## Starcast: February 8, 2026


**Jay Shaffer**: Welcome back to the Starcast for the week of February 8th, 2026. I'm your host, Jay Shaffer, and with me is my co-host, Mike Lewinski. Howdy, Mike! 

**Mike Lewinski**: Howdy, Jay! How you doing today? 

**Jay Shaffer**: Oh, grand. It's been kind of a busy week in space weather, so what's happening over the next couple days? 

**Mike Lewinski**: Well, Jay, there is a chance of a G1 class storm today, February 8th, as a slow-moving CME is expected to reach Earth. We're also keeping an eye on Sunspot 4366 that has a beta, gamma, delta magnetic field that poses a continued threat of X-class solar flares. We're gonna have 4366 around for another day or two here before it rotates away. What this all translates to in terms of specific numbers for our forecast is here in mid-latitudes, approximately a 40% chance of active geomagnetic conditions today, 30% tomorrow, and declining from there. We have only a 1% chance of a severe storm. However, if you happen to live at higher latitudes, we have a 60% chance of severe storm today and a 40% chance tomorrow. Our chance of M class flare is 75% for the next 2 days and 25% chance for an X-class flare. So, what's happening in the night sky this week, Jay? 

**Jay Shaffer**: Well, Mike, it's the last quarter moon. It rises around 1 AM tonight. That would be exactly the last quarter moon at 7:43 AM Eastern Standard Time on Monday morning. With the moon waning this week, we've got dark skies early in the evening, and it's a great time to observe Orion, Sirius, Jupiter, and even the Winter Milky Way. If you look toward the southeastern horizon and find Sirius, the dog star, which is the brightest star in the night sky, you can go from there and look upward and locate Orion the Hunter. Most of us can identify Orion with its quintessential and unmistakable belt of three stars in a tight diagonal row framed by a tall, boxy quartet of bright stars making it his torso. Orion is actually part of the winter Milky Way. While this winter Milky Way is more subtle than the more dense band seen in the summer, it offers a unique perspective as we look outward along the galaxy's spiral arm as opposed to looking inward towards Sagittarius in the core of the galaxy in the summertime. This region, known as the Orion Arm, is packed with brilliant nearby stars because we are peering through the central plane of our galaxy. If you are viewing from the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way now stretches from north to south, adorned with deep sky objects and a parade of bright stars like Capella. For those south of the equator, it's their summer Milky Way, and therefore the view becomes even more dramatic as Orion rides high in the sky, leading a glowing stellar river that flows all the way down to the Southern Cross. Mike, what do you have for us in space news today? 

**Mike Lewinski**: Jay, before I jump into space news, I just want to call out Sirius again. It is the brightest star in the night sky and it's so striking. I can't tell you how many times I've looked up and seen Sirius and said, "Oh, there's a UFO over there." My girlfriend April had the same experience this week driving at night. We were out in the hot tub a couple nights later and had a little conversation about it. Sirius is a very cool binary star and it is just the most striking star. It is moving closer to us and our position, and in 60,000 years or so, it is going to, through precession, become the Southern Polestar. 

Over to Space News: In a study recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an international team of researchers has proposed a radical alternative to the long-held belief that a supermassive black hole sits at the center of the Milky Way. Rather than the invisible gravity of Sagittarius A*, the study suggests that the galactic core may actually be home to an enormous dense clump of fermionic dark matter. According to the international team, which included lead author Valentina Crespi and co-author Carlos Argüelles from the Institute of Astrophysics La Plata, this dark matter core model explains both the rapid high-speed orbits of the S-stars near the center and the large-scale rotation curves of the galaxy's outer edges in a single unified framework. 

These studies' findings are particularly significant because they address long-standing discrepancies in how astronomers measure the mass and rotation of the Milky Way. By utilizing the latest data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, the researchers demonstrated that a specific type of light subatomic particle known as a fermion could form a structure dense enough to mimic the gravitational pull of a black hole while simultaneously providing the halo required to stabilize the galaxy's outskirts. While current data cannot yet definitively rule out a black hole, the researchers emphasize that their model successfully bridges the gap between different scales of cosmic motion. Future observations from the Very Large Telescope in Chile will seek out specific photon rings, a hallmark of black holes that would be absent in a dark matter core, to further test this theory. 

