Applegater Summer 2014
7
THE STARRY SIDE
A tetrad of eclipses just for us
by gREElEy WEllS
What a year—an incredible freeze and
insufficient rain and snow. Mt. Ashland
did not open; Applegate Lake is not full.
(It is, however, dramatically improved over
its previous state, when it was comparable
to little more than a creek in a field of mud
and rock.) Will we be without snowmelt
and rain this summer? What we will have,
though, are warm nights and stars galore.
So, lean back in your favorite lawn chair
and enjoy the night skies.
Did you see the moon’s eclipse? It
was a treat! I stayed up late with coffee,
binoculars, two movie cameras and my
grandson. I had fun, and my grandson was
at least a little interested. The experience
was good preparation for the October
lunar eclipse, which I recommend seeing,
especially if you missed this recent one.
I’ll shed more light on that eclipse once
we are closer to the event.
Next year there will be two more—a
tetrad of eclipses! This rare alignment
of eclipses, visible from our corner of
America’s northern hemisphere, is an
opportunity of a lifetime!
I was recently asked an interesting
eclipse question: why was the moon so
red? Well, imagine yourself on the moon,
looking back at earth. Now imagine that
the sun has just disappeared behind the
earth. When the earth covers the sun,
the only light that reaches the moon is
the red hue of sunset and sunrise. From
the vantage point of the earth during
a lunar eclipse, you would see a red
illuminated moon surrounding the earth!
THE NIGHT SKY
Now, on to summer’s sky. The Milky
Way has risen from its disappearing act
of spring in the east with the Summer
Triangle, the main “stars” of the summer
(Vega, Deneb and Altar). The three
corresponding constellations are Lyra (the
harp), Cygnus (the swan or the northern
cross) and Aguila (the eagle).
In the north, around Polaris, the Big
Dipper has swung over the top and is sliding
down on the western side as Cassiopeia
rises in the east. Like all constellations and
stars, these constellations are circumpolar,
meaning they seem to spin around the
pole. The closer they are to the pole, the
smaller the circle they scribe in the sky and
the more of them we see.
As Cassiopeia swings up, she brings
the Milky Way and the Summer Triangle
with her. As the Big Dipper travels over
and down around the pole, Arcturus,
Spica, Mars, Saturn and Leo the Lion
swing up and over through the sky to sink
in the west.
THE PLANETS
Jupiter sets three hours after
sunset; by June’s end it will set one hour
is approximately
a thumb’s width
h e l d a t a r m’s
Greeley Wells
length up into
the sky.)
Mars is close to Spica at the moment.
Follow the arch of the Big Dipper’s handle
to Arcturus and on to Spica. The Earth and
Mars are at their closest point to each other
during our independent paths around
the sun. This, in effect, makes Mars very
bright—comparable to Jupiter! On July 6,
the moon passes Mars within a degree of
separation. On July 14, Mars passes one
degree north of Spica. Mars also passes
Saturn on August 25, roughly three hours
after sunset.
Mercury starts in June high in the
sunset. It will experience a rapid
Illustration: Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar 2014. descent into the sun by June 19. In
July, Mercury is about 15 degrees
above the rising sun in the east. It
disappears into the sun to rise low
in the sunset by the end of August.
OF NOTE
Summer Solstice falls on June
21, when the days are longest and
the nights shortest. However, the
latest sunset is actually on June
27, so that day may feel like the
longest day.
There’s a full moon on
Friday, June 13, which is the only
“unlucky” day this year. Does
that mean that it’s an unlucky full
moon too?
T h e Pe r s e i d m e t e o r
shower on the night of August
12 is always worth watching.
Unfortunately, it will be hampered
this year by an almost-full moon.
Sorry about that. The moon rises
around 9 pm so maybe there will be
some meteors visible beforehand.
Look to the north-northeast.
Greeley Wells
greeley@greeley.me
after. Slowly, it drops farther west each day
till it sets with the constellation Gemini,
which Jupiter has been in for more than a
year. On July 24, Jupiter sets into the sun
and is gone till August when it will begin
rising higher and higher in the dawn.
Saturn is southeast of Mars and
Spica. The red Antares, in Scorpio, is the
next bright star along that line of celestial
bodies. By the end of July, Saturn will be
setting before midnight.
Venus is currently rising two hours
before the sun in the east. For a time it will
be nicely bright, but will slowly dim as it
passes through its cycle. Venus is only 5.7
degrees from the Pleiades in the pre-dawn
sky on June 23. And on June 24, it’s only
1.3 degrees from the moon. (A degree
