Well, fellow sky watchers, this is the last week to easily see the wonderful sights of the Magic Half Hour. It occurs between 7:15 and 7:45 p.m. this week and since one hour after sunset is at 7:39 p.m. you’ll see why some of the amazing sights like Orion the Hunter and bright stars like Canopus and Rigel are slipping into the sunset’s glow until next year.
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But you don’t have to wait a long time to see the Magic Half Hour again. It happens every year in April and May. What does change is the planets you can see and this year, you can see all five planets.
Two of them, Jupiter and Saturn, are in the early morning sky and the other three are in your Magic Half Hour evening sky. Just watch the sun set this week and as it begins to grow dark, look for two bright stars above the position of the setting sun. The lower one will be very bright, and it isn’t a star; that’s Venus. And the bright star above Venus also isn’t a star; that’s Mercury. Mars will be three fist-widths above the pair.
Find Orion the Hunter close to the western horizon and look above his legs to the left. That bright star IS a star; it's Sirius, the sky’s brightest star. Very close to the southwestern horizon, to your left will be another bright star.
That's Canopus, the second brightest star and by the end of next week, Spaceship Earth will carry you to the other side of the Sun from Canopus. Canopus is the lead star of Carina the Keel of the Great Ship Argo Navis. The Keel sweeps across the southern horizon almost to the Southern Cross.
Crux the Southern Cross will lead you to the third and 10th brightest stars. They’re both in the constellation Centaurus the Centaur, which arches over the Southern Cross and surrounds it on three sides. The left star is Alpha Centauri the closest star to the Sun and the third brightest star. The right star is Beta Centauri, the tenth brightest star.
The trail to the brightest stars
The fourth brightest star is Arcturus and it’s easy to find by arcing off the Big Dipper’s handle in the northern sky. Following the line made by that arc of stars will lead you to a very bright orange star. Arcturus is located in the constellation Boötes the Herdsman but he doesn’t look much like a man. Boötes is easier to see if you look not for a man, but an ice cream cone.
The sixth brightest star is Capella and it’s in the northwestern sky at one hour after sunset. Capella is in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer, but Auriga has no chariot and doesn’t look much like a man. You will see that Capella is a part of a ragged circle of stars. One of them is also one of the horns of Taurus the Bull.
The seventh brightest star is Rigel, Orion’s right foot star, and the eighth brightest star is Procyon. Procyon is straight above Rigel and it’s located in Canis Minor the Little Dog.
The fifth brightest star, Vega and the ninth brightest star, Achernar, are the only two of the 10 brightest stars you can’t see in your personal sky tonight. Guam does have the best skygazing in the world. Enjoy it this week!
Pam Eastlick was the coordinator for the former University of Guam planetarium since the early 1990s. She has been writing this weekly astronomy column since 2003. Send any questions or comments to life@guampdn.com and we will forward them to her.
This article originally appeared on Pacific Daily News: Starry Starry Night: Last week to see the Magic Half Hour
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