All winter long we’ve been dazzled and amazed by the bright luminaries that make up the cast of what I call “Orion and his gang.”
When you gaze upward into the early spring Everett skies, you can’t help but see those three distinct stars that make up the belt of the mighty hunter, the constellation Orion.
It’s one of 65 to 70 constellations that we can see in the skies over the course of the year, but, as far as I’m concerned, Orion is the king of the constellations. It’s one of the few constellations that kind of looks like what it’s supposed to be.
No matter how much light pollution you have to put up with he’s easily visible. Without too much imagination, you can see the torso of a muscular man with the bright star Rigel marking his left knee and Betelgeuse, a bright and noticeably orangeish star, at his right armpit.
At nightfall, which comes later and later as April progresses, Orion the hunter appears in the southwestern sky, leaning to the right.
Surrounding Orion is his gang of bright constellations that almost jump out at you. They include Taurus the bull, that resembles a small downward pointing arrow; Auriga the chariot driver turned goat farmer; Gemini the Twins; and Canis Major and Canis Minor, Orion’s large and small hunting dogs respectively.
Joining Orion’s gang this month is the very bright planet Venus that put on quite a show with Jupiter last month as they drew to within three degrees of each other.
Since then they’ve parted company and Jupiter sets below the western horizon pretty much before the end of twilight. Venus starts the evening higher in the western sky and passes right next to the bright Pleiades star cluster this week.
It should be quite a sight through a small telescope or even a pair of binoculars. Whatever you use, you’ll notice that Venus looks like a tiny half moon. The planets Venus and Mercury go through phase shape changes just like our moon since their solar orbits lie within Earth’s orbit around the sun.
Orion and his posse, along with Venus, will start each evening closer and closer to the western horizon as spring progresses.
By late May, most of the starry participants will already be below the horizon at the end of twilight. They will return to our evening skies in late October and early November to brighten up the eastern heavens.
In the high northern sky, the Big Dipper is putting on quite a show, hanging upside down in the early evening.
Over in the eastern sky the main constellation attraction is Leo the Lion, another one of those rare constellations that resembles what it’s supposed to be.
The constellation actually comes in two parts. The upper right side is an easy- to-see backward question mark, leaning to the left that outlines the chest and head of the king of the celestial beasts.
The moderately bright star that makes up the period of the question mark is the star Regulus, marking the heart of the Lion. To the lower left of the starry query symbol is a fairly boring but bright triangle that makes up the rear and tail of Leo.
Mike Lynch is an astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist and author of the book, “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores. Check his website, www.lynchandthestars.com.
The Everett Astronomical Society: www.everettastro.org/.
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