Wednesday, November 2, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
7
Stars over Sisters
By Rylee Ftnk
Correspondent
Though the weather is
getting colder as winter
approaches, a clear night sky
won’t fail to impress.
Astronomically speaking,
November is probably best
known for the annual Leonid
meteor shower that occurs
mid-month. What is particu-
larly noteworthy about this
shower is that it has produced
some of the greatest meteor
displays ever seen.
These meteors are associ-
ated with a trail of dust and
ice left behind by comet
Temple-Tuttle. When the
earth arrives at a point in its
orbit that intersects the path of
the comet, some of that mate-
rial enters the atmosphere to
become meteors that we can
watch. Sometimes, when the
comet is close to the earth,
many more particles become
available that produce greater
meteor displays. This hap-
pens once every 33 or 34
years.
In 1833, the greatest
meteor display in recorded
history occurred the evening
of November 12 and early
morning of November 13 in
the skies over America and
Europe. The storm released
hundreds of thousands of
meteors over a spectacular
nine hours. At its peak, an
estimated 72,000 meteors per
hour filled the sky.
In 1966 a similarly intense
storm amazed many in the
central and western U.S. The
event started slowly but it
picked up fast, with too many
meteors to count. This time
the appraised tally reached
an astounding 40 meteors per
second at one point!
Sisters resident and
amateur astronomer Ron
Thorkildson remembers
watching the 2001 Leonid
storm on November 18,
from the dark skies and
unobstructed horizons of
Tygh Ridge in north central
Oregon.
“When my wife and I
arrived at the site about 11
p.m., the action was pretty
slow,” recalls Thorkildson.
From 11:30 p.m. to mid-
night, however, a number
very bright meteors burst on
the scene.
“The light from one
of them lit up the entire
sky as well as the ground,
then exploded into several
pieces that continued to
streak across the sky,” said
Thorkildson. At the height
of the storm, occurring
between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m.,
Thorkildson estimated that
there were two to three mete-
ors every second.
“It was the greatest dis-
play of meteors I’ve ever wit-
nessed, by far!” he recalled.
Unless the orbit of comet
Temple-Tuttle is perturbed
by one of the gas-giant plan-
ets in our solar system, the
Leonids will probably storm
again around the year 2034.
On November 2, Saturn,
Venus and the crescent moon
will be clustered together in
Ophiuchus just above the
southwestern horizon about
45 minutes after sunset. Mars
lies farther east in the con-
stellation of Sagittarius.
Uranus will be located in
Pisces, but you need visual
aid to see the planet because
its brightness is on the bor-
der of naked-eye detection.
Try using binoculars or a
telescope.
Many of the brighter
fall constellations such as
Andromeda, Aries, Pegasus
and Perseus are nearly over-
head throughout November.
Later in the month the con-
stellations that form the
Winter Hexagon will rise
PHOTO COURTESY ELSEVIER/M. LITTMANN
Woodctt depiction of the great meteor storm of 1833.
in the east, including Orion,
Gemini, Taurus, Auriga,
Canis Major and Canis
Minor.
On November 14, there is
a “super full moon,” where
the moon is at its closest
point to the earth, making it
appear to be 12-14 percent
larger than it does when the
moon is at its farthest point
from the earth. The super
full moon, located in Taurus,
will be visible all night. From
then on the moon will be on
the wane until November
29 when it becomes a new
moon.
Headed south for
the winter?
Call today to get your home
winter-ready for your time away!
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