8 Summer 2018 Applegater
THE STARRY SIDE
The North Star, the still star
BY GREELEY WELLS
If stargazing is new to you and you
want to learn one interesting thing, find
Polaris, the North Star. It’s the only star in
the whole sky that stays in the exact same
location. There are several ways to find it:
1. Look in the direction the sun rises
(that’s east) and turn to your left—that’s
north. Facing north, look up approximately
45 degrees—about halfway between the
horizon and straight overhead—and
you’ll see a modest star, measured as
only the fiftieth brightest star, but first in
importance because every other star moves
around it while it stays still!
At my house, the North Star is always
just to the right of a tall cedar tree, about
three quarters of the way up the tree. I
recommend you find a landmark like my
tree and orient the star in relation to it to
create your own personal mark.
2. The most common technique is to
use the Big Dipper (officially called Ursa
Major, the Big Bear), which is always in
the north going around and around that
North Star. The two stars at the bottom of
the dipper, away from the handle, point
directly at the North Star.
3. You can also use Cassiopeia. She’s a
queen but looks like a W or M depending
on her orientation, and she lives on the
opposite side of the North Star from the
Big Dipper. One side of the W is a wider
Greeley’s Sky Calendar
Venus is the brightest thing in the evening all this summer. She’s at
her highest and stays up longest in August.
Jupiter works his way down and west into the evening throughout
June, July, and August and is almost as bright as Venus.
Mars and the earth are at their closest on July 27, when Mars will
be at its brightest since 2003. It had been 6,000 years since Mars was
that close to us, and this year it will almost match that record-breaking
brightness.
Mercury, in the sun in June, in the dusk in July, and in the dawn
in August, is hard to find, as always.
Saturn is up all night in June and moves into dusk in July and
August. It’s at its apex in June.
The Perseid meteor shower, the best of the year, peaks on August
12-13. A small crescent moon will set early in the evening. It’s always
best after midnight, when the earth has turned its dark side into its
direction of motion—that’s the leading side, facing into the wind, as
it were, creating a more vivid show, the way snow is more impressive
coming at you through the front window of a car than the back window!
V than the other. Imagine two evenly
spaced lines within that wider V, dividing
the space into three pieces of pie. Follow
the outside line (away from the center) of
those two lines you just imagined, and it
will point right to Polaris.
4. The Little Dipper (Ursa Minor, the
Little Bear) is a third constellation in this
story. The end star of its handle is the North
Star. The handles of the two dippers (or the
tails of the two bears) are pointing opposite
to each other. With this information you
can stay on track walking or navigating at
night using the position of the North Star.
If it’s on your right, you’re walking west; if
on your left, you are walking east; if behind
you, guess what,
Greeley Wells
you’re walking
south, etc.
These are important first steps in
understanding the movement of the night
sky. All other stars and constellations are
only in the same place once a year. The
North Star (near your personal mark) and
these circumpolar constellations rotating
counterclockwise around and close to it are
almost always completely visible because
they stay high in the sky all year long. If
you find this group in the north, they will
always be there for you in any season.
Greeley Wells
greeley@greeley.me
Illustration from stellarium.org.
