venus and Saturn is about a fist to the upper right of Mars

Tuesday: It is often said that Earth is a water world because about 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. What would it look like if all that water on the surface were gathered up into a ball? That “ball” would be about 700 km in diameter, less than half the diameter of the Moon. The Astronomy Picture of the day shows us right here https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120515.html.

Wednesday: The bright star Vega is one fist above due northeast at 10:00 p.m.

Thursday: Remember the old saying: April showers bring… meteors. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks this week, with the peak of the peak occurring tonight and tomorrow night before midnight. The meteors appear to come from a point to the right of the bright bluish star Vega in the constellation Lyra the lyre. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight and close to straight overhead near dawn. The best time to this year is between 11:00 p.m. and moonrise at about 3:00 a.m. Typically, this is one of the least interesting major meteor showers of the year, with 10-20 bright, fast meteors per hour. However, it is also one of the most unpredictable. As recently as 1982, there were 90 meteors visible during a single hour. In addition, the Lyrid meteor shower has historical interest because it was one of the first ones observed. Chinese records say “stars fell like rain” in the shower of 687 B.C. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more information, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158735.

Friday: Do people think you have a magnetic personality? The star Cor Caroli understands how you feel. Cor Caroli has one of the strongest magnetic fields among main sequence stars similar to our Sun. This strong magnetic field is thought to produce large sunspots that cause the brightness of Cor Caroli to vary. Cor Caroli is nearly straight overhead at midnight.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of April 9, 2022

Saturday: “Lately, I’ve been, I’ve been losing sleep. Dreaming about the things that we could be. But baby, I’ve been, I’ve been praying hard, said no more counting dollars. We’ll be counting 9,096 stars, yeah we’ll be counting 9,096 stars.” Luckily, artistic judgment prevailed over scientific precision in the OneRepublic hit “Counting Stars”. According to the Yale Bright Star Catalog, there are 9,096 stars visible to the naked eye across the entire sky if you are observing from a very dark site. In the northern United States, where a part of the sky is never visible, that number drops to about 6,500. In the middle of a small city at mid-latitudes, like Ellensburg, that number drops to a few hundred. No wonder someone has been losing sleep. Learn more about the star count at http://goo.gl/nt8d80.

Sunday: Jupiter and Neptune will be close together in the dawn sky all week. The dance will be a treat to follow with a small telescope and also pretty interesting with binoculars held steady with a tripod. This morning at 5:45, find Jupiter just above the eastern horizon. If you have a small telescope, you’ll be able to see Europa and Io to the lower left of Jupiter with Ganymede and Callisto to the upper right. Neptune is farther to the lower left. Over the next few days, Neptune will move to the upper right compared to Jupiter.

Monday: April is Global Astronomy Month. Find events throughout the month at https://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/global-astronomy-month. This morning at 7:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (14:00 UTC), learn how astronomy has played a role in the development of cultures and society throughout the world. View the event at https://www.facebook.com/astronomerswithoutborders. 

Tuesday: You may have noticed a few other bright points of light low in the predawn eastern sky. Venus, the brightest point of light in the sky, is one fist above the east-southeastern horizon. Mars is about one fist to the upper right of Venus. Saturn is about a half a fist to the upper right of Mars.

Wednesday: Astronomers are often fascinated with large objects. Planets that could hold 1000 Earths (Jupiter). Stars that would fill up the entire inner Solar System (Betelgeuse). Galaxies with 400 billion stars (Milky Way). But what about the smallest objects? One of the smallest stars is Proxima Centauri, the closest known star other than our Sun. It is about 12% of the mass of the Sun. Earlier this year, astronomers announced the discovery of a possible third planet orbiting Proxima Centauri indicating that even very small stars can have planets. The smallest theoretically possible star would be about 7.5% of the mass of the Sun. Any smaller and it could not support the nuclear reactions characteristic of stars. For more on small stars, go to http://goo.gl/EHBdOX.

Thursday: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks late next week. But there will be increased meteor activity in the vicinity of the constellation Lyra until then. The meteors appear to come from a point to the right of the bright bluish star Vega in the constellation Lyra the lyre. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at midnight and close to straight overhead near dawn. Go to https://earthsky.org/?p=158735 for more information.

