Courtesy: Torsten Bronger

It is easy early evening sky gazing these days. We have a full moon this week to contend with so there are really only a few very bright objects that we can focus in on.

Over Crested Butte to the east we have the bright and obvious Pleiades smudging a large white spot on the cosmic darkness right after dark. My wife and I were admiring it from our elitist star gazing hot tub last week*. She asked me what the very bright red star trailing the Pleiades over the horizon was and I said that I did not know. Now, “I don’t know” can be the most powerful statement a scientist can make, as long as it is followed up with research to try to ascertain the knowledge.

So I followed up. And I checked the handy interactive sky chart at SkyandTelescope.com. It is a valuable tool for the aspiring astronomer to chart and learn the motions of the local night sky. It is free and asks for your zip code and whether or not daylight savings time is being observed. It then provides an hour-by-hour clickable projection of our night sky in motion: planets, Moon, significant stars and constellations.

The Sky & Telescope interactive sky chart informed me that the star in question was Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus, the bull. It turns out that Aldebaran is the 12^th brightest star in the night sky found roughly on the bull’s eye of Taurus.  The ESA Hipparcos satellite has it placed at a distance of about 65 light years from our Sun. There are significant and diverse cultural associations from ancient times affiliated with it. And Aldebaran is Arabic for “the follower” because it appears to follow the Pleiades. Duh -apparently.

I observe that curiosity and humility are the best foundations for acquisition and retention of knowledge. The field of astronomy is exceptionally curious and humbling. There is so much information that no single brain can contain and compute it all.  No way. Asking questions, seeking information and sharing the results is of more value than any other personal physical conquest or metaphysical construction of pretentious pride. I could be ashamed for not having known such basic astronomy knowledge. Instead I’d rather share what I have learned and will not now forget. Probably.

*To join the Elitist Hot Tub Astronomical Society (EHTAS) you know where to find me, or maybe not.

Courtesy NASA, ESA and AURA/Caltech

The open star cluster Pleiades (Messier 45) is in our southwestern skies and setting within a few hours after sunset. Residing in the bull constellation Taurus Pleiades is chased from east to west across our winter night horizons by the hunter Orion. To the naked eye the Pleiades is an obvious but unimposing white cloud against the enveloping backdrop of darkness, appearing as nothing more than a smudge on a lens about the size of a thumb extended at arms length. A telescope unlocks the striking and intricate details of this stellar object.

Gunnison Valley Observatory begins its 2009 viewing season and lecture series Friday April 3^rd. This week GVO President Professor Michael Brooks will be delivering a detailed lecture on the phenomena of the Pleiades before it disappears beyond the viewable horizon for the duration of the summer.