Articles by J. Alex Knoll

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; 3/3/11

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; 2/24/11

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; 2/17/11

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; 2/10/11

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...

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

Riding the Ecliptic

Some of the sky’s brightest sites travel this road through the heavens

The waning gibbous moon rises around 7:45pm Friday, January 21. Look a half-dozen degrees above it for the blue-white star Regulus, the heart of Leo the lion. Just as the lion is the king of beasts, Leo is the king of the constellations. In Latin, regulus means little king. The star is located right on the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun, moon, planets and the constellations of the zodiac, meaning that at times during each year it rises with the sun, giving it great powers throughout...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll; 1/20/11

By the Light of the Moon

Follow the waxing moon and test your eyesight

The waxing gibbous moon brightens the night sky this week, appearing high in the southeast Thursday at sunset a little after 5:00. The next evening, and each following night, sunset finds the moon roughly a dozen degrees to the east. Thursday, the moon shines in front of the constellation Aries, with the three stars outlining the ram’s head shining to the upper right of the moon. A rather indistinct constellation at best, Aries’ brightest stars, Hamal, Sheratan and Mesarthim, pale...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll; 1/13/11

A Matter of Degrees

Even at their best, we can never see the full face of Mercury or Venus

While winter has just begun, we’re already in the process of reclaiming daylight, and Saturday marks a milestone when the sun sets at 5:00. Over the next month, the sun sets roughly one minute later each day. That same Saturday, daybreak arrives at 7:25, but alas, through January, it will come just a few minutes earlier each week. Sunset reveals Jupiter in the south. Look for the waxing moon less than 10 degrees to the east of Jupiter Sunday night and to the west Monday night. By 10...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll; 1/6/11

Basking in the Sun’s Rays

While Old Sol is seven percent stronger this week, it’s unlikely you’ll need to break out the sunscreen

While we commonly mark the first week of January as the commencement of the new year, it also marks two significant milestones in the passage of the earth’s journey around the sun. You wouldn’t know it by winter’s chilly grip, but January 4 marks perihelion, earth’s closest approach to the sun. On this day, 92.187 million miles separate us from the sun, compared to aphelion, around July 4 each year, when the two are 93.375 million miles apart. Sunlight hitting the earth...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll; 12/30/10

On the Inside Looking Out

The Great Winter Circle beckons you to come outdoors

With solstice behind us, we’re in the full throes of winter. Long nights with little or no humidity make for great star-watching, even as the cold saps the desire to stay outside. As if to further lure us into the conundrum, winter skies are alight with some of the brightest stars in the heavens, contained within the Great Winter Circle and all neatly gathered in a ring surrounding the familiar figure of Orion. By 9pm, this grouping is above the southeast horizon, stretching nearly one-...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll; 12/23/10