great midnight triangle fest welcome
stargazers I'm Dean Regas a stronger
from the Cincinnati Observatory and I'm
James Albert director the kike Sola plop
planetarium in Gainesville Florida
summer is almost here and our favorite
winter constellations are almost gone
but don't despair after midnight
any night this week we have 250
triangles that are going to dazzle the
night sky that's right James one of the
Triangle's you see every summer but the
other one is formed by a unique
arrangement of the planet's plus if you
go outside at midnight the morning of
May 15th and 16th you'll see yet another
triangle formed by the moon a planet and
a star wondering what we're talking
about let's show you ok we have our
skies set for midnight the morning of
May 15th if you look to the west will
see the giant planet jupiter among the
stars of Leo the Lion Jupiter will have
a close conjunction with the moon on may
fifteenth and sixteenth so if you're
into geometric shapes like we are you
can form a triangle between Jupiter the
waxing crescent moon and the star
Regulus on may fifteenth and then use
leos tale start the nebula the Mormon
triangle at Jupiter and the moon on May
16 since the moon moves pretty quickly
triangles formed using the moon only
last a few hours so if you want to see
more stable triangles all week long
check out the sky toward the southeast
and you can do that any night this week
or next
at midnight any night this week look
southeast you'll spot our next triangle
the northernmost point in this triangle
is the red planet Mars and it's right
next to the star shubha the center star
of the three stars making the face of
Scorpius the Scorpion Mars is fairly
close to us right now and was named
after the Roman god of war because red
color of this planet reminded many
ancient people of blood and violence the
second part of our triangle is formed by
the ringed planet Saturn Saturn is an
excellent spot for viewing right now and
its rings are tipped toward us in such a
way that if you have a small telescope
will get a picture perfect view of
Saturn Saturn reaches opposition in just
a few weeks so it'll get bigger and
brighter as the days pass so definitely
get outside and final part of our
triangle is formed by the star in
taryn's Antares means rival Mars and if
you look at it closely as the same
reddish tint is mars however this red
celestial Dazzler isn't ready for the
same reason that Mars is red and Terry's
is a red supergiant star that's nearing
the end of its life
the star is just over five hundred and
fifty light years away from us so large
that you could easily fit the orbits of
Mercury Venus Earth and Mars inside
already let's take a look at our second
triangle of the midnight triangle fast
ok we still have our sky set to midnight
and if you look east you'll see the
three billion stars summer triangle then
gets the brightest damages the brain
storm signals that alter his brightest
star of Aquila the eagle
the brightest star of the 38 Vega only
25 light years from Earth and is one of
the most luminous stars in our
neighborhood the second brightest star
in the summer triangle is an alternate
only seventeen light years from Earth of
all the stars nearest alter spins the
fastest and its equator alter can make
one complete rotation only nine hours
compare that to our side which takes
twenty six days to complete one rotation
last start of the summer triangle is the
blue-white supergiant Danny Danon just
happens to be the North Star on mars and
is almost 60,000 times as bright as our
son however because it's over three
thousand light years away from us
it appears much fainter than Vega and
Altair so there you have it too right
triangles to light up your night sky
Mars Saturn and I'm tired eyes and the
ever-popular and lovely summer triangle
Vega solitaire and Jenna and if you're
outside later this week
Jupiter and the moon make a triangle
with Regulus on May 15 and Annapolis on
May 16 keep let me know