Image source: Murals Your Way
Looking Through the Clouds
Those of us of a certain age remember Freddie Fender singing ‘wasted days and wasted nights’ that came to mind this past weekend when the heavy cloud cover hid the Jupiter opposition event posted across the internet and prevented the STARS observing and star lore event at Rocket Ranch on Saturday night. One cannot have a star party through clouds, unfortunately. Yet it was not as troubling to us as it would have been if we had been waiting several years for a few nights’ observing time at one of the many mountaintop observatories scattered around our planet, only to have our scant hours clouded out. Clouds or not, Jupiter will be in the sky though, right after dark look east - look high in the south about midnight; it will be very bright and not twinkle because it is closer to Earth than the stars so there is less space related interference that creates those twinkling effects we enjoy from stars like Sirius near Orion.
If weather fronts cooperate we will see a few stars at least once this week and I suspect that what will definitely draw your eyes will be the magnificent constellation Orion standing well up near the zenith since it rises above the eastern horizon before dark. It is likely most folks who look up even casually will recognize the pattern of three stars that mark his world-champion wrestler’s belt.
The New Moon will occur on Sunday, the 18th; this is a good time to star gaze since the Moon will be low in the west at sunset, a very slender crescent of sunglow off the lunar surface. By next Sunday the Moon will be first quarter and at a ninety-degree angle of the triangle created by the Sun just below the horizon, you standing in your yard, and the Moon riding near the zenith just above your head. I wonder how many of us would have enjoyed learning about angles in geometry class if the teacher had included astronomy in the lessons?
The sky in the north is showing off the winter constellations whirling about the North Star much like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Moving counter-clockwise because Earth rotates from west to east, the winter group includes the two Dippers, of course. Polaris, the North Star, is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper asterism. It is vital to navigation in the northern hemisphere because it is seen above the horizon at the precise degree of latitude in the sky as the ship or other object is above the equator. The history of measurement has some wonderful stories of the trials and tribulations of learning how to find where specific points on the surface of the Earth happen to occur.
What about the Bears? They are where the Dippers are. The Ursa Major and Minor constellation has numerous faint stars marking its boundaries that outline a very strangely shaped bear to be sure. The Dippers make a brighter and more recognizable pattern within the larger constellations known as the Bears and so are classified as asterisms. Scientists do have a way of fine-tuning classifications of natural things.
If you stand with your right shoulder towards the general direction of sunrise and your left shoulder towards sunset (Check your street layout. Many are east-west/north-south) then your nose will be facing north. Polaris is very faint and if you have even a small amount of light pollution around you will probably not be able to see it. There are few other stars in the area which might help you to distinguish it. Ursa Major will be to the right, but low on the horizon, with the tail/handle pointing towards the horizon and probably not visible at all, while Ursa Minor, home of Polaris, will be tail/handle up. Cepheus will be to its left along with the W of Cassiopeia just above Cepheus.
In the west the Great Square of Pegasus, with Andromeda aiming towards the zenith, will be drifting towards the horizon. Saturn may still be above the horizon in the same vicinity unless it is after nine o’clock PM when you are looking up.
In the south, all those winter hexagon constellations will be showing off, with brilliant Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest point of light in the sky unless the Moon is up. All the colors of the spectrum will be scintillating from Sirius so it is impossible to miss. The Pleiades are still being carried away by Taurus, who is still being chased by Orion, and Jupiter is traveling through the Gemini Twins along the ecliptic as the Master Planner set them to do. The things in the sky are dependable as clockwork, which is why our clocks even tell time because of the organization of our home planet and the motions in our solar system.
Until next week, KLU
