Good Time for Saturn
Saturn's getting all the attention! If you've followed the news over the last few weeks, you've no doubt seen the pictures of the surface of its smoggy orange moon Titan. The data returned suggest a bizarre, active world complete with lakes of liquid methane. There isn't much that can possibly be liquid at -300° F, but methane is! To get all the latest news from Saturn, visit the Cassini mission home page.
While taking in the exciting news about Titan, this is also a great time to go out and look for Saturn with your own eyes. This month it's placed high in the early evenint sky, not too far away from the constellation Gemini the Twins. Saturn appears quite bright as it's just past its closest approach to the Earth for the year. You can look for Saturn as soon as the sky starts to get dark after sunset.
Stay out a little later for a good view of Jupiter, which rises around 10:30 PM at the beginning of the month. Wait an hour or two until the planet rises above the trees, buildings, and other obstacles that may obstruct your view.
Seeing Double
On the next clear evening, take a moment to learn a new constellation, Gemini the Twins. To find Gemini, first locate Orion the Hunter high in the southern sky. From Rigel, his right knee, draw a line up and across Orion's body through his shoulder Betelgeuse, and follow that line until you reach the twin stars that mark the heads of the Gemini twins.
Under darker skies, away from ligiht pollution, you should be able to trace a pair of stick-figure bodies leading from the heads down to their feet, back toward Orion. If the sky is dark enough, you can even imagine the twins standing on the cloudy ribbon of the Milky Way, which passes between Gemini and Orion.
Now that you have found the heads of the twins, marked by the stars Castor and Pollux, which one is which? Just like real fraternal twins, they can sometimes be hard to tell apart.
One way to remember is to learn the names of two other nearby stars, Capella in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer and Procyon in Canis Minor, the Little Dog. Capella lies high above the head of Orion, while Procyon is on the other side of Gemini, nearer Sirius, the brigiht star of Canis Major, the Big Dog.
How does this help with the Gemini twins? Just remember that Castor is closer to Capella, while Pollux is closer to Procyon! While Castor and Pollux are named after the famed mythological twins, the two stars themselves are very different.
Pollux is a single star, like our sun. It has a pale orange color and lies about 34 light years away from Earth. Castor appears to be a hot, white star about 52 light years away from Earth.
But, looking at Castor through a backyard telescope, you may notice that it's actually a double star - two stars in orbit about each other. Observations with more sensitive equipment reveal that these two stars are each double stars themselves! And orbiting this double-double system, is... you guessed it: another, even fainter double-star system. Castor is really six stars in one! And you thought Gemini only contained one pair of twins!
Comet Machholz Update
Early last month, the faint tail of Comet Machholz passed right in front of the Pleiades star cluster as seen from earth. This sight was captured in a breathtaking photograph.
The comet may still be visible this month as a faint patch of light between the constellations of Perseus and Ursa Minor. As we write this, it's too early to know whether it will be visible to the naked eye as it was in January, but you should still be able to see it with binoculars or a telescope from a dark location away from city lights.
Upcoming Star Party
Join us and the Barnard Seyfert Astronomical Society for our next FREE public star party, set for Saturday, February 12, from 7:30 to 9:30 PM at the model airplane field at Edwin Warner Park. We'll have prime views of Saturn and Jupiter - and maybe Comet Machholz, too! Be sure to bundle up in extra layers - it may be very cold!