8 Spring 2021 Applegater
THE STARRY SIDE
New times they are a comin’
BY GREELEY WELLS
is sometimes
Greeley Wells
called “the eye
of Taurus”), and
then the seven daughters of Atlas—the
stars forming the snuggly, little-teeny
dipper shape of the Pleiades. These starry
sights are all in a row along the southwest
horizon line with Orion standing brave,
tall, and upright.
Above Orion and towards the middle of
the sky, you’ll find Castor and Pollux, the
twins, also standing completely upright.
Almost at the zenith of the sky overhead
is the wonderfully bright Capella in the
constellation Auriga. Off behind us to
the north, the Big Dipper is rising high
in the easterly sky while always pointing
faithfully to the North Star. Parallel with
the Dipper and also rising is Leo the Lion,
another stalwart of the spring, with its
backwards question mark shape ending
with a bright period: Regulus. Regulus is
actually Leo’s heart; above it is the curve of
Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar
the lion’s mane. It’s all a truly beautiful
winter’s end delight.
OF NOTE
Cassiopeia, the “W,” is now down
Meteors
April 22, before dawn, the Lyrids create about 10 to 15 meteors per hour, the predicted peak of a shower stretching from below Polaris, the North Star, in the
west. My northern mountain will
April 16 to 25. The best time to watch may be the hour or two between moonset and dawn. The radiant for this shower
soon completely cover her. This is all
is near the bright star Vega, which rises in the northeast at about 10 pm.
May 5, before dawn, is the predicted peak of the Eta Aquariids. Hopefully, the waning crescent moon won’t too seriously so predictable and stable compared to
all we’ve been through.
dampen this year’s production. The radiant comes over the eastern horizon at about 4am local time. In the southern half
I must confess my joy at the
of the US there’ll be 10 to 20 meteors per hour. Might not be so great for us northerners.
results of our elections this year as
Planets
I look forward to what we all can
Mercury is low in dawn in March. It is not visible in April, when it has moved around the back side of the sun, and it
do together! May winter’s end
is out of sight into dusk by May.
and the spring equinox bring new life
Venus doesn’t appear at all for us this season, as it’s behind the sun.
and ideas and actions toward a better
Mars is in each of our season’s evenings. It’s not as big as it was but is still its red self.
world unfolding.
Greeley Wells
Saturn and Jupiter are visible in the morning through the season. (Jupiter is that brightest “star.”)
greeley@greeley.me
Notice how everything is changing, is
different, and is destructible. This is the
universe we live in, and none of us lives
forever. These times seem to show
this up strongly. Astronomers
have computed that even our
steady, faithful moon is getting
about a quarter of an inch
further from us each year
(as Edwin Hubble put it,
it’s receding at the speed
of our fingernail growth),
so eventually it’s going to
escape our pull of gravity
and fly off!
Here on Earth the
coronavirus has brought about
enormous changes in our lives.
Who knows how long it’s going
to last and what more damage it’s
going to do? So, in all of this, we need
to not succumb to anger and sorrow and
sadness and do the best we can to enjoy
these hard and wonderful moments that
are all we get. We need to pay attention to
the horrible things we assumed weren’t
there but that are now loudly
demanding change, asking us to
make everything better than
it was. Not back to what
we called “normal” before,
but to a new and greatly
improved universe.
In the meantime, the
skies give us the same
reliable changes. At the
new year you might have
seen our brightest star,
Sirius, due south and at his
highest at midnight. Now,
making his usual changes, he’s
on the way to that high point
earlier in the evening. Just ahead
and to the right of Sirius is Orion, his
three-in-a-row belt so obvious. Next comes
Taurus the Bull (the bright star Aldebaran
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