Cosmic Pursuits

Basic astronomy and night sky information

Brian Ventrudo

The ‘Seven (Dusty) Sisters’

By Filed Under: Deep Sky

An image of the Pleiades Star Cluster (Messier 45) and surrounding region. Image courtesy of Terry Hancock and Grand Mesa Observatory.

Like many observers both casual and serious, I do not tire of gazing upon the little star cluster known as the Pleiades. I’ve seen the cluster a thousand times, but I’ll still stop and take a long look at it without optics while out for a walk on a winter’s night. Some night I’ll grab a pair of binoculars and make a closer inspection of the cluster, which fits perfectly in the field of view of such an instrument. And if it’s not too cold, I’ll pull out a telescope and a wide-field eyepiece and spend 20 minutes taking in the astonishing view of this group of blue-white stars that formed while dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. Which, in celestial terms, was not all that long ago.

Why keep looking at the Pleiades after so many years? The cluster doesn’t appear to change, of course, in the restricted timescale of a human life. But the Pleiades is a profoundly beautiful sight, as pleasing as a field of alpine wildflowers, and I never fail to see new patterns of stars both bright and dim that I hadn’t noticed before [Read more…] about The ‘Seven (Dusty) Sisters’

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The Golden Light of a Winter Solstice

By Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
― John Steinbeck

On December 21, 2018 at 22:23 Universal Time, the Sun reaches the December solstice, its most southern point on the ecliptic. This marks the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere and the first day of summer in the southern hemisphere [Read more…] about The Golden Light of a Winter Solstice

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The Christmas Comet of 2018

By Filed Under: Celestial Events

Comet 45/P Wirtanen on December 9, 2018 through a telescope. Image courtesy of Transient Astronomer and Grand Mesa Observatory.

The year 2018 winds down with the apparition of the modest but easily observable Comet 46/P (Wirtanen). This periodic comet will not rival some of the better “Comets of Christmas Past” such as Comet McNaught in 2006, Comet Hale-Bopp as it brightened towards the end of 1996, or even the relatively disappointing Comet Kohoutek in 1973. But Comet Wirtanen will grow bright enough to see with binoculars and, in dark sky, with the naked eye as it passes through some of the most prominent constellations of the season. It’s a great excuse to dust off your optics and get outside to enjoy the solar system in action and share the view with those around you [Read more…] about The Christmas Comet of 2018

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The Lonely Star of Autumn

By Filed Under: Deep Sky

This illustration shows a ring of debris encircling the star Fomalhaut. A suspected planet is orbiting inside the ring. Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Feild (STScI)

In the vast expanse of sky between the brilliant stars Antares in the west and Sirius in the east, there lies but a single bright star of note, the star Fomalhaut. Low and prominent over the southern horizon, this lovely white star is a lonely sight on a northern fall evening. Fomalhaut marks the mouth of the constellation Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish).  The star is a pretty enough sight for casual stargazers this time of year, and it offers a very widely spaced companion that’s easy to see in binoculars. The star also hosts at least one ring of glowing dust and debris left over from its birth. And where there’s dust, there may very well be planets… [Read more…] about The Lonely Star of Autumn

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Barnard’s Star Has a Planet After All

By Filed Under: Science

An artist’s impression of the newly discovered planet round Barnard’s star, the nearest single star to the Sun The newly discovered planet is the second-closest known exoplanet to the Earth and orbits the fastest moving star in the night sky. Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser.

It was a discovery nearly a century in the making, but astronomers have finally detected a planet around the speedy little red dwarf known as Barnard’s Star. The existence of the planet is not particularly surprising given the vast harvest of exoplanets discovered since 1995 around all manner of stars. Nor is the planet a habitable world, to be sure. But it was welcome news nonetheless to find that the nearest single star to Earth has at least one planet in its relatively feeble gravitational embrace.

In many ways, Barnard’s Star was the “white whale” of exoplanet hunters. That’s because the star is close, just six light years away, the second-closest star system to Earth, which should make it easier to find an orbiting planet. And the star is prominent because of its speedy apparent motion across the sky. Barnard’s Star is also old, more than twice the age of our own solar system, so it’s had plenty of time to form a planetary system. But for nearly a hundred years, astronomers have examined the star for evidence of a planetary system using visual observation, photographic imaging, and finally using modern spectroscopic planet-hunting techniques. They came up empty every time [Read more…] about Barnard’s Star Has a Planet After All

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