Summer’s long gone, but stars remain

There’s no sense sugar-coating it. Winter stargazing in and around Everett is not for hothouse flowers, but if you bundle up and keep your feet warm, the rewards are heavenly.

Unfortunately for true stargazers we start out this month with a full moon. The full moon this time of year makes a high arc as it rises in the east around sunset and sets in the west around sunrise, and it whitewashes out all but moderate to bright stars, making it hard to pick out constellations.

Later this coming week, though, the moon will be pretty much out of the early evening sky.

Believe it or not, in the early evening western sky you can still see the Summer Triangle of stars, Vega, Altair and Deneb, which are the brightest stars in their respective constellations.

Deneb, a star possibly more than 1,500 light-years away, is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus the Swan, otherwise known by its nickname the Northern Cross.

During the holiday season the cross is standing nearly upright above the northwestern horizon. This is the last call for the Northern Cross and the Summer Triangle, because next month the night side of the Earth will turn away from that part of space.

The great horse Pegasus is riding high in the south-southwestern sky with Cassiopeia the Queen, the one that looks like a bright W in the high northern sky.

The Big Dipper is still very low in the northern sky, but you’ll notice that from night to night it will gradually get higher, standing diagonally on its handle. The Little Dipper is hanging by its handle above the Big Dipper, with Polaris, the North Star, at the end of its handle.

Because Polaris is shining directly above Earth’s North Pole, it appears that all of the stars in the sky revolve around it once every 24 hours, including our sun.

If you’re a planet-watching fan, the great planet Jupiter starts out the evening in the fairly low southwestern sky. This will be the last month that we can really get a good look at it. It’s farther and fainter then it was earlier this fall, but it’s still worth telescope and binocular time.

You should clearly see the disk of the planet, maybe some of the brighter clouds bands that stripe Jupiter and for sure its brighter Galilean moons that look like tiny little stars either side of planet.

You may see up to four moons as they change their positions and orbit Jupiter in periods of two to 17 days.

Also, if you stay up really late you can watch the red planet Mars rising in the eastern sky. In January Mars will be the closest it’s been to Earth in a couple of years.

Stay tuned to this Starwatch column for more on the 2010 Martian invasion.

Mike Lynch is an astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.

The Everett Astronomical Society welcomes new members. Go to www.everettastro.org/.