Applegater Spring 2015
7
THE STARRY SIDE
Fistful of data
by gReeley Wells
The width of your fist can answer
quite a few amazing questions. The stars,
moon and sun really don’t move much;
they are basically the stable background for
our earth’s rotation. It’s our own planet’s
spinning movement that we can measure
with a fist.
At arm’s length, one fist equals
about one hour of movement and
10 degrees of the sky measurement. This
means that the sun and stars and moon will
move the width of an outstretched fist in
an hour. Also, as a predicting tool, the fist
will predict that between 10 pm tonight
and 10 pm tomorrow night, the moon will
have moved one fist-width, a fist away from
or closer to a star, etc.
Your fist? Yes. At arm’s length,
everyone’s fist appears the same size in the
heavens—to your own eyes. Little fists on
short, outstretched arms appear the same
as giant fists on long, outstretched arms.
This measurement is a generality, like
most of the things in the sky and nature. The
square of Pegasus is squarish, the summer
triangle is only close to equilateral, and the
“circles” of our orbits are actually ovals. But
like other astronomical generalities, the
fist provides a close-enough estimate of
where the moon will be the next night.
It’s approximate, but quite useful. If you
are told something is 20 degrees from
something else, that’s two of your fists. And
because a fist is just about 10 degrees of the
Illustration: Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar 2014.
sky, a finger is about one degree.
I sometimes try to estimate
the time of sunset by the number of
fists (hours) the sun is above the horizon.
I’m even right sometimes! So get out there
with your friends and neighbors and show
them some fists!
Now what’s up in this beautiful night
sky in March, April and May? Well, it’s the
heart of winter’s end and the beginning of
summer: spring! The Big Dipper is in the
north, going from right to left over the top
of the North Star each month, first east,
then overhead in April, then west in May.
The bright star Arcturus is
“pulled along” by the handle of the Dipper.
Follow the arch of the Dipper’s handle
to find Arcturus
east and south
of the handle’s
Greeley Wells
end. By April,
Arcturus is almost overhead. Leo the lion
is parallel with the Dipper and is also
overhead at its zenith. The bright Jupiter
also starts overhead right in front of Leo
and moves west with him.
Orion and his entourage make
their way from west of center, to down
in the west, and then out of sight, taking
winter with them. Only the twins, Caster
and Pollux, are left standing on the
northwestern horizon line to remind us
of bygone winter.
Greeley Wells • greeley@greeley.me
Greeley’s Sky Calendar
The planets
Jupiter. The “star of the show” this season is actually a planet: Jupiter is up
almost all night, strikingly beautiful, and overhead the whole season. Earth passes
between Jupiter and the sun, a position that puts Jupiter closer to the earth than it
will be again until 2019. It’s the brightest and best in the sky for this year besides
Venus. Jupiter started east in February and slides west as the season matures.
Saturn rises in the northeast in May and continues to move up as the next
seasons unfold.
Venus is in the sunset in April and higher in May—beautiful and bright and
short-lived.
Other events of note
March 20 is the vernal (spring) equinox. This is one of the two symmetries
between the extremes of the solstices. It is the first day of spring.
The lunar eclipse on April 4 will be visible throughout the northern US—the
moon will get red with the earth’s shadow over it. Visible during the afternoon until
moonset, it’s worth a quick look or concentrated study. With sunlight and moonlight,
exposures for cameras of all kinds should be easy. A long-lens image would be
wonderful. Find some foreground to make it even more interesting.
The Lyrid meteors are favorable on April 23. They radiate from Lyra, where
Vega is the brightest third of the summer triangle, up overhead. About 4 am is the
best time to watch them.
Here’s a great little guide for celestial events—http://www.iflscience.com/space/
sky-watching-event-guide-2015. Thank you, Jack Duggan!
BACK IN TIME
Dad’s scary
hospital experience
by evelyn byRne WilliaMs WiTh janeen saThRe
When I was about eight years old
my dad was in bed for several days with a
bad cold or the flu. Our family physician,
Doctor Heckman, no longer made house
calls as he had when my older brother
and two sisters were born in 1916, 1918,
and 1920. He would stay overnight and
perhaps enjoy his favorite pastime of
fishing the Squaw Creek or Applegate
River before returning home the next day.
This time Mother had to take Dad
to Medford, where Doctor Heckman
promptly sent him to Sacred Heart
Hospital. Poor Mother returned home
late that afternoon, very worried, and said
for me to hurry and feed our chickens
and gather eggs while she milked the cow.
My brother and sister were not there to
help—they were living with my Aunt Clara
in lower Applegate so they could ride the
school bus to Jacksonville High School.
After our chores, Mother and I
crossed the Applegate River on a footbridge
and walked the quarter-mile upriver to the
McKee (my maternal grandparents) home,
where we could make a phone call to find
out about Dad. It turned out he had a
serious ear infection requiring mastoid
surgery. I was so frightened! I thought any
surgery in those days could be fatal and
had heard so many stories I thought my
dad might die.
Mother assured me that Dad
would be all right, but told me that she
and Grandma were taking Grandpa’s car
to the hospital and might not return until
the next morning, so I would have to stay
with Grandpa. I liked Grandpa, but I was
very upset to be left behind.
The next day Mother said I could go
with her to see Dad. It was a cold day so we
had to bundle up, especially since our old
car was “open air” with no top. It had only
a front seat with a wooden bed built on the
back for hauling things like firewood and
sacks of chicken feed.
I thought we should have taken
Grandpa’s car, a Durant sedan that
Uncle Ernest (mother’s oldest brother), a
car salesman, had helped get for Grandpa.
I first rode in it after my uncle moved his
family to Klamath Falls and Grandma
wanted to visit them, so Mother drove
Grandma, my sister Gladys, and me to
my uncle’s for an overnight stay. I wanted
another ride in that car and kept begging
Mother to borrow it,
but she refused.
So I pouted
for most of the
drive to Medford
in our old car. When
Mother had to stop at
a stop sign, she found
out that our car brakes
were barely working.
My pouting then
turned into real fright.
Mother drove in low Photo, above: John Byrne and
cousin Patrick Folley
gear all the way up the
making a living.
hill to the hospital.
Photo,
right:
Pearl and John
I wonder what was
Byrne aka Mother and Dad.
going through her
mind about all the debt—the doctor, the
hospital (no insurance in those days), and had probably never been “chewed” out
an old car in need of repair.
so much. I could not believe seeing my
At the hospital we entered a mother so calm about the incident and
large room, called a ward, filled with Dad, still in some pain, beginning to see
male patients. Dad was propped up in bed some humor in it. Dad was still cold,
in the middle of the room and very glad to though, so mother found a kindly nurse to
see us. A nurse came in and angrily told my help get Dad get warmed up. It took a long
dad that he was not to move his bed. She time before Dad thawed out and became
ignored Mother and me, keeping up her more comfortable. When he got drowsy,
tirade at Dad as she shoved the bed back we kissed him good-bye and quietly left.
against the wall.
Mother went slowly down the hill
When the nurse left, Mother asked through Medford, always in low gear. I
Dad what in the world was going on. kept telling her she should have taken
He explained that he was very cold, so Grandpa’s car.
had moved his bed away from the cold
Evelyn Byrne Williams
brick wall and a window. My dad was of
with Janeen Sathre
a gentle nature and avoided trouble. He
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