Stargazing This Week
Hey there! This is an excerpt from our weekly newsletter, where we talk about what’s in the night sky and what happened in the world of physics over the past week. Check out this week’s installment, and if its at all interesting, you can sign up here.
Supermoon on Moonday Night
With tonight’s full moon, It’s official super moon season! Which is great for overnight, outdoor activities that perhaps don’t involve stargazing. The full moon is considered “super” when the actually moon is physically closer to us, that is, close to the moon’s orbital perigee. As Bruce McClure points out at EarthSky. It’s not an illusion. The moon does look bigger. The next three moonths will include such bright full moons, so we’re just getting started. For you folks on Pacific Time, the official fullest of the full moon will be at 8:30pm, less than an hour after it rises up here in the Methow.
Mercury and Venus in the Evening
It’s not often that we get to see Mercury, and often when we do it’s early in the morning. But for the next month or so, it will hover with Venus above the horizon at dusk. So if you’re enjoying the evening air outside, make sure to keep your eyes out to the West.
To find these planets in the northern hemisphere, look to right of Orion as he sinks into the horizon. If you can’t yet see the bright pair, from Orion find the Pleiades star cluster, and follow a line directly to the horizon. From our perspective, Mercury just overtook Venus on Thursday, so the “jumping planet” will be the higher, fainter of the two. You might want to get familiar with the direction those two planets make over the next few weeks, as the Moon and Mars will both be near by and help you identify our solar system’s orbital plane.
Find M35 with Mars and Gemini
Speaking of Mars, starting tonight and through most of this week, it will be sitting right on top of the open star cluster M35. The star cluster is a bit faint to see without an optical aid, but the red planet should easily help you aim your binoculars. Given all the super moonlight around - and the fact that Mars sets relatively early - you’re probably going to need to time it right. You’ll have a window between sunset and moonrise. The window will grow a bit as the week wears on.
To find Mars look to the west, lower as the evening progresses. This week Mars begins its approach through the constellation Gemini, which we’ve been discussing for the past few weeks.
