<![CDATA[Friends of Gorge Area Parks

<![CDATA[Friends of Gorge Area Parks - What\'s in the Sky]]>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 07:40:06 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[What's in the Sky: October 2026]]>Fri, 25 Sep 2026 06:16:56 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-october-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

Note: Not all objects discussed may be visible during Observatory shows. Object visibility depends on location in the sky, rise and set times, and weather. Some objects may only be viewable during the early morning.

Welcome to October, our first full month of autumn. Days are becoming shorter and nights longer. Sunrise is now after 7am, and sunset is before 7pm. By the end of the month, sunset will come before 6pm.

The “star” of October will not be a star – rather a planet. Magnificent Saturn makes its closest approach to Earth this year, called “opposition” on October 4th. On that day, Saturn will be on the opposite side of the Earth than the Sun, hence the name.

Look for Saturn low in the east after sunset. It will be easy to spot. It will be very bright, outshining nearby stars. And, it will “twinkle” very little. Stars near our horizon tend to twinkle a lot. The faint light from faraway stars is bounced around in our atmosphere, causing the twinkling. Planets are close enough that we get a lot more light from them, and their light tends to be stronger, with little twinkling. Saturn also may look yellowish to your eye.

Saturn is magnificent in a telescope! If possible, get a look at it through a scope. Later in October will actually be better for telescope viewing, as the planet will be higher in the sky during evening hours. Saturn’s rings are worth the view. Several of Saturn’s moons often are visible as well, especially Titan, the largest. Titan, the second largest moon in the solar system, is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has some 293 moons, more than any other planet in the solar system.

Our other bright planets are again in the morning sky. Venus is close to the Sun in October, and pretty much lost in the solar glare. It does peek above the eastern horizon late in the month, at around 6am. Jupiter and Mars are the stars of the early morning sky. On the morning of October 5, you can see Jupiter, the crescent Moon, and Mars lined up high in the southern sky. Worth getting up a bit early for! The Moon will also pass in front of the bright star cluster “beehive” at about 3:30am that morning. Later in that same morning, the Moon will pass in front of Mars. Unfortunately for us, that will occur in daylight hours.

October’s Moon, the “Hunters Moon”, comes on the 25th of the month for us. New Moon occurs on the 10th.

For me, a favorite object to view in October is the Andromeda galaxy. At 2.5 million light-years away, this large galaxy is the farthest object visible to the naked eye in our night sky. Seeing it requires a dark, moonless sky, away from artificial lights. Look for it in the eastern October evening sky, just below the “W” shape of the constellation Cassiopeia, and to the left of the “great square” of the constellation Pegasus. Binoculars are a big help, scan the area with a pair to locate the galaxy. It will appear as an oval, ghost-like area of light, barely visible with your eyes. See if you can spot it!

Enjoy October’s night skies!

]]><![CDATA[What's in the Sky: September 2026]]>Thu, 20 Aug 2026 01:21:00 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-september-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

The year is passing by quickly! Here we are at September, the end of summer, and the beginning of fall. In September we’ll see the return of Saturn to the evening sky, the harvest full Moon, some nice passes of the International Space Station, and the opposition of the planet Neptune. September brings some great nights for stargazing, with earlier sunsets yet still nice, warm nights.

Fall arrives on September 22, the autumnal equinox. The Sun will lie directly above the equator, and we’ll have approximately the same amount of day and night length.

Venus is still in the evening sky, but just barely. Look for Earth’s neighbor very low in the west, just before sunset. Through a telescope, it will appear as a slight crescent shape. Venus is drawing closer to us, and will soon pass between Earth and the Sun. By late October, we’ll be able to see Venus again, but now it will be in the morning sky. Mercury will be to the right of Venus for most of the month, but even harder to see, as it will be quite close to the Sun.

Saturn made its appearance in the evening sky last month, and will be in much better position to view in September. The ringed planet rises at about 9pm at the start of the month, and by about 7pm at month’s end. It will be easy to spot, a bright “star” low in the east, with no other real bright stars around it. Saturn will be yellowish-white, and will not twinkle much at all. Pretty easy to pick out. Train even a small telescope on Saturn and you can see its magnificent rings.