Friday: “The crow rises in the southeast,” said spy number one. “I’m sorry. I don’t recognize that code,” replied spy number two. Spy one exclaimed, “That’s because it’s not a code, you idiot. I’m talking about the constellation Corvus the crow.” This very bad spy movie dialogue is to remind you that Corvus had a very bad life. According to one myth, Corvus brought the god Apollo the news that his girlfriend was seeing someone else. In a classic case of punishing the messenger, Apollo turned the formerly beautifully colored crow black. The box-shaped Corvus is one fist above the southeastern horizon at 9:00 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of March 5, 2022

Today: Do you see a hunter when you look at Orion, due south at 7:30 p.m.? The bright reddish star Betelgeuse, five fists above due south, and Bellatrix, the bright bluish-white star one fist to the right of Betelgeuse, are the broad shoulders of the hunter. The bright bluish-white star Rigel and Saiph, the bright star to the left of Rigel, represent the knees.  The Maya saw the equilateral triangle formed by Rigel, Saiph, and the left-most belt star as the “Three Stones of the Hearth”. The Orion Nebula is in the center of the hearth and it represents the flame, called K’ak.

Sunday: Even though Zubenelgenubi is the second brightest star in Libra, its name means Southern Claw in Arabic, an artifact of the time that it was considered part of Scorpius the scorpion. Zubenelgenubi is a visual binary, consisting of a white and yellow star that are about arc minutes apart from each other in the sky. This is about the same angular diameter of a medium sized dark spot, or mare, on the Moon and can be observed with the naked eye under good sky conditions. In actuality, they are at least 5,500 astronomical units apart from each other, about 130 times the distance between the Sun and Pluto. Zubenelgenubi is two fists above the south-southwestern horizon at 5:30 a.m.

Monday: Venus is one fist above the southeastern horizon at 5:45 a.m. Mars is a half a fist below it.

Tuesday: Did you get binoculars for the holidays? Like for President’s Day or Martin Luther King, Junior Day? If so, start using them on some top binocular targets found here: http://tiny.cc/5d4rtz. The first item on the list, the Moon, is a great choice this week because it is close to the first quarter phase meaning it is visible from sunset to midnight. One of my favorite binocular objects is the Hyades Open Star Cluster, a fist to the left of the moon. It is a V-shaped set of stars. The bright star Aldebaran is in the upper left hand corner. Just below Aldebaran is the double star system Theta1 and Theta2 Tauri.

Wednesday: The bright star Spica finally makes an appearance in the evening sky. It is one and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Thursday:  If you ask an astrobiologist for the three most likely places to find evidence of life in the Solar System, other than Earth, they’d probably say Mars, Europa (“Didn’t they sing “The Final Countdown”?”), and Enceladus. Mars makes sense because you know scientists have sent a lot of probes there. Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, is an up and coming interest that first piqued astrobiologists’ interest a few years ago when NASA’s Cassini probe discovered jets of water containing organic materials shooting out. Between the pop culture alien hot spot of Mars and the new favorite is Jupiter’s moon Europa. Astronomers first discovered strong evidence of a large water ocean on Europa in 1989 during a Galileo flyby. In the next five years, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will be sending spacecraft to Europa. For a preview of the ESA JUICE mission and the NASA Europa Clipper mission, go to https://youtu.be/dAW2uPPS2A4.

Friday: Are you lonesome tonight? Alphard in the constellation Hydra is. Also spelled Al Fard, Arabic for “the solitary one”, Alphard is in a region of the sky without any bright stars. Alphard really ought to have a lot of friends. It is an orange giant star like better known stars such as Arcturus and Aldebaran. It pulsates, making it interesting to astro-seismologists. And it is on the flag of Brazil. There’s no reason for it to be lonely. Go introduce yourself to Alphard, three and a half fists above due south at 10:00 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm. 

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 19, 2022

Saturday: Tonight is a great night to look for the Big Dipper. Tomorrow will be a great night to look for the Big Dipper. In fact, every night for many centuries will be great nights to look for the Big Dipper. But the Big Dipper’s shape slowly changes over many, many, many, many centuries. (Have I reached my word count yet?) Tens of thousands of years ago, it didn’t look like a dipper and tens of thousands of years from now, it will no longer look like a dipper. For a short video simulation of the changing Big Dipper, go to https://youtu.be/txJH8RlIoXQ. For a look at the current Dipper, face northeast at 8:00 p.m. The lowest star, Alkaid, is two fists held upright and at arm's length above the horizon. 

Sunday: The moon is a half a fist above the east-southeastern horizon at 11:00 p.m. The bright star Spica is a little over a half a fist to the upper right of the moon.

Monday: Last week we learned that Clyde Tombaugh discovered the first planet 9. Will you discover the new Planet 9? You and thousands of others will have the opportunity to comb through images of the sky from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). You’ll view short “flipbook” movies of the same patch of sky on different nights. Any point of light that moves could be Planet 9 or another undiscovered Solar System object. Read about how you can join the search for Planet 9 at http://tiny.cc/fh4jtz.    

Tuesday: Very bright Venus is nearly one and a half fists above due southeast at 6:15 a.m. Mars is halfway between Venus and the horizon. Mercury is just above the east-southeastern horizon.

