8 Winter 2017 Applegater
THE STARRY SIDE
Telling the future
BY GREELEY WELLS
The nighttime starry sky is a wonder
to me, just as the daylight sky is with its
mysterious clouds and blazing sunrises
and sunsets. Just as the daytime skies look
different in spring, fall, winter, and spring,
the starry night sky of the Applegate,
with its predictable constellations that
represent each of the four seasons, presents
marvelous visions, stories, and surprises for
the awake to see.
But there’s something interesting that
the night sky always does with the seasons
that the daytime sky does not. Because of
the earth’s rotation, the stars during the
first half of the night correspond with the
season we are actually in—winter stars in
a winter sky—but after the middle of the
night, the stars of the next season appear!
So each predawn morning sky is telling the
future. In effect, we get to see two seasons
in one night if we wake up early enough
to see that beautiful predawn sky. What a
sweet gift!
This season, arching straight overhead is
one of my favorite constellations: Auriga.
It’s a pentagram (five sides) whose brightest
star is Capella. Next to it, quite visible,
is a small triangle with another triangle,
even smaller and dimmer, across from it
at the bottom. I’ve never heard this little
one mentioned, but I see it and love it! It
has the same shape and angle of the larger
triangle, and it’s pointing in the opposite
direction! That’s symmetrical and beautiful
to me.
Auriga is a shepherd. The main triangle is
the kids (baby goats) he holds with his arm.
It’s an almost circumpolar constellation
and is in our sky about three-quarters of
the time, so it’s easy to see most of the year,
depending on how big the mountain is
north of you. This season Auriga follows
north over Orion’s head, and while Orion
is south-ish overhead, Auriga is directly
overhead and goes through the zenith.
Illustration from stellarium.org.
Of note
Geminid
meteor showers,
Greeley Wells
from December
7 to 17, have almost no moon and will be
good this year. They peak December 13-
14 mid-evening to dawn. They’ll radiate
from the Gemini twins and, at best, could
produce up to 120 meteors per hour.
The winter solstice on December 21
marks the longest night of the year and
the first day of winter.
Jupiter is in our dawn sky for months
this season. Venus is out of sight behind
the sun for months. Mars is in our dawn
continuously.
The blue moon on January 31 simply
means a somewhat-rare occurrence of two
full moons in one month. The blue moon
on March 31 is the second one next year,
making it even more rare.
A total lunar eclipse on January 31 will
be at its maximum at 5:30 pm around
moonset. The moon gradually turns rusty
then blood red. It’s caused by the earth’s
shadow falling over the moon.
Greeley Wells
greeley@greeley.me
Note: Be sure to read Greeley’s article on
page 4 about the devastating loss by fire that
he personally experienced.
Used books from $1 to $1.50
oad
Managed by Friends of
Ruch Library. Join us!
Ruch
Library
gate R
Tuesdays 12 - 4
Thursdays 1 - 5
Saturdays 12 - 4
r Apple
Uppe
Visit the A-Frame Bookstore
@ Ruch Library
A-Frame
Highway 238
8 miles from Jacksonville