To the right of Saturn, in September skies, lies the planet Neptune. The solar system’s outermost planet will be at its closest to us on September 25. That’s still not very close, some 2.68 billion miles away! Neptune is so far away that it takes about 165 years to complete an orbit. Neptune’s existence was predicted before it was seen, based on irregularities of the orbit of Uranus. A French mathematician predicted the mass and location of the planet, and gave them to an astronomer at the Berlin Observatory, who discovered the planet the first night of searching, in 1846.

The International Space Station (ISS) will make some nice overhead passes in September. For some good times, go to Heavens Above (heavens-above.com) and enter your location in the upper right of the screen. Then, on the main screen, look for “10-day predictions for satellites of special interest” and choose “ISS”.

Here is a fun exercise to try. The late Steve Stout, the original Director of the Goldendale Observatory, always liked to give his age in “lunations” rather than years. What is a lunation? It is simply the time it takes for the Moon to go through its complete cycle of phases, the exact time from one New Moon to the next. It averages 29.530589 days. So, determine how many days you have been alive, and divide that number by 29.530589 to get your answer. A simple way to estimate how many days you have been alive is to multiply your age by 365.25 (which accounts for leap years), and add the days since your last birthday. Then, divide the total by 29.530589 to get your answer. Mine comes out to 979 lunations. If math gives you a headache, you can find calculators on the internet that will give you the answer.

Enjoy the night skies of September!

]]><![CDATA[What's in the Sky: August 2026]]>Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:10:50 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-august-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

Welcome to August, our last full month of summer! In August we usually have clear and warm nights, and darkness starts to come earlier. By the end of the month, sunset will be at about 7:45pm. A very good month for viewing the night skies.

Three things in particular interest me this August, those being a partial lunar eclipse, an excellent year for the Perseid meteor shower, and the return of Saturn to the evening sky.

The partial lunar eclipse comes on Aug 27. The Moon will already be in the beginning of the eclipse when it rises at sunset (about 7:45pm). By about 8:30 the Moon will be noticeably darker as it enters the deepest part of the eclipse. It will start appearing lighter at about 10pm as it comes out of the eclipse. It is a partial eclipse in our area. The shadow of the Earth does not completely block the Sun from some illumination of the Moon’s surface, although it will be pretty close.

On the night of August 12-13, we will see the peak of the famous Perseid meteor shower. They originate from the comet Swift-Tuttle, which has an approximate 133-year orbit around the Sun. The comet is now in the outer solar system (it last visited the inner solar system in 1992), but its orbital path contains small rocks and debris that get dislodged from the comet. When the Earth passes through this orbital path, we get the meteor shower, as debris is pulled into our atmosphere, burning up as they fall toward Earth.

This year, August 12 will be at new Moon, so there will be no moonlight to “wash out” the dimmer Perseid meteors. If skies are clear, find a dark site, away from lights, and just watch the sky for meteors. Best time is after midnight, in the early hours of August 13. The area from which the meteors enter our atmosphere is where we see the constellation Perseus, hence the name. When you see a meteor zoom across the sky, trace back along its path and see if it leads to the area of Perseus. If so, it is a Perseid meteor. Where is Perseus? Look in the north-northeast, just below the recognizable “W” shape of Cassiopeia to find Perseus.

Saturn returns to the evening sky in August! Look for it low in the east after sunset. In early August it rises at about 11pm. By the end of the month, it will rise by 9pm. Saturn’s rings are visible again – last year, we viewed them almost “edge-on” and they were hard to see. They will be magnificent this year.

Venus still shines as the ‘evening star” in August, low in the west after sunset. On August 15, the waxing crescent Moon will lie just below Venus, which should make for a nice sight.

Mercury and Jupiter are in the early morning sky in August. On the 15th, they come very close together, for a nice conjunction, low in the east-northeast, at about 5:30am.

Enjoy the skies of August!

]]><![CDATA[What's in the Sky: July 2026]]>Fri, 26 Jun 2026 05:32:52 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-july-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

Welcome to the first full month of summer, and the start of the second half of 2026. Warm summer nights make for excellent stargazing.

