Wednesday, November 15, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 7
Stars over Sisters
Enrollment
up seven
percent
at OSU-
Cascades
By Julia Collins-Burke
& Holland Hartman
Correspondent
At nightfall during the
month of November, it’s the
relatively dim constellations
of autumn that are found near
the meridian.
Then as evening pro-
gresses, the brighter con-
stellations of winter ascend
higher above the eastern
horizon, while those of sum-
mer sink lower in the west.
November is an ideal time to
look for the faint constellation
of Sculptor, “the sculptor’s
studio.” Positioned very low
in the sky, an unobstructed
southern horizon is a must.
Sculptor lies below Cetus
and Aquarius to the north
and to the east of Piscis Aus-
trinus. To find it, first locate
the bright first-magnitude
Fomalhaut. It is the brightest
star in this part of the sky, by
far. Sculptor extends about 40
degrees of sky eastward from
Fomalhaut.
Sculptor is a relatively
modern constellation intro-
duced by French astronomer
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in
1751-1752. The arrangement
of stars depicts a carved head
lying on a tripod table, next
to a sculptor’s mallet and
PHOTO COURTESY NASA
NGC 253 is a bright, nearby spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Sculptor.
two chisels. The constellation
is not associated with any
mythology.
Alpha Sculptoris is the
constellation’s brightest star
at a magnitude of 4.3 (still
quite dim.) It is about 1,700
times brighter and 5.5 times
more massive than our sun
and lies at a distance of some
780 light-years.
The second brightest star
in the constellation is Beta
Sculptoris. This luminary
is a more-modest 82 times
brighter than the sun and only
about 3.1 times more mas-
sive. It is only approximately
178 light-years from our solar
system. Astronomers have
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discovered planets orbiting
four stars in Sculptor.
Sculptor contains a group
of galaxies located near the
south galactic pole. The big-
gest and brightest galaxy in
the group, by far, is NGC
253. Often referred to as the
“Sculptor Galaxy,” or “Silver
Dollar Galaxy,” it is one of
the most easily viewed gal-
axies in the night sky, along
with the Andromeda Galaxy.
It is located near the bright
star Beta Ceti in the Cetus
Constellation.
This is a good year to
observe the Leonid Meteor
Shower because it will occur
in the dark of the moon. The
meteors are caused by debris
left by comet Tempel-Tuttle
that is swept up by the earth.
The Taurid Meteor Shower
is a minor display of shooting
stars that emanate from the
constellation of Taurus.
Although the meteor count
is low, the shower often pro-
duces bright fireballs.
The sun continues to gain
ground on Saturn this month.
The ringed planet will be
harder to spot by month’s end.
B E N D ( A P ) —
Enrollment at Oregon State’s
branch campus in Bend
jumped 7 percent this fall.
T h e u n i v e r s i t y s a y s
1,204 students are enrolled
at OSU-Cascades, includ-
ing 81 who are first-year
students. By comparison,
Oregon State’s main cam-
pus in Corvallis grew by 0.4
percent.
The Bulletin reports that
92 percent of the students
are from Oregon and 67
percent are from Central
Oregon.
OSU-Cascades expanded
to a four-year university
when it welcomed its first
freshman class in fall 2015.
Its new campus opened
a year later and there are
plans to expand onto nearby
property.
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