Hello, and welcome back for another exciting edition of Observatory Corner! Initial weather forecasts for the coming week look cloudy with a chance of snow all week long, so observing will be unlikely. However, the weather is always changing, so rather than take my humble word for it, you can take a look for yourself at

http://www.wunderground.com/US/MI/Grand_Rapids.html. The observatory is open as early as 7:30 p.m. on clear nights, so if you happen to find yourself with an excess of free time one clear evening, perhaps you should come to the observatory and see some of what the sky has to offer!

Currently, Jupiter is up high in the sky for the entire time the observatory is open, and the view is quite remarkable. The stripes of the planet are clearly visible, as are several of its more prominent moons, such as Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io. The Orion Nebula is now easily visible in the sky in Orion’s Sash, and the Pleiades now sit almost directly overhead, making for excellent viewing unobstructed by the lights of the city. Globular star clusters such as M37 are also visible right now, revealing tens of thousands of stars. Venus is on the rise, but it won’t be visible during observing time until mid-March.

The featured Calvin image of the week is of M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. This image of the Whirlpool Galaxy is actually of two galaxies, one (above) slowly devouring the other (the Whirlpool Galaxy, below). This is known as a galactic merger, and the process is often referred to as galactic cannibalism. The Whirlpool Galaxy is about 35 million light-years away, placing it near the center of our local galactic supercluster, called the Virgo Cluster. This image was taken by Calvin alumni Phil Ammar in 2004 and represents the composite of 65 images and over four hours of observation. To learn more, you can read up on some history of the Whirlpool Galaxy. http://www.calvin.edu/academic/phys/observatory/images/whirlpool/

That’s all for now! But remember, space is a very big place, filled with breathtaking sights and dramatic scenes, and there’s always more to see. Stay tuned for more next time!