Venus will again be the one bright planet that is easy to see in July. The bright planet will be easy to spot after sunset, in the western sky. Jupiter is there also, but slowly sinking toward the Sun, very low in the west after sunset.

At the start of July, the waning gibbous Moon will be low in the southern evening sky. If you are an early riser, the Moon will join Saturn in the morning sky on July 7 and 8. On the 17th, a beautiful crescent Moon will join Venus in the western sky for a nice evening view.

If you have not yet seen the International Space Station zoom overhead, July is a good month to spot it. The ISS will make numerous passes visible to us in the month as it makes its approximately 90-minute orbit of the Earth. The ISS is visible via reflected light from the Sun, so is visible either after sunset or before sunrise. Here are some good dates and APPROXIMATE times for viewing the station, based on timings on the website “Heavens Above” in late June. Those times can change. The ISS orbits at an altitude of about 250 miles, and there is a bit of atmosphere even that high, causing the ISS to slow down and drop in altitude, due to the atmospheric drag. The Space Station is periodically boosted back to a higher orbit, so exact times of passes can change. So, head out a bit earlier than these times, enjoy the stars and identify a few constellations.

July 6, starting at about 11:10pm. The ISS will be moving from southwest to northeast. Look for it near the bright star Spica, low in the west-southwest. As it zooms overhead, it will pass near Cygnus, the northern cross, and will disappear in the northeast. At its highest point it will be about 80 degrees above the horizon, almost straight overhead.
July 7, about 10:20pm. Look for the ISS near the bright star Spica, in the southwest. The ISS will pass close to the bright star Vega, high overhead, and then drop to the northeast.
July 10, about 9:30pm. This one is a bit earlier in the evening, and on a Friday. Watch for the ISS low in the west just after 9:30pm. While waiting, check out the close conjunction of Venus and the bright star Regulus, low in the west. The ISS will climb high in the sky, passing near Alkaid, the star at the end of the Big Dipper’s handle.
July 18, at about 11:15pm. This pass will be almost directly overhead. Watch for it in the west-northwest. It will pass to the left of the Big Dipper, and will set in the south-southeast.
July 22, about 9:35pm. Another earlier pass, in twilight. Watch for it to appear in the northwestern sky. It will pass close to the bright stars Vega and Altair, high in the sky. The sky will not be real dark yet, but Vega should be nicely visible.

A few notes on viewing the ISS:

It takes the ISS several minutes to zoom across the sky, a maximum of about 6 minutes to travel from horizon to horizon.
It will be very bright, brighter than most stars. It will be silent; don’t mistake it for a jet plane! Planes make noise, and usually have visible strobe lights.
We only see the ISS when the Sun can shine on it, we see the reflected light. When the ISS moves into the Earth’s shadow, you’ll see it quickly dim and disappear.
You will see other satellites passing overhead, there are thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth. None are as bright as the ISS.
Go to the website Heavens-above (www.heavens-above.com) to see other times, and to see if pass times are different than what I found in June. You’ll have to enter your location, under “change your observing location” then look for ISS under Satellite predictions. You’ll see many other passes as well; the ones I selected are those that pass high overhead in the evening hours.

Have fun viewing July’s night skies and the ISS!

]]><![CDATA[What's in the Sky: June 2026]]>Mon, 25 May 2026 01:40:41 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-june-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

June is here, with our longest days and shortest nights. At the start of June, sunset occurs at about 8:50pm. On the summer solstice, June 21, the sun will set at about 9pm. Sunset will remain at about 9pm for the rest of June. Darkness will obviously come late – on June 21 it will not get completely dark until after 11:30pm.

June will not be a big month for viewing planets, except right after sunset, in the west. Brilliant Venus and bright Jupiter will be low in the west all month. At the beginning of June, Jupiter will be a bit higher in the sky than Venus. The two will grow closer together, and pass each other, as we see them, on June 8 and 9. After that, Venus will be the one higher in the sky. And they will not really be “close” to each other. On June 8, when they appear close, Jupiter will be about 561 million miles from us, while Venus will “only” be about 111 million miles distant.

The two bright planets will be joined by a third in early June. Mercury will be visible, a bit lower in the sky and to the right of Jupiter and Venus. An especially nice sight will be on June 16, when the thin crescent Moon joins the three planets.

