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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2012)
Applegater Winter 2012 7 THE STARRY SIDE Speeds by GReeley wellS Imagine this: You’re peacefully sitting alone in your chair. You reach out for your cup of coffee and bring it to your lips. Your arm moves carefully so as not to spill, probably at a speed of about a half-mile per hour. Now imagine you’re in your car having that same drink while driving at 65 miles per hour. Even though the car is moving fast, your body feels still inside the car—as if “at rest.” Now consider that our planet is spinning on its axis; at the equator that’s about 1,000 miles per hour, yet we still feel “at rest” just as we did in our moving car. Now add this: we’re circling around our sun at 67,000 miles per hour! But wait— there’s more: the sun is revolving around a path in our galaxy at 490,000 miles per hour, and the galaxy itself is spinning through the universe at 1.3-million miles per hour. And finally, have you heard of the big bang? Well, we all, every atom of us, have been moving away from that central beginning at another amazing cosmic speed. And we’ve been doing this for some 12 to 15 billion years! So is there really something like being “at rest,” or are you just dizzy by now? Ahhhh…December and the winter sky. For many of us it’s our best and favorite sky, though it’s so cold we can’t spend a huge amount time watching it. There’s Orion the hunter, probably the clearest and one of the biggest and best-known constellations of all. If a person knows one constellation, it’s probably Orion. I’ve had people ask me in midsummer, “Where’s Orion?” They don’t realize it’s a winter constellation. Actually, it is up in summer in the southern hemisphere, where it’s winter for them while it’s summer for us. So it is somewhere on the planet each night. Below and behind Orion, and to the left (east), is Sirius, the dog star, the brightest star in the sky. It’s Orion’s faithful dog, in the constellation Canus Major. In front of Orion is that beautiful little “V” of Taurus the bull. And still farther ahead of Orion lie the seven sisters, the Pleiades. To make things interesting—and a little confusing—Jupiter is up, bright and centered between Orion and Taurus. The large square of Pegasus we’ve watched rising this summer in the east is, in December, passing the zenith (top) of the sky and descending. In January, Pegasus has moved to the western horizon and in February, it’s setting farther down each night. Early one morning in mid-September, I saw several things I had never noticed before. Cassiopeia (it’s the “W” or “M” or something in between as it spins around Polaris, the North Star) was hauling the whole Milky Way around with it, from the north/south across the sky we’ve been seeing to the east/west we will be having for part of the winter. The second thing I next to Aldebaran for months now, and gets closest to the Hyades “V” of Taurus (4 2/3º) on December 11. The rest of the season, he is the beacon of the night: the brightest star or planet to be seen, and up all night long. Mars is low and hard to see in the sunset; it’s a poor season for viewing Mars. Saturn takes part in an early morning moon show. The waning crescent moon January 2-4 has the Quadranids. Draco, the constellation Greeley Wells low in the northeast, is their “radiant”—the place they seem to originate. The Quadranids could have 40 to 100 meteors an hour at the best of times. (Note: There are no guarantees in this meteor-prediction business.) Moons in winter when full are low in the sky; crescent moons in winter get higher and higher. This is the opposite of the sun, which is high in the summer and low in the winter. Just as the sun has its yearly change, the moon does a monthly change from low to high and back. The full moon on December 28 is called the Moon Before Yule or the Long Night Moon. On January 27 the full moon is known as the Old Moon, or Moon After Yule. The full moon on February 25 is called the Wolf Moon, Snow Moon, or Hunger Moon. The winter solstice is on December 21. Actually, the earliest sunset (4:35 pm) is on December 21 and the latest sunrise is January 5. Because most of us experience sunsets more often than sunrises, December 21 feels like the This south-facing illustration is from To Know the Stars by Guy Ottewell. “shortest” day. Finally, this just discovered: Comet a lot like—and were almost perfectly moves downward through a diagonal line Ison may become a day “star” in November parallel with—the two brighter Big Dipper of bright stars and planets: first Spica and December 2013. This comet has been handle stars; and midway between them (December 9), then Saturn (December called “a daylight-brilliant immense-tailed was another set of two similarly oriented 10), Venus (December 11), and Mercury Sun-Grazer, to rival the few great ones of stars, a little dimmer and a little smaller (December 12) close to the horizon the past four centuries.” To find out more but completing a sequence: two by two by line. Saturn is rising around 2 am in from Guy Ottewell (who writes the yearly two. I love these sorts of “design elements” January, and by February at 11 pm. So sky calendar to best all sky calendars, in I find in the sky. They help me realize that Saturn is rather high in the morning sky, my opinion), go to: http://issuu.com/ The Great Creator is also the Master Artist. and getting higher. universalworkshop/docs/comet_ison?mo THE PLANETS Mercury begins December as high de=window&viewMode=singlePage. Venus is still rising in morning away from the sun as it ever gets; it’s low So very likely, but not a sure thing twilight in early December. But she is in the dawn, if you can find it. Mercury yet: Comet Ison for next year at this time. ending her season of drama in the morning is below Venus and Saturn, and slowly Oh boy! sky. As the season moves on, Venus gets sinking for the rest of December. (I think Greeley Wells lower, until in January she will be rising we lose it for the remainder of the winter.) 541-840-5700 steadily at 7 am and so low in the dawn Mercury is closest to beautiful Venus on greeley@greeley.me light that she’ll be almost gone from December 9, when they are only about six view. I’ve been seeing Venus as a “day-star” degrees apart. when the crescent moon has been close by OF NOTE to help me find her. The way to do this is The Geminid meteor shower appears he things that will to determine their relative positions while in perfect form, with no moon and it’s dark and easy to do, and then in the very favorable viewing conditions, on daylight find that same position after you December 13-14. These meteors often destroy America are spot the little crescent moon. In other radiate strongly out of the Gemini twins, prosperity at any price, words, when you can see the moon in the up over Orion’s head. There should be daytime sky, you can find Venus—but she’s all-night viewing—so no excuses to miss peace at any price, safety bright enough to see only if you know this thrill, weather permitting. If you’re where to look. hard core like me, you might also try to first instead of duty first, Jupiter dominates the night, rising in catch some meteors before dawn, which the love of soft living, and early evening and setting just after sunset. is usually the best viewing time. Early in December he moves into the There are also quite favorable Ursid evening sky at midnight, setting almost meteor showers on Saturday, December the get-rich-quick theory at dawn. On the night of Christmas, he 22. These seem to radiate from the Little is right next to Aldebaran and the almost- Dipper, Ursa Minor, in the north. They of life. full moon—spectacular! Jupiter has been tend to be faint and medium-sized. Finally, —Theodore Roosevelt hadn’t ever noticed before was that at that moment the Big Dipper, Ursa Major, was standing tiptoe on the end of its handle, totally upright and touching Grizzly Peak! And to its left was the Little Dipper, Ursa Minor, hanging from its tail, the North Star, straight down as if the star were a nail in the wall of the night. Last, I noticed that the two brighter stars next to each other in the Little Dipper’s handle looked “T ”
