Regulars (Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll)

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 4/14/11

Colored Lights In the Night

A rainbow of hues shines from the heavens

The waxing moon reaches full phase Sunday. Saturday it shines less than 10 degrees — the span of an average fist held at arm’s length — below Saturn, the only visible evening planet. The next night, the full moon is farther to the east of Saturn, and the star Regulus five degrees above it. Saturn and Regulus appear about equally bright, both near first magnitude, but Saturn’s steady golden glow is a sharp contrast to the twinkling, blue-white star. ...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 4/7/11

The Buzz in the Heavens

Follow the moon to these star clusters

The moon waxes through afternoon and evening skies this week, passing through the spring constellations of the zodiax and reaching first-quarter phase Monday. Thursday the crescent moon appears high in the west as the sun sets at 7:35. The bright-orange glow of Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus the bull, shines less than 10 degrees beneath the moon. Surrounding Aldebaran is a V-shaped group of stars, the Hyades cluster, which makes up the bull’s face. Six degrees above the...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 3/24/11

Going, Going, Gone

We have several planets to look for, but they’re disappearing fast

The waning moon reaches last-quarter on Saturday, rising around 2:30am and shining high in the south as the sun rises at 7am. If you’re up before this time, look to the east for blazing Venus. At magnitude –4, Venus is by far the brightest star-like object in our sky. So low in the sky, Venus puts on quite a display, dancing and shimmering above the horizon. While Venus is always bright, no matter its position in the sky. But when it is so close to the horizon,...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 3/17/11

Look, Up in the Sky ...

Neither plane nor loon, it’s Super Moon

Thursday’s near-full moon shines below the bright star Regulus, the heart of Leo the lion. This star, 77 light years away, has four times the girth, burns more than twice as hot and is more than 100 times brighter than our sun. By Saturday the moon is full, and like all full moons, it rises as the sun sets, around 7:30 on this day. Aligned as they are, with earth in between the two, the gravitational pull of both sun and moon work in conjunction to produce the highest...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 3/10/11

Seasonal Holdouts

Spring is days away, but the stars of winter still rule the heavens

Thursday as the sun sets around 6:10, the waxing moon glows high in the west. Look just a few degrees below this smiling crescent for glimmers from the Pleiades star cluster. With clear dark skies you might see six of these distant lights, but with the moon’s glow you’ll have an easier time with binoculars, which should reveal far more stars. Shaped like a small dipper, the Pleiades cluster fits within a pair of binocular’s field of view, about 5 degrees. ...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 3/3/11

Escaping the Sun’s Grasp

Sometimes we can’t see the things right before our eyes

By week’s end, the moon is lost amid the glare of the sun, with new moon at 3:46 Friday afternoon. While you might say that the moon has disappeared behind the sun, it has in truth disappeared in front of the sun. As our natural satellite, the moon’s orbit around earth never carries it opposite the sun. Rather, the new moon is there before our eyes, as close as ever. But as it hovers in broad daylight directly between Earth and the sun, we are blind to it. By...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 2/24/11

Take Part, Lend an Eye

If not for science, then do it for the thrill of the hunt

By the time the sun sets around 5:55, Jupiter shines through the fading twilight low in the west. There should be no mistaking Jove’s brilliant glow, but the darker the sky grows, the closer to the horizon he settles, finally disappearing around 8pm. Through the night, the figure of the great hunter Orion strides through southern skies. With two of the brightest stars at opposite corners of his hourglass shape bisected by three parallel stars marking his belt, Orion is...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 2/17/11

Celestial Signs of Rebirth

The cycle continues in the heavens and in distant galaxies

February’s full moon straddles Thursday and Friday, appearing equally large both nights. The actual moment of totality is at 4:36am Friday, when the moon is opposite the sun with earth smack-dab between the two. Despite some spring-like days, February often ushers in the heaviest snowfalls of the year, hence the names the Snow Moon and the Hunger Moon. But February also marks the stirrings of life, as names like the Sap Moon and the Worm Moon indicate. ...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 2/10/11

Celestial Heavy-Hitters

Only the brightest stand up against the waxing winter moon

Thursday’s first-quarter moon appears almost directly overhead with sunset around 5:35. By the time the sky has become truly dark an hour later, the moon has pivoted westward and the red star Aldebaran, of Taurus, has taken its earlier place. The next evening the waxing moon has edged closer to Aldebaran. While the bull’s eye blazes a dozen degrees to the east of the moon, you will have to hunt for the Pleiades sisters a scant two degrees from the moon’s upper edge,...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 2/3/11

All Hail the Returning Sun!

Brace yourself for the quickening

You might not know it with the cold, gray weather of late, but this week we pass the midpoint of winter, with February 5 marking the first of the year’s four cross-quarter days. January 1 of the Julian calendar marks the new year for us in the modern western world. However, our long-distant ancestors had no such construct, instead looking to the changes in the heavens and here on earth to delineate the seasons and to break up their year. And for many of those peoples, February 2, midway...