June’s new Moon will occur on the 14th, with full Moon following on June 29. On the 22nd, the waxing gibbous Moon will lie just to the right of the bright star Spica, in the constellation Virgo. On the 18th and 19th, the crescent Moon will pass by the bright star Regulus in the constellation Leo.

A relatively dim constellation with an interesting story lies in the southwestern sky in June. Coma Berenices, “Berenices hair”, is located just to the right of the bright start Arcturus. To find Arcturus, look for the handle of the Big Dipper, and follow its arc away from the dipper to a nearby bright star. You are “arcing to Arcturus”. Look about 20 degrees (about the width of two fists held at arm’s length) to the right from Arcturus, and you are looking at Coma Berenices. The “hair” is a cluster of some 40 stars making up an open star cluster. Dark skies are required to make them out, and they make a nice sight in a pair of binoculars on moonless nights.

The constellation is named after Berenice II, wife of Egyptian ruler Ptolemy III in the third century BC. Berenice vowed to sacrifice her long hair, if Ptolemy returned safely from war in Syria, and did so when he did return. However the displayed locks were stolen the next night, and Ptolemy was furious. An astronomer, Conan of Samos, saved the day by telling the King and Queen that Venus had placed the locks of hair among the stars, and pointed toward a beautiful swarm of stars near Arcturus. The swarm of stars had always been there of course, but the King and Queen did not know that!

See if you can find Berenice’s hair on a warm June evening!

]]><![CDATA[What's in the Sky: May 2026]]>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 23:42:05 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-may-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

Welcome to May. As the season progresses, warmer nights make for a more pleasant time stargazing. On the other hand, you need to stay up later to enjoy dark skies. But they are worth it!

Jupiter still shines bright in May skies, located in the southwestern evening sky. This is the last good month to view Jupiter. Venus is also visible for the entire month, low in the west after sunset. Watch the two planets during May, and you’ll see that they are growing closer together, as we see them. In early June they will be very close to each other.

Little Mercury joins the other two in late May. Look for Mercury very low in the west after sunset. You will need a good view of the low western horizon. On May 31, the three planets will be “lined up”, which should be a nice sight.

With Artemis II’s successful trip around our Moon, I thought I’d give Earth’s natural satellite some space this month. A few lunar facts:

The Moon is, on average, 238,000 miles from Earth. Far enough that it takes astronauts several days to get there.
The Moon is 2,159 miles in diameter.
The Moon takes 27.3 days to orbit our planet one time. And, it also takes 27.3 days for it to spin on its axis. So, we only see one side of the Moon. It is “tidally locked” with Earth.
There is no “dark side” of the Moon! I saw a video labeled as such recently. The far side of the Moon, the one we don’t see, gets as much light as the near side as it orbits the Earth.
Large, flat areas of the Moon are basaltic plains, but are named Mare, Latin for “seas”. Before telescopes, people thought those darker, smoother parts of the Moon looked like seas. Hence names such as Mare Crisium (Sea of crises) or Mare Tranquillitatis, the Sea of Tranquility. Apollo 11 landed at the Sea of Tranquility. Upon touchdown of Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong’s famous first words were “Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed”.
When we see the Moon as a thin crescent, the dark part we see is dimly lit by “earthshine”. Reflected light from the bright Earth slightly illuminates the areas of the Moon that are not sunlit. Check it out with a pair of binoculars.
There are names for all of the Full Moons in the year. Most know about the “Harvest Moon” in September. May’s Moon is called the Flower Moon. Others are January, Wolf; February, Snow; March, Worm; April, Pink; June, Strawberry; July, Buck; August, Sturgeon; October, Hunter’s Moon; November, Beaver; and December, Cold. There are other names too, but these are the ones I am familiar with.
We have two full Moons in May this year, one on the 1st and one on the 31st. The second is known as a “Blue Moon”. But it was not always understood that way. Originally, a Blue Moon occurred when we had 4 full Moons in a season, such as spring. When that happened, the third full Moon of the season was called a Blue Moon. In the 1940s an article in Sky and Telescope magazine described a Blue Moon as the second full Moon in a month, and that description has stuck.

