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Wednesday, March 30, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Stars Over Sisters
SPRD has taken on
scenic annual bike ride
By cami Kornowski
Correspondent
Slithering through the
evening skies of spring is a
mythological water serpent.
Hydra is the largest and lon-
gest of the 88 constellations,
measuring 1,303 square
degrees in area and spanning
almost 105 linear degrees
across the celestial sphere.
Except for its head, found
beneath Cancer the Crab,
this beast is located entirely
below the celestial equator.
As evening falls during
the month of April, look to
the south for an irregular
arrangement of six moder-
ately bright stars that denote
Hydra’s head. About 15
degrees to the southeast is
Alphard, the constellation’s
brightest star, which repre-
sents the creature’s heart.
From here the remainder of
the constellation resides to
the south of Sextans, Crater,
Corvus and Virgo. An unob-
structed southern horizon
is required to observe the
entire length of Hydra,
which ends at Libra.
According to leg-
end, Hydra was killed by
Hercules as the second of
his twelve labours. It wasn’t
easy, however, because
when one of Hydra’s heads
was cut off, two more would
grow in its place. Hercules
eventually overcame the
monster by burning out the
roots of the heads, prevent-
ing them from growing
again.
Hydra contains three
very fine deep-sky objects
discovered by French
astronomer Charles Messier.
The most prominent of these
is M83, a strikingly beau-
tiful galaxy located near
the border of Centaurus.
Sometimes referred to as the
Southern Pinwheel Galaxy,
it lies at a distance of some
15.2-million light-years and
is about half the size of our
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M83 is a majestic spiral galaxy located approximately 15-million light-
years distant in the constellation of hydra.
Milky Way galaxy.
In roughly the same
vicinity, M68 is a globular
cluster made up of a tightly
packed ball of older, metal-
poor stars located approxi-
mately 31,000 light-years
from the earth. The true
splendor of this cluster is
revealed through the eye-
piece of a medium-sized
telescope. M48 is an open
cluster that is visible to the
naked eye under dark skies.
It contains about 80 stel-
lar members that have been
described as having a trian-
gular shape that covers more
than half a degree of sky —
larger than the diameter of
the full moon.
The month begins with
a new moon on April 7,
leading to dark skies. First
quarter will occur on April
13, with the moon growing
into the smallest full moon
of 2016 on April 21, lying
30,000 miles further away
from Earth than the clos-
est full moon of the year in
November. The month ends
with the moon waning into
last quarter on the April 29.
Mercury, the innermost
planet, will appear low in
the western sky at dusk.
The best way to find it is
by drawing a line through
Orion’s Belt toward the
horizon, which will point
you right to the elusive
planet. The sun’s glare may
make finding Mercury a bit
difficult, but binoculars will
help you locate it an hour or
so after sunset.
Jupiter will be a dazzling
sight in the southern sky,
joined by a waxing moon in
mid-month. The giant planet
will be in the sky all night,
finally setting in the west in
the early morning all month
long.
On April 15 Mars rises
above the southeastern hori-
zon at about 11:20 p.m.,
followed by Saturn half an
hour later. These two plan-
ets reach their peak height in
the wee hours of the morn-
ing and stay up until the sun
takes stage again.
To learn more about the
night sky, join the Sisters
Astronomy Club for a star-
watch on April 30. The pro-
gram will begin at 8:30 p.m.
with a presentation in the
Sisters Park & Recreation
District building, located at
1750 W. McKinney Butte
Rd. in Sisters. After the
lecture, telescopes will be
available for viewing the
night sky in the northwest
corner of the high school
parking lot. The event is
free.
The Ride for Two Rivers,
which crests the Cascades
over the Old McKenzie
Highway, has taken a new
name and ownership in
Sisters.
Sisters Park & Recreation
District (SPRD) has taken
over this iconic ride, not
only as a fundraiser for the
district but also to add to
its increasing repertoire of
events. Now known as the
Crest the Cascades Ride, the
majority of the ride is on a
highway closed to cars and is
supported with three aid sta-
tions. The ride will be held
on Saturday, June 18.
This ride began as a ben-
efit for the National Forest
Foundation, protecting both
Whychus Creek and the
Metolius River. Both rivers
were in need of restoration
along the river corridors, and
fish habitat needed improve-
ment. Proceeds from The
Ride for Two Rivers benefit-
ted these local waterways.
Beginning this year, the
ride transferred ownership to
the Sisters Park & Recreation
District. SPRD’s tax-rate
is one of the lowest rates
in Oregon, so the District
pursues a variety of events
to fund the organization.
Proceeds from the Crest the
Cascades Ride will benefit
SPRD, which continues to
provide affordable recreation
and enrichment opportunities
to the Sisters community.
The Crest the Cascades
Ride begins at the SPRD
campus, which is adja-
cent to the Old McKenzie
Highway. This highway used
to be a wagon toll route that
meandered its way through
the lava flows. That same
wagon route was turned into
a paved, two-lane highway
that is open only during the
summer months. The route
is closed seasonally between
the east and west gate, which
provides Crest the Cascades
Riders 44 miles of riding
with no cars on the road.
Riders begin the event at
SPRD and cycle toward the
east gate and first-aid station
which is about nine miles
into the ride. The climb-
ing begins in earnest at the
east gate, where the pitch
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