The sky last night

[Guest020813-03]

Are there any outdoorsy guys around here that have some knowledge of the sky? Has anyone else noticed lately the changes in the sky? Its seems to be cocked sideways, the stars seem to be in different places. Anyone see the north star last night?

[Raa1965]

Sorry luv....just viewed your showcase....


Whats wrong with the night sky that I can have taken care of for you????

[Fast Gunn]

. . . So just how many tequila shots did you have before the sky went cockeyed on you?

[i'va biggen]

The forecast for tonight is--dark.

[TexasT]

I know Jupiter and Venus are extremely close to earth this week, and are easily visible to the (I hope you are) naked eye. As for the rest of the sky, can't help you there.

[cucharabill]

Okay, what do you want to know? Astronomy is my main hobby and I have been looking skyward since 1967. I've been a member of our local astronomy club since 1984 and I'm also on-staff at our local planetarium.

Texas T: Jupiter and Venus are easily visible in the western sky, that's what those two bright objects are, and Venus is the brighter of the two. But they are NOT close to Earth at all. We're in the process of out running Jupiter around the Sun.
Watch Jupiter from now until mid-May and what you'll notice is that it will slowly drop into the Sun's glare after sunset. On May 13 (Mother's Day) it will be directly behind the Sun from our position. Jupiter's distance from the Sun, btw, is 5 times the Earth-to-Sun distance which means when it's directly behind the Sun, it will be 6 times our distance from the Sun from us. After May 13, it will begin to show up in the morning sky before sunrise.

Venus. Venus will rise a little higher evening by evening until mid-May. After that, it will begin to drop like a rock. Quickly! As we head for late May, it too, will drop into the Sun's glare after sunset and then it will pass in front of the Sun on June 5. After that, it will begin to show up in the morning sky before sunrise.

Zada Knight: What is it you'd like to know? The North Star (Polaris) is always in the same position in the sky: due North. And it's elevation above the north horizon is always equal to your latitude on Earth north of the equator.

Example: If you latitude is 30 degrees north of the equator, then the North Star (Polaris) will be 30 degrees above your north horizon.

Polaris never moves in the sky and EVERYTHING in the sky rotates around it in a counter-clockwise direction.

I don't know what you mean by the sky being cocked sideways. Can you be more specific?

[cucharabill]

Originally Posted by Zada Knight

Has anyone else noticed lately the changes in the sky? Its seems to be cocked sideways, the stars seem to be in different places.

You are correct in noticing changes and that the stars seem to be in different places. Here's why:

First, a couple of basic facts. The Earth orbits the Sun once a year. In other words, we make a great big circle around the Sun and it takes 365 days to do that.
Now, while we're going around the Sun we also have a spinning rotation which gives us our day-and-night process. So we can establish the fact that as we face the Sun, it's daytime, and facing away from the Sun we have night.

As we go through the daily rotation (day and night), we're also moving ever so slightly around the Sun in our yearly Big Circle. And because of both movements, our sky changes ever so slightly from night to night.

Here's how that works:
We'll use our current time as an example. It's now early April. Let's say you look at the sky at say 11pm. So you can see what's in the sky at this current time of the night and month. Because we make a little movement around the Sun, the sky tomorrow night will have a slight westerly shift to it when viewed at the same time of the night. Here's a way to see this happening:

Go outside and pick a place to stand where you can see a bright star (it does not matter which one) in relation to a reference point like say a phone pole or building, or roof line of a house. Just anything you can use as a reference point. And let's say the time you do this is 11pm.
When you go out the next night at the VERY SAME TIME and stand in the EXACT same place to see the same star, you'll see the star has moved a little west from where it was the night before. And the night after at the same time, it will have moved a little more west. And the night after that, the same thing, and so on and so on.
This slight shift is equal to four minutes of time. So every day, the sky shifts a little west which means everything rises and sets 4 minutes earlier than it did the day before. And here how this is viewable. Pick your place and time (again 11pm for the example) to view the star you picked like before. But this time, the next night go out and look at it at 10:56pm and you'll see it in the same place as it was the night before. The next night go out at 10:52pm, the star will be in the same place. Next night it will be there at 9:48, night after that 9:44 and so on.

So after a full month the sky has shifted by 2 hours (4 minutes x 30 days = 120 minutes). What you were seeing at 11pm is now in the same position at 9pm. The month after that it will be in the same position at 7pm and so on.

So in 6 months time (half a year) we have gone halfway around the Sun which means that what we now see at night (April) will not be visible at night (October) because that area of the sky will be occupied by the Sun. And what we now see as the daytime sky (April) will be visible as stars at night (October).

I hope I have explained this so everyone understands and is not confused.