Enjoy May’s night skies!

]]><![CDATA[What's in the Sky: April 2026]]>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:47:59 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-april-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

Welcome to April! If you were not able to view the March 3 Lunar eclipse, check it out on the Goldendale Observatory website, at https://www.goldendaleobservatory.com/. Look under “special events” and you can watch a video of the entire eclipse, or a two-minute timelapse.

April begins with a full Moon on the 1st, no fooling. New Moon follows on the 17th. On the 18th, sharp eyes may be able to detect the young Moon just to the right of Venus, low in the west right after sunset. On the 22nd, the Moon will lie just above Jupiter in the southwestern sky.

Two planets dominate our April evening skies this year, Venus and Jupiter. They are the brightest planets we see, Jupiter due to its immense size, and Venus because of its proximity to Earth, as our closest neighbor. Let’s focus on them a bit this month.

We’ll start with our neighbor, Venus. I think that a lot of people think Mars is our closest neighbor, due to all the interest in the red planet. But Venus comes closer. Venus approaches as near as 24 million miles from us, whereas Mars gets no closer than 33.9 million miles. Venus is also our “twin” – almost exactly the same diameter (7,521 miles) as Earth (7,926).

Venus is shrouded in thick clouds, and for years we knew little about the planet. Some thought the clouds may be water vapor, and given that Venus is about the same size as Earth, speculation was that possibly it could hold life. But once we sent probes to Venus, including landers by the Soviet Union, we found that the planet was anything but hospitable! Those clouds were mostly (over 96%) carbon dioxide, and the surface temperature was over 800 degrees F, hot enough to melt lead! That thick atmosphere allows solar radiation to be trapped, heating the planet, a runaway greenhouse effect. Surface pressure is also enormous. Landers on Venus have only lasted a few hours. Not a fun place to be!

Venus orbits the Sun in about 244 days, a shorter year-length than Earth. Venus rotates quite slowly though, with a Venetian day equivalent to about 117 Earth-days.

Those thick Venetian clouds give the planet a high reflectance, making the planet quite bright in our sky. If you train a telescope at Venus, you can detect that the planet has phases, like our Moon. Galileo noticed this with the newly invented telescope in 1610, and observed that the planet showed phases. It proved to Galileo that Venus was orbiting the Sun, a first proof that the Sun was the center of our Solar system, not the Earth.

Jupiter, our other bright April planet, is the largest planet in the solar system. Unlike the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars), which have solid surfaces and gaseous atmosphere. Jupiter and the other outer planets are mostly gaseous and liquid, lacking solid surfaces. Jupiter is largely made up of hydrogen and helium, just like our Sun.

Jupiter also played a part in Galileo’s proof that the Sun is the center of the solar system. In that same year, 1610, he trained his telescope on Jupiter, and observed the planets’ 4 large moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. At first, he thought they were stars, but noticed that they moved from night to night. He correctly deduced that they were moons orbiting Jupiter. They were another proof that the Earth was not the center of the solar system. Those 4 moons are now called the Galilean moons, in honor of Galileo. They are bright enough to see with a small telescope, or even a pair of binoculars.

Enjoy the night skies of April!

]]><![CDATA[What's in the Sky: March 2026]]>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 03:00:38 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-march-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

Welcome to March!
Our 3rd month of the year brings us a total Lunar Eclipse, the vernal equinox, and a nice pairing of the Moon and Jupiter. Hopefully the clouds will part at the right time for viewing some of these events.

Spring begins on March 20 this year. On that date, day length and night will be about equal. Earth’s axis of rotation will be parallel to the Sun, and the Sun will be directly overhead on the equator. Autumn will begin for the southern hemisphere, where the date is known as the autumnal equinox.

The lunar eclipse will occur in the early morning hours of March 3. The eclipse technically starts at about 12:45am, but totality, when the Moon is fully within Earth’s shadow, will not start until about 3 am. Totality will peak at about 3:30am, and end at about 4 am. So, get up early if skies are clear. The Moon will be high in the southwest, in the constellation Leo. The Goldendale Observatory will be open for the event, from 1am to 6am. There is no need for a reservation, you can just drop in. Check the “Special Events” tab on the Observatory web page (https://www.goldendaleobservatory.com/) for more details.

