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
”
