Wednesday, July 1, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Stars Over Sisters
By ron thorkildson
Correspondent
One of the lesser-known
constellations of summer
is Scutum, The Shield.
Surrounded by the more
familiar stellar patterns
of Aquila, Sagittarius and
Serpens Cauda, it is neither
big nor bright.
In fact, unlike many other
constellations that date back
to antiquity, Scutum is a rela-
tive newcomer.
In 1684 Polish astrono-
mer Johannes Hevelius
found space on the celes-
tial sphere for Scutum to
commemorate the victory
of the Christian forces led
by Polish King John III
Sobieski in the Battle of
Vienna in 1683. Scutum’s
three brightest stars are gen-
erally aligned north-south in
a way that does somewhat
resemble a primitive shield.
The constellation is
easy to locate because a
bright portion of the Milky
Way, called the Scutum
Star Cloud, is found here.
From just above the teapot’s
spout in Sagittarius, follow
the Milky Way northeast-
ward until you encounter a
denser patch of “milkiness,”
a distance of about twenty
degrees.
There are a couple stars
of note in this constellation.
Delta Scuti is a bluish-white
giant star that is approaching
our solar system. Within the
next 1.3 million years it will
come as close as 10 light-
years from the earth, and
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will be much brighter than
Sirius, currently the bright-
est star in the sky.
UY Scuti is a red super-
giant pulsating variable star.
If placed at the center of our
solar system, this star’s pho-
tosphere would engulf the
orbit of Jupiter, making it the
largest star currently known.
Although the constella-
tion is exceedingly small, it
still contains several worthy
deep-sky objects. The most
prominent of these by far
is M11, generally regarded
as the finest example of an
open star cluster in the entire
sky. It is a dazzling collec-
tion of about 2,900 bright
stars estimated to be no older
than about 220 million years.
It is sometimes known as the
Wild Duck Cluster because
its triangular shape reminds
some observers of a flight of
wild ducks. The object lies
at a distance of about 6,200
light-years.
When the New Horizons
spacecraft was launched in
January 2006, Pluto was
still the ninth member of the
sun’s family of major plan-
ets. The remote orb enjoyed
that status for more than
76 years until August of
2006 when the International
Astronomical Union
demoted it to the rank of
dwarf planet. Regardless of
Pluto’s controversial reclas-
sification, the space probe
will arrive in its vicinity
by mid-July. The mission’s
highest priority is to map the
global geology of Pluto and
its largest moon, Charon,
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9
oregon
governor
signs testing
opt-out bill
photo by adam block/noao/aUra/nSF
m11, located in the constellation of scutum, is one of the best examples
of an open star cluster.
to determine their surface
composition, and to study
Pluto’s thin atmosphere. At
4:50 a.m. PDT on July 14
New Horizons will make its
closest approach to Pluto at a
distance of 7,767 miles.
On July 1 Venus and
Jupiter are still separated by
just a half a degree, creat-
ing a spectacularly beauti-
ful sight in the western sky
after sunset. Throughout the
remainder of the month the
two planets slowly separate
as Venus moves back toward
the sun, reaching inferior
conjunction by mid-August.
On July 16 Mercury and
Mars are only 0.1 degrees
apart in the sky and appear
very low on the eastern hori-
zon about 45 minutes before
sunup. But the light of dawn
will make the pair hard to
spot. By July 23 speedy
Mercury will slip behind the
sun and be at superior con-
junction relative to the earth.
Saturn is low in the southern
sky by evening, appearing
about nine degrees north of
the red-giant star Antares in
the constellation of Scorpius,
and well placed for observ-
ing its ring system through a
telescope.
The Full Buck Moon
occurs on July 1, bathing
the dark side of the earth in
reflected sunlight. Now on
the wane, our only natural
satellite passes through third
quarter on July 8 on its way
to becoming dark (new) on
July 15. The moon waxes for
the remainder of the month;
first quarter by July 23 and,
yes, another full moon on
July 31, officially making it
a “blue moon.”
Join the Sisters
Astronomy Club for an
evening under the stars on
Saturday, July 18. Following
an astronomy-related pre-
sentation at the Sisters
Park & Recreation District
building located at 1750
W. McKinney Butte Rd.,
telescopes will be made
available for viewing trea-
sures of the summer night
sky.
SALEM (AP) — Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown has signed
a bill making it easier for par-
ents to opt their children out
of standardized tests.
Brown’s signature on
Tuesday followed warn-
ings by federal officials that
Oregon could lose education
funding if too many students
opt out.
The Democratic governor
says in a statement that teach-
ers should be sure parents
understand the value of tests
and the consequences of opt-
ing out.
Oregon currently allows
parents to opt their children
out of standardized tests for
religious reasons or a dis-
ability. The bill would permit
opting out for any reason.
Testing critics say the
assessments waste class time
and are stressful for some
students.
Education reform advo-
cates oppose the bill. They
say testing is an important
way to measure progress and
raise standards.
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