Two planets are prominent in March skies. Bright Venus will be visible, low in the west, after sunset. On March 7, Saturn will be located just to the left of Venus. Both are bright enough that they should be easily visible, but a pair of binoculars may help to get a better view. Saturn will soon disappear behind the Sun, and will return to the evening sky in the fall.

Jupiter rides high in the southwestern sky, in the constellation Gemini. The gas giant will be brighter than anything in the evening sky, except the Moon and Venus. On March 25 the first quarter Moon will be just to the right of Jupiter, which should make for a nice sight. New Moon will be on March 18.

This month you must indulge me as I reminisce a bit. This is the 250th “What’s in the Sky” column I have written, so a bit of a milestone. It all started in May of 2006, when I approached the White Salmon Enterprise with the idea of a monthly column about the night sky. Elaine and Sverre Bakke were all for it, and kudos to them both for their support. After a few years the Dalles Chronicle and Goldendale Sentinel picked it up, and it continued when the Gorge Papers merged into the current Columbia Gorge News. The late Mark Gibson was very supportive, as have been Trisha Walker with the Gorge News and Lou Marzeles with the Sentinel.

It has been a totally volunteer effort, and certainly has been rewarding. One of the best “compliments” I recall was one evening in Glenwood, years ago. I had some telescopes out for community members. One young man was looking up at the stars, and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. It was my latest column, which he had cut out from the paper. He was not aware that I was the one who wrote it. Things like that make it all worthwhile.

On to the next 250!

]]><![CDATA[What's In the Sky: February 2026]]>Tue, 20 Jan 2026 05:25:39 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-february-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

Jupiter continues to shine bright in February’s evening skies, and the winter constellations Orion and Taurus are bright on clear nights. But let’s focus on something else this winter month, called circumpolar constellations.

As the Earth spins, we are used to seeing stars rise in the east and set in the west, just as the Sun and Moon do. But did you realize that there are some stars, like insomniacs, that are up all night? They are called circumpolar stars, there to be seen in the evening, midnight, and early morning.

What makes a star circumpolar? It all relates to our latitude. The farther north (or south) you are from the equator, the more stars you have that are always above the horizon. In our area, slightly closer to the north pole than the equator, we have a good number of circumpolar stars and their associated constellations.

Probably the most famous circumpolar star in the northern hemisphere is Polaris, the north star. Polaris is located almost exactly over Earth’s north pole, and occupies an almost exact, fixed location in our skies year-round. If you go out at night, look due north, and up about 45 degrees in the sky, you’ll see Polaris. The north star is fairly bright, and is at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper, Ursa Minor. It shows you where true north is, and also how far you are above the equator. Mariners have long used it as a means to tell how far north they are; if Polaris is 30 degrees above the northern horizon, you are 30 degrees north of the equator.

Ursa minor’s neighbor, Ursa Major and its included Big Dipper, are also circumpolar, always in the night sky at our latitude. Actually, the great bear’s feet dip below the horizon at times, but the Big Dipper never sets for us. Here in February, in the evening, the Dipper is on the northeast, with its handle pointing down. Brave the chill at midnight, and you’ll find it high overhead. Just before sunrise, at 6am, you’ll find the Dipper in the northwest, with the handle pointing up. The Dipper has a number of bright stars, including Alkaid and Mizar, in the handle, and Dubhe and Merak, on the far side of the Dipper’s bowl.

Another bright, circumpolar constellation is the familiar “W” shape of Cassiopeia. The Greek mythology queen lies on the other side of Polaris from the Big Dipper. On February evenings it lies in the northwest, to the left of Polaris as you face north. At 6am it will be low in the northern sky, but still above the horizon.

Three other relatively faint constellations in our sky are also circumpolar. Cepheus, the King, lies just to the left of Ursa minor in February evenings, when facing north. Draco the dragon lies below Ursa Minor, and just to the left of the Big Dipper. Camelopardalis, the giraffe, lies high in the evening sky, above Cassiopeia.

