Sun rises at 6:29am
Sun sets at 5:36pm
Moon phase: Full Moon
Moon rises at 5:06pm, Saturday
Moon sets at 5:25am, Sunday
This week has been a star-gazer’s delight. The evening skies have been vividly full of recognizable constellations twinkling down at us. Although there have been some clouds, they were small and drifting along, such that one could see Orion peeking out here and Cassiopeia poking out over there. The Winter Circle, which we examined over the last two weekends, continues to dominate the evening- to night-sky with surprising brightness. Perhaps I can be forgiven for hoping you, the readers, have noticed this clarity of starlight; after all, you are reading the Night Sky article today, so there is an interest in stargazing, right?
Let’s hope this weekend keeps up the trend of clear skies and bright stars, but the full moon will be a factor, as its brightness tends to diminish the starlight. Even so, we should enjoy seeing whatever mother nature has in store for us. Look after sunset on Saturday evening for the rising full moon in the east. It will be located in the constellation of Taurus, and you should be able to see Aldebaran and the Pleiades, bright features of the Bull’s face and shoulder; farther to the left, or north, look for Capella in the constellation Auriga. By 7:00pm, the bright stars Rigel and Betelgeuse in Orion the Hunter will rise, a bit to the right of the moon.
By about 10:00pm, look for the full winter circle in the eastern half of the sky, with the bright stars Sirius, Procyon and farther to the south (right) Canopus and Achernar. As the evening turns to full night, you’ll see the Great Square of Pegasus nearing the western horizon. Above the top right corner of the square, at about the same level as the sideways “W” of Cassiopeia, lies the galaxy of Andromeda. This is well worth finding with binoculars or a telescope. What looks like a normal star with the naked eye is revealed through magnification to be a mysterious and beautiful spiral galaxy. And gazing at it can be an almost spiritual experience, to know you are seeing something so distant, so huge, and so removed from everything we know and yet it is a place that actually exists is the stuff of true awe.
If you have some binoculars or a scope, don’t worry that you don’t know which star to aim it at. Choose a general area of the sky, such as the Northwest Quadrant at 1:00am, and take a look at every bright star in that area. Each one has something to offer the patient observer, but if you should stumble upon Andromeda or another galaxy the rewards are…well…heavenly.
Thank you for keeping up with the Night Sky articles. If you are out later on in the week, each star rises about four minutes earlier each day than written here, and the moon rises 50 minutes later. Night Sky is researched and compiled by Lisa Davis-Burnett. Earthsky.org is a key resource for information and images. Questions or comments? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
