Photo of the Week. Most stars take on only subtle
hues. Not carbon stars, which glow a deep red. Here, the semi-
regular variable giant star V Aquilae vividly shines below the
bright star (Lambda Aquilae) near the center. Compare with W Orionis and TT
Cygni.
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, October 20, 2006.
The week begins with the waning
crescent Moon one day shy of new, rendering it quite invisible,
the new phase reached the night of Saturday the 21st. We then get
to see the waxing crescent low in
western evening dusk the night of Tuesday the 24th. Watch as it
climbs in successive nights ever higher out of twilight, heading
toward first quarter early next week.
If you can spot the Moon early on the night of the 24th, you might
also look for
Jupiter and
Mercury to the right of the crescent, Jupiter the higher of the
two. You'll need a flat horizon and probably binoculars. The
bright star Antares will be up
and to the left of the Moon, while the following night (Wednesday
the 25th) look for the star to the right of the crescent.
The week (if extended by a day) has interesting and rather curious
parings. The two planets that bracket the Earth,
Mars and
Venus, both come into conjunction with the Sun, Mars from the
direction of the evening sky on Monday the 23rd, Venus (in superior
conjunction, in back of the Sun) from the morning sky on Friday the
27th. Mars will then become a morning planet, Venus an evening
planet, both symmetrically clearing twilight shortly after year's
end. Crossing apparent paths, the two quite invisibly also come
into conjunction with each other on Tuesday the 24th (though widely
separated by nearly a full Astronomical Unit: the distance between
Earth and Sun). The largest and smallest of the ancient planets,
Jupiter and Mercury, then come into conjunction with each other in
mid-week, on Wednesday the 25th. If you want to see a bright
planet, all that is readily available is Saturn,
which rises to the west of Regulus in Leo around 1:30 AM Daylight Time.
While admiring Saturn, you might look before dawn for the Orionid meteor shower (the meteors coming from the
direction of Orion), which will
be at its peak the mornings of Saturday the 21st and Sunday the
22nd, giving us (in a dark sky) 20-25 meteors per minute. These
flakings of Halley's Comet
will continue in diminished numbers throughout the week and into
next week as well.
'Tis the season for the constellations of the Perseus myth, led by Pegasus (with its Great Square climbing the eastern sky in early evening)
and, well to the north, by Cepheus, the King and father of Andromeda. The "W" of the most
famed of the set, Cassiopeia, the
Queen (and mother), is then seen beautifully climbing in the
northeast.