Another couple of bright stars are circumpolar even though parts of their constellations are not. Mirfak, in Perseus, and Deneb, in Cygnus, are bright stars that are always above our horizon.

Enjoy February’s night skies!

]]><![CDATA[What's in the Sky: January 2026]]>Wed, 31 Dec 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.4gorgeparks.org/whats-in-the-sky/whats-in-the-sky-january-2026What's in the Sky is a monthly newsletter showcasing various objects and events visible in the sky for the upcoming month. It is written by FoGAP member Jim White for local newspapers.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to January. Our first month features Jupiter’s closest approach for the year, and plenty of bright stars to view. Nights will be cold and mostly cloudy, but step outside when skies clear for a stunning view, even if it is a short one!

Some things coming in 2026: We’ll have two total Lunar eclipses during the year. One will come on March 3, and a second will follow on August 27. We will just miss a solar eclipse that will occur on August 12, visible in Iceland, Greenland, and Spain. Northern Canada will see a partial eclipse. Solar activity in 2026 should still be high (the Sun has a roughly 11-year cycle of activity, and we are just past the peak), so there is a chance to see more northern lights. NOAA has a nice prediction website that gives short-term predictions, located at the link below.
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-viewline-tonight-and-tomorrow-night-experimental

The Solar system’s giant, Jupiter, makes its closest approach to us on January 10. Jupiter will be “only” about 393 million miles from us. At freeway speed, 70mph, it would take about 640 years to drive that far. The solar system is huge! Jupiter will be located in the constellation Gemini during December.

Take out a pair of binoculars and point them at Jupiter. You should be able to see the planet’s 4 largest moons, Europa, Calliston, Io and Ganymede, “lined up” in a strait line, along the planet’s equator. If you look on another night, you’ll see that the moons have changed position as they orbit Jupiter. Check out the website https://shallowsky.com/galilean/ to see which moon is which. You can enter a date and time, and see the four moons, along with Jupiter. Change the date and time, and you’ll see that they shift positions as they orbit the planet. When Galileo observed this in 1610, with the newly invented telescope, it was a historic discovery.

Saturn is still in the evening sky in January. The solar system’s other giant will be located in the southwestern sky, in the dim constellations Aquarius and Pisces, below the “square” of Pegasus. Saturn will outshine nearby stars and should be easy to pick out.

January’s full Moon will occur on the 3rd, when the Moon lies just to the left of Jupiter. The waning gibbous Moon will lie below the constellation Leo on the 6th, and will lie just to the right of the bright star Spica in the morning sky on the 10th. In the evening sky, the Moon will lie just to the right of Saturn on the 22nd.

Here is an exercise for you when you can step outside in January. January’s evening sky includes many of the brightest stars in our night sky. Along with bright Jupiter, they make for a dazzling display. Here are the 10 brightest; use the picture with this article and see how many you can locate.

1. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, in Canis major. Also known as the “dog star”
2. Capella, in the constellation Auriga. Capella is the 6th brightest star in the night sky.
3. Rigel, the 7th brightest star, one of the “feet” of Orion the Hunter. A blue supergiant star, it makes a nice contrast with reddish Betelgeuse, on Orion’s shoulder.
4. Procyon, the 8th brightest star, in the “Little Dog”, Canis minor. Procyon is a binary system, consisting of 2 stars
5. Betelgeuse, mentioned above. A red supergiant, if it was located where our Sun is, it would extend past Mars!
6. Aldebaran, the 14th brightest star, in the constellation Taurus. This red giant star makes up the blood-red “eye” of Taurus, the Bull.
7. Pollux, the 17th brightest star. Pollux is one of the “twin” stars in the constellation Gemini. Pollux, another red-giant, is the brightest star known to have a planetary system
8. Deneb, the brightest star in Cygnus, the Swan and 19th brightest star in the sky. Some see it as the head of the northern cross, others as the tail end of the swan. Look low in the northeast for Deneb.
9. Regulus, the 21st brightest star, the brightest star in Leo. Look for it low in the east.
10. Castor, the 23rd brightest star, the other “twin” in the constellation Gemini. Castor is white, and contracts nicely with Pollux.

See if you can locate them all. Stay warm and enjoy the January night skies!

]]>