Today:
Today marks the anniversary of the discovery of Pluto. Clyde Tombaugh was examining pictures taken through the telescope at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona in January, 1930, over a period of days. One of the “stars” in the image moved while the stars remained in place, revealing the frozen world for the first time.
Tuesday:
The waning Moon doesn’t rise until a few minutes after midnight, allowing dark evening skies to reveal the splendors of the Milky Way arched over the top of the sky. Early this evening, in the midst of the Milky Way and directly overhead near 7:20 PM, the star Capella sparkles as the 4th brightest star we can see.
Wednesday:
On the next clear night, it should be quite easy to find the brightest star – the North Star, right? No! As you scan the skies, tonight our brightest star emerges from the twilight in the southeast near 6:00 PM, and will be due south at 8:35 PM. You are watching Sirius, known commonly as the “Dog Star”, relatively close to us at only 8 light years away.