Wednesday: It’s getting dark. The last remnant of twilight has disappeared. Suddenly, you notice a large softly radiant pyramid of light in the western sky. The base of this ghostly triangle is along the west horizon and the peak stretches two or three fists above the horizon. It is not really a ghost. It is an effect called the zodiacal light. This light comes from sunlight reflecting off dust grains in our solar system. The effect is the most visible when the band of constellations called the zodiac makes a steep angle with the horizon. You need a clear dark sky with no haze or light pollution to see the zodiacal light. At its brightest, the zodiacal light rivals the light of the central Milky Way. Look for the ghostly patch after twilight for the next few weeks.

Thursday: On these late winter mornings, it is still difficult to get going. You just want to plop into a chair and sit still. But, are you really sitting still? You’re moving at about 700 miles per hour due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis and 66,000 miles per hour due to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. If that’s not enough, the entire solar system is orbiting the center of the galaxy at a whopping 480,000 miles per hour! So while you may be sitting still with respect to your living room (and all of the overachievers in your house), you are NOT sitting still with respect to the center of the galaxy. For more information about this concept, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/HowFast.pdf. 

Friday: Two bright stars, Vega and Deneb, are hugging the northern horizon together at 11:00 p.m. Vega, the brighter of the two, is about a half a fist above the northeastern horizon. Supergiant Deneb to two and a half fists to the left of Vega, closer to due north.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of 2/12/22

 Today: On February 18, 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, at that time classified as the ninth planet. However, as astronomers started discovering a lot of similar objects in that part of the Solar System, they realized that they had a classification crisis on their hands. Should everything in this region of the Solar System be named a planet? Eventually the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto and all future Pluto-like objects as dwarf planets. This week you can celebrate the discovery with the people at Lowell Observatory, the “home” of Pluto’s discovery. Go to https://iheartpluto.org/ for more information about nightly events from tonight through February 21.

Sunday: Are you going to watch the super bowl tonight? Is the bowl really that super? After all, half the night the bowl is tipped upside down, spilling out all of its contents. But don’t just focus on the functionality of the bowl. Think about how it inspires people all across the world to look at the night sky. In Mongolia, participants in the super bowl are known as gods. An Arabian story says the super bowl is a coffin. I encourage you to go outside tonight at about 8:00 p.m., after whatever unimportant thing you have been doing since 3:30 p.m. Look low in the north-northwestern sky and watch the super bowl, also known as the Big Dipper, balancing on the end of its handle, proudly displaying its large bowl.

Monday: Next Monday on President’s Day, let’s remember Abraham Lincoln: 16th president, country lawyer, man on the penny, wrestler, and astronomer. Astronomer? Well, maybe not an astronomer, but someone who used observational evidence from the sky to solve a problem. In 1858, Lincoln defended Duff Armstrong, a family friend who was accused of murder. The prosecution thought they had a strong case because their primary witnesses claimed to have observed the killing by the light of the nearly full moon. Let’s listen in on the trial courtesy of the 1939 film, Young Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln: How’d you see so well?

Witness: I told you it was Moon bright, Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln: Moon bright.

Witness: Yes.

(Dramatic pause as Lincoln reaches for something)

Lincoln: Look at this. Go on, look at it. It’s the Farmer’s Almanack (sic). You see what it says about the Moon. That the Moon… set at 10: 21, 40 minutes before the killing took place. So you see it couldn’t have been Moon bright, could it?

Lincoln used the known information about Moon rising and setting times for August 29, 1858 as evidence in a trial. This is one of the earliest uses of forensic astronomy. For more information about Lincoln’s “almanac trial”, go to http://goo.gl/r83q4X

Tuesday: Jupiter is a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west-southwest horizon at 6:00 p.m.

Wednesday: The good news is the days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter. The better news for most readers of this column is the farther north you go in the United States, the longer the days get. Here in Ellensburg, there are almost two more hours of daylight than on the first day of winter. In the southern part of the US, there is only 50 more minutes of sunlight. If you’d like to have your own fun with day lengths and other time questions, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/.

Thursday: At 6:15 a.m., Venus is a little more than one fist above the southeastern horizon. Mars is about a half a fist below it. Mercury is much more challenging to see, just above the horizon to the lower left of the other two planets.

Friday: The sky is so wondrous. It makes me want to sing. 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. Which is good. Because not all stars are white. Most stars are too dim to notice a color. But, two of the stars in the constellation Orion provide a noticeable contrast with each other. Betelgeuse, five fists above due south at 8:30 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, found one and a half fists to the lower left of Orion; Canis Minor, the lesser dog, found two and a half fists to the left of Betelgeuse; and Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs, found low in the northeast sky, halfway between the Big Dipper and the horizon. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.