In other news, a major victory for the global scientific community: the American energy company AES Andes has canceled plans for a renewable energy industrial complex in Chile's Atacama Desert that threatened some of the world's most advanced observatories. The proposed Indalo project, which included city-sized wind and solar farms, a desalination plant, and a port, would have been located just miles from the European Southern Observatory's Paranal site. Following a year of intense advocacy from international astronomers, including Nobel laureate Reinhard Genzel, who warned that the facility would increase light pollution by 35% and cause disruptive ground vibrations, the company decided to scrap the site to preserve the region's unique, pristine dark skies. This decision ensures the continued viability of critical research at the Very Large Telescope and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope. 

**Jay Shaffer**: Thanks, Mike. That story demonstrates just how important preserving our ancestral dark skies is. Since we're both dark sky advocates, I thought we could discuss the upcoming Dark Sky Week in April and what people and communities can do to prepare. 

**Mike Lewinski**: Yeah, thanks, Jay. This is a very important and near to my heart topic. International Dark Sky Week draws attention to the problems associated with light pollution and promotes simple solutions. Created in 2003 by high school student Jennifer Barlow, it has grown to become a worldwide event and a key component of Global Astronomy Month. For 2026, this week is observed from April 13th to the 20th. 

For our listeners at home, you can conduct a lighting audit. Check your home's outdoor lighting against the five principles for responsible outdoor lighting: ensure lights are only on when needed using a timer or sensor, ensure they are shielded and pointing down, that they are no brighter than necessary, that you're using warm-tone lights, and that you're only using them where they are actually needed. You can also take the official Dark Sky Pledge; you can commit to protecting the night and help the organization reach its goal of 10,000 signatories. Become a citizen scientist: use the Globe at Night app or website to measure the brightness of your night sky and submit data to help scientists track light pollution globally. Participate in photography challenges and share photos with the hashtag #IDSW. Participate in the Lights Out initiative to help birds navigate safely without the disorientation caused by bright city lights. 

You can also work with your local community in advocacy and education efforts. Request an official proclamation from your mayor or city council. Communities often organize star parties, guided night walks, or educational workshops. Engage with local institutions like libraries, schools, or bookstores to create dark sky-themed displays. Consider joining or supporting a Dark Sky International chapter to work on long-term advocacy, such as retrofitting public street lights or certifying your town as an international dark sky community. 

Here in Crestone, we host quarterly star parties. Our next one is coming up on the Spring Equinox, March 21st, at the South Crestone Baca Park. I'm also in communication with the Colorado Visitor Center in Alamosa and will be taking a thumb drive to them with some of my night sky photography and time-lapse videos to help get more dark sky footage in there. 

One other item I'm hoping to do this summer, pending some approval from the Colorado Native Plant Society, is to host a nighttime hike to look for night-blooming flowers and the pollinators that visit them. There is a lot of pollination that happens with flowers that either bloom only at night or last through the night and are visited by insects like moths that are only active at night. Dark sky strategies can have really wide-ranging effects when we're talking about plants that rely on specialized pollinators who could be diverted away from their food source because of lights left out all night. 

**Jay Shaffer**: We have a pretty active chapter with New Mexico Dark Sky. One of the things I'm participating in for International Dark Sky Week is the "Eyes in the Dark" astrophotography exhibition at the Aurora Gallery in Albuquerque. Sarah McIntyre is the chair of the local chapter and she's donating 50% of the entry fees from the show to Dark Sky International. This is also an opportunity for astrophotographers to display and sell their work. I'm also active with our local astronomy club, the El Valle Astronomy Club. We are hosting a photo exhibition and dark sky presentation during Dark Sky Week in Taos. The club is also working with the BLM and Dark Sky International to get a Dark Sky Park designation for the Wild Rivers Recreation Area and the Rio Grande National Monument. Mike, I know you are also doing dark sky measurements in Crestone—are you submitting those to the Globe at Night app? 

**Mike Lewinski**: Jay, I have that on my to-do list. The SQM at my house is still relatively new. We do have another member of the Crestone Dark Sky Foundation who has been hosting and contributing his readings for several years. I am saving my data locally. I find it very interesting to watch both the moon cycles and things like airglow alter what my readings are. The sky quality meter is measuring the brightness of the night sky in magnitudes per square arcsecond, and higher values are darker. Overnight, I peaked at around 21.53 before the moon rose and it dropped. 

**Jay Shaffer**: All right, we want to thank all of our listeners for checking out this podcast. Be sure to comment, like, and subscribe. You can also check out our website at wildernessvagabonds.com and Skylapser.com. You can check out Mike's time lapses and videos on the Mike Lewinski YouTube channel, and you can see mine on the Skylapser YouTube channel. From the Deep Sage Nine Observatory, this is Jay Shaffer, and Mike Lewinski, wishing you all clear, dark skies.