Stargazing: Nakusp, British Columbia

Current Weather Updated: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 16:00 PST - Revelstoke Airport

°C

Overcast

Feels Like: -
Wind: 0km/h
Sunrise: 7:20
Sunset: 15:56

Relative Humidity: 87%
Pressure: 101.08 kPa
Visibility: 14.0 km
Ceiling: 1800 ft

Clear Sky ForecastUpdated: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 14:00 PST

Sunday Evening

°C

Mixed precip.

P.O.P.: 60%, Wind: calm

Sunday Overnight

°C

Mixed precip.

P.O.P.: 40%, Wind: S 5km/h

Moon Phases

Nov. 24

First Quarter

Dec. 2

Full Moon

Dec. 8

Last Quarter

Dec. 16

New Moon

Click here to calculate the sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset times and the seasonal calendar.

This Week in the Sky

Cosmic Yardstick

Reining over the crisp autumn nights Cepheus the King is a constellation that reinds most stargazers of a young child’s drawing of a house. For professional astronomers Cepheus is home to a true superstar that has unlocked a great mystery of the universe.

Lying within Cepheus over 1000 light years distant is an unusual red supergiant with special properties. Delta Cephei is a variable star that pulsates in size and changes in brightness every 5 days or so. It is easily visible to the naked eye as one of a triangle of stars attached to the upper-left corner of the ‘house’.

It is the prototype of an elite class of flickering stars aptly named Cepheids in honor of the constellation it was first found in 1784. The pulsations of these dying giants act as a celestial yardstick. Their variable light helps astronomers measure great cosmological distances within the Milky Way and other galaxies.

- Andrew Fazekas