Stargazing, July 14th

targazing from the Greater Vancouver Area, July 14-15

By Sonya Neilson

The following will help you find some of the highlights in the sky on the night of July 14th. If you want to use an interactive app for your phone, I recommend downloading Google Skymaps.

July 14^th Highlights

·         4 planets visible to the naked eye (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn)

·         2 flyovers by the International Space Station (ISS)

·         Moonless night, making stars more visible

·         Stars to look for: Mizar & Alcor, Polaris, Arcturus, Vega, Deneb, Altair, Antares

·         Interesting constellations: Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Cassiopeia, Bootes, Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila

Important Times

·         9:14                  Sunset

·         ~10:00              Best time to view Venus and find Jupiter

·         10:31                Mars rises

·         1:16                  Jupiter sets

·         2:05 -2:09          ISS (International Space Station), first flyover

·         3:39-3:45           ISS, second flyover

·         5:23                  Sunrise

Details

Best place for viewing planets in particular is somewhere with a view of the low horizon to the Southeast, South, and Southwest.

Planets:

Venus is only visible just after the sun sets, and will soon follow it below the horizon at 11:05. Just look straight up from where the sun set in the west when the first stars start to come out. Venus will be very bright – about as bright as a plane coming in to land. It is the third brightest object in our sky (after the sun and moon).

Jupiter will start to be visible around the same time as Venus. Turn to the South and look slightly higher than Venus was. It is still very bright, but not quite as bright as Venus. As the night goes on and the Earth turns, Jupiter (and the stars) will travel across our sky towards the West, setting at 1:16 am.

Saturn is in the sky as the sun sets, but is less bright and will be easier to find once a few of the stars have come out (10:30 is a good time). To find Saturn, first find Jupiter. Hold your fist out at arm’s length- you can use the width of your fist to measure distance across the sky. Just over 2 fists to the East (left) of Jupiter is a bright red flickering star called Antares. Antares is in the constellation of Scorpius and is considered to be the heart of the scorpion. Measure another two fists East from Antares, and you will find Saturn. In the very early evening it is easy to pick out because it shows up early and is fairly bright – about as bright as the brightest stars in the sky. Saturn will move to the south and then west through the night, finally setting in the west in the morning at 4:08.

Is it a planet or a star? One way to tell the difference is that stars twinkle and planets don’t. Saturn will not twinkle, even as the stars around it do.

Mars is the final visible planet tonight. It won’t rise in the East-Southeast until 10:31 pm, but will be very bright once it rises high enough to be seen. Mars will be far brighter than any of the stars around it and will have a very obvious orange colour. Mars is about as close as it can possibly get to the Earth right now, and even at this close distance, Mars is still a 6 month journey away, should you choose to go there. After midnight is probably a good time for Mars viewing, depending on the surrounding vegetation.

Stars and Constellations

Finding direction using constellations

The group of stars you probably know as the Big Dipper has been used by cultures all over the northern hemisphere for navigation and telling the time of year. Interestingly, many cultures on separate continents have named this group of stars after a bear, and they are known to the international astronomical union as being part of the constellation Ursa Major, or great bear.

In the evening, the Big Dipper will be above you in the Northwestern Sky. Its stars are all very bright and it is one of the easiest constellations to see in the city. When you find the Big Dipper, look closely at the star that makes up the “kink” in the handle – you will notice that it is actually two stars – a bright one named Mizar and a dimmer one next to it named Alcor.

The Big Dipper is your guide to finding other constellations. The two stars on the end of the “scoop” part are called the pointer stars (official names are Merak and Dubhe). Follow them up in the direction that water would “spill” out of the “scoop”, and the next bright star you find will be Polaris.

Polaris is the end of the handle of the dimmer group of stars known as the Little Dipper – your eyes may need some time to see the rest of this constellation, but Polaris is arguably the most important star in our night sky. Polaris is the North Star. It is directly above the North Pole of the Earth and is always seen in the same place in the sky. It will always be to the North of you, so if you draw a line straight down and find the horizon, that direction is North. Now you can find East, South, and West, just using the stars.

Cassiopeia can be found using the pointer stars in the Big Dipper as well. If you continue in the same direction from the pointer stars, past Polaris, you will find the “W” shaped constellation to the Northeast called Cassiopeia, meant to look like a queen sitting on her throne.

Bootes can also be found using the Big Dipper. If you follow the arc of the handle around as if it continued curving off in the distance, you will reach a very bright star called Arcturus. Remember, “Arc to Arcturus”. Arcturus is a massive red giant star nearing the end of its life. Arcturus is the point of a wedge-shaped group of stars known as Bootes, though most of the other stars will be difficult to see in the city.

The Summer Triangle

There are three bright stars in the summer sky that make up a large triangle: Vega, Deneb, and Altair. These three are all in separate constellations.

Vega is the brightest of these three stars, in the constellation of Lyra (the harp). It will be quite high overhead and slightly to the East in the evening. Vega is the 4^th brightest star in the sky, partly because it is so close to us at only 25 light years away (for comparison, Polaris is 430 light years away). There will be a small diamond-shaped group of dimmer stars near Vega that make up the rest of the constellation of Lyra.

Deneb is the second brightest star in the summer triangle. It is closer to the horizon and to the North of Vega. Deneb is part of Cygnus (the swan), also sometimes called the Northern Cross. Deneb is the top of the cross and is considered the tail of the swan (Deneb is the Arabic word for “tail”). In the direction of Cygnus the swan, scientists found the first ever black hole, discovered because it has a star orbiting it (appearing to spin around nothing). The black hole (named Cygnus X-1) is over 6,000 light years away and is still the closest confirmed black hole.

Altair is the final star making up our Summer Triangle. It is to the South of Deneb and closer still to the horizon. Altair is the latin word for “eagle” and Altair is the brightest star in a large diamond-shaped constellation called Aquila (the eagle). Altair is even closer to Earth than Vega – it is under 17 light years away, but the star itself is much dimmer than Vega.

The International Space Station (ISS)

We are lucky enough to have not one but two flyovers by the ISS. However, they won’t happen until the wee hours of the morning. If you find yourself awake between 2:05 and 2:09, or between 3:39 and 3:45, take the time to go and watch the largest human-made satellite fly overhead, along with its six occupants from Germany, USA, and Russia. The ISS looks brighter than any of the stars in the sky, in spite of being around 400 kms over our heads.

One of the mind-blowing thigs to think about is that those two flyovers are just over an hour and a half apart. During that time, the ISS had to travel around the entire planet. In order to stay in orbit and not crash down into the Earth, the ISS travels at 28,000 km/h.

The next Canadian to go to space, named David Saint-Jacques, is scheduled to head to the ISS in December of this year. He will be the next in just over 500 astronauts who have had the privilege to travel to outer space.

How to spot the ISS:

At 2:05 am, it will appear in the Western sky and travel to the East-Northeast for 4 minutes. It will appear just barely brighter than the brightest stars and will move slowly but obviously overhead. Like planets, the ISS does not twinkle. It may seem to appear or disappear from the sky rather than falling below the horizon – this is because the light we see on the ISS is reflected from the sun, so the ISS is not visible when it is in the shadow of the Earth.

The second ISS flyover happens at 3:39 am and is visible for 6 minutes - this time appearing in the West-Northwest and heading to the East.