Mon June 1, 2026 NORSE STAR PATTERNS
An old Norse story said that the earth was fashioned from the great body of the giant Ymir. Norse star patterns were also different from those we know today. The Big Dipper, now upside down in the north after sunset, is part of the great bear Ursa Major. But to the Norse, the Big Dipper was called Odin’s Wagon. This wagon or chariot must have been a sweet ride, because it was passed down to Odin’s son Thor; and Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, also called the Little Dipper, was driven by Freya, Thor’s wife, the Norse goddess of love. Thor himself may be represented by the constellation Orion, right down on the west horizon at sunset this evening, while the brilliant star Sirius, to the east of Orion, was called Loki’s flaming torch, and whenever it flashed and twinkled, the Norse said that Thor’s brother was working great mischief in the halls of Asgard.
Tue June 2, 2026 WOLF-RAYET STARS
Today’s Skywatch was written by my student assistant, Isabella Gargiulo. The third smallest constellation in the sky is Sagitta the Arrow, which rises out of the east in late evening this time of year. Unfortunately, it is too faint to be seen in most light-polluted skies. But within its borders is a massive, dying star. Wolf-Rayet 124 is a star that has lost its outer layer of hydrogen and is now fusing heavy elements in its core - a distinct sign of a star approaching the end of its life. Wolf Rayet stars, discovered by the French astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet, have a short life span that ends with a very dramatic flare. Powerful, intense stellar winds push the star’s expelled material outwards, releasing gas and dust across a distance of trillions of miles, and very soon it will explode, becoming a supernova!
Wed June 3, 2026 STAR TRAILS: AS THE WORLD TURNS
An elegant demonstration of the earth’s rotation is the motion of the stars across the heavens as the night progresses. A camera attached to a tripod with the shutter left open can record the movement of the stars as they rise and set. The result will be a photograph that shows star trails. Aim your camera east or west and you can get star trail lines that appear as diagonal streaks across the picture. Aim your camera south and you’ll get star trails that bend in broad, curving arcs that run along the southern horizon. But aim your camera north, with the star Polaris in the center of the viewfinder, and you’ll get star trails that move in nested circles around the North Celestial Pole. Even Polaris, the North Star, will show a very slight movement, as it is displaced from the earth’s north pole by just under a single degree of angle.
Thur June 4, 2026 THE BRIGHTEST STARS ARE RAREST
This evening, after you’ve looked at the planets Venus and Jupiter in the western sky, you’ll find more, slightly less bright stars. The blue giant star Spica in the constellation Virgo, and the red giant star Arcturus in the constellation Boötes, or other giant stars such as Sirius and Procyon in the Big and Little Dogs, or Castor and Pollux in Gemini, are scattered about the sky, and it would seem that these giant stars are fairly common. But the giant stars are actually rare. The most common of stars in our galaxy are red dwarfs, and because they’re so small and cool, they’re not visible to the unaided human eye. Barnard’s Star, which rises out of the east in mid-evening, is a typical red dwarf.But unless you have a pretty good telescope and know just exactly where to look for it, you’ll never see Barnard’s Star, which is just under six light years, or 35 trillion miles away, almost a next-door neighbor, cosmically speaking.
Fri June 5, 2026 JOHN COUCH ADAMS
John Couch Adams, born on June 5th,1819, was the first to predict the location of Neptune. Astronomers noticed that Uranus, thought at the time to be the outermost planet, did not follow its predicted path. The gravity of some massive object farther out was pulling on it, altering its orbit. In 1845, Adams deduced the location of the hidden gravity source, and in 1846, Neptune was discovered telescopically by J.G. Galle; but Galle had used the predictions of the French mathematician Jean Leverrier instead, who had also figured out where it was a year after Adams. Now Adams had sent his calculations to the Astronomer Royal, George Airy, who did nothing with the information because Adams had not shown all his work and didn’t follow through with Airy’s request for more information and never made an appointment to talk to him about it – definitely a failure to communicate.
