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Columbia Gorge News www.columbiagorgenews.com Wednesday, December 1, 2021 B5 WHAT’S IN THE SKY DECEMBER 2021 Much to see on clear December nights What’s in the Sky Jim White We’ve come to the last month of the year, with the winter solstice, Christmas, snowy weather, and dark nights. Alas, in our part of the world most of those dark nights are also cloudy. Step outside when it is clear and enjoy the celestial sights! Winter solstice comes on Dec. 21, when the Sun will be at its lowest point in our sky, and we have our shortest day. The Sun will only be about 20 degrees above the southern horizon at its highest. We’ll have only about 8 hours and 38 minutes with the Sun above the horizon. If that depresses you, remember days will start getting longer. By New Year’s Day, we’ll have picked up about 5 minutes of day- length already. There was much activity in November, with peo- ple watching for a display of Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. We didn’t get much of a display, but hopefully will get more chances in the future. Solar activity, which is respon- sible for phenomena like aurorae or sunspots, runs on a roughly 11-year cycle. Activity was lowest in 2019, and should be at maximum between 2023 and 2026. Aurorae occur when strong activity on our Sun releases ionized particles, a “Coronal Mass Ejection.” If the ejection is toward Earth, those ionized par- ticles reach us in a couple of days. They are deflected by Earth’s magnetic field, but some make it into our atmosphere, especially where the magnetic field is weaker, near the poles. The particles collide with atoms in our atmosphere, and the collisions emit the colors we see. Red can result from collision with oxygen atoms high in our atmosphere, and yellow-to-green light at lower elevations. Nitrogen at lower elevations may also produce red color, often on the fringes of the aurora. Cameras can capture more of the light, than our eyes, so often the pictures you see are more vivid than what you may have seen with your naked eye. The farther north you are, the better chance you have of seeing the Aurora. They are relatively rare at our lat- itude, visible when we have strong solar storms. When to look? There is no magic, alas. A good web- site is the Space Weather Prediction Center’s Aurora forecast, at www.swpc. noaa.gov/products/auro- ra-30-minute-forecast. If you are on Facebook, there now is an “aurora borealis Washington State” group that has sighting reports, and great information about the phenomenon. The bright planets Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are still hanging in our evening sky. Late in the month, they’ll be joined (right after sunset) but little Mercury, very low in the southwest. On Christmas Eve, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn will be lined up in the eve- ning sky, at 5 p.m. By New Year’s Eve, Mercury will be a bit higher in the sky, just to Contributed graphic the left of bright Venus. December’s full Moon will occur on the 18th. New Moon will be on the Third of December. The Moon will be just below Saturn on the Seventh, and near Jupiter on the Eighth and Ninth. The nearly-full Moon will be below the Pleiades star cluster on the 16th. The red planet Mars is now low in our morning sky, low in the southeast at sunrise. The Geminid meteor shower peaks on Dec. 13-14. The waxing gibbous Moon will “wash out” some of the meteors. Best chance for viewing is probably in the early morning hours of Dec. 14, while the sky is still dark before sunrise. The Moon sets at about 4:30 a.m., so about that time might be a good time to take a look. We have a comet to look for in December as well. Comet Leonard may be visible close to the horizon, on the morning of Dec. 12 (low in the East), or in the evening of Dec. 14 and a few days later, very low in the west, near bright Venus. Leonard may be visible to the naked eye, but most like- ly a pair of binoculars will be necessary. Enjoy December’s skies, and Happy Holidays to all! PEARLS registration open now Program to reduce de- pression in elders, those with disabilities Registration is now open for the Program to Encourage Active and Rewarding Lives (PEARLS), an evidence based program from the University of Washington designed to reduce depression in elders and people with disabilities through goal setting and social activation. PEARLS is delivered by a trained coach who meets with the client virtually or by telephone over an 8 week period. The client is empow- ered to choose the problems he or she would like to dis- cuss, and the coach guides, teaches, and supports the client in developing action plans for behavior change, according to a press release. PEARLS has three major components: 1. Participants learn about the link between unsolved problems and depression, and to apply a seven-step approach to solving their problems. 2. Participants are encour- aged to engage in social and physical activities that most interest them. 3. Participants identify and participate in activities that they enjoy. This free program is available to eligible partic- ipants (age 55 and older) in Oregon and is available in English and Spanish. To learn more or to enroll, call 971-718-6226. Oregon’s aging workforce trend expected to accelerate, state report finds Jules Rogers ■ By Oregon Capital Insider An October report by the Oregon Employment Department found the share of aging workers age 55 and older has tripled across the state over the past three decades — while the total number of jobs grew only about 50%. According to the report, these aging workers held slightly more than 10% of jobs in the state in 1992, but by 2019, that number increased to 24%. The report cited that the large Baby Boomer generation, now 55 and over, are more likely to continue in the labor force at that age than previous generations. “It’s important to con- sider the implications for businesses’ future ability to find enough workers,” Gail Krumenauer, state employment economist and author of the report, told the Business Tribune. “We’re al- ready in a situation, with an unemployment rate at 4.4%, that is really low by historical standards. Employers are currently having widespread difficulty finding all the workers that they’d like to hire or need to hire.” Many of these aging work- ers do plan to retire within the next decade — retiring their skillsets and knowl- edge, as well — and business owners will need to replace them somehow. “Even though we should see some of that current (hiring) difficulty get alleviated in the coming months, in the longer-term with more workers hoping Dr. Cullen’s Congratulations Columbia View Dental 1915 E. 19th Street | The Dalles Victor Cullen, DDS Start Ups Rollovers Consulting Education Gary Akiyama, CPIA Ethan Ku Frasier, Keegan Ku, TDHS TDHS 541-296-5677 | Se habla español SUDOKU HOW TO PLAY: Each row, column and set of 3-by-3 boxes must contain the numbers 1 through 9 without repetition. Need exposure? Reserve this ad space one week in advance, and support this popular feature. Sales@GorgeNews.com aged workers. In Oregon, the healthcare industry has the most aged workers, the report found — and rural counties have even more aged workers. However, employers in Portland metro counties will find larger groups of young workers to recruit from when replacing retirees in general, the report said. 401-K Plans Student of the week Ethan Ku Frasier, Student of the week Keegan Ku for Global Studies: Ethan is in 3d printing and been working learning Keegan comes to has class every on day the mechanics of how the printers actually work. Ethan works with a positive attitude and works with no assistance to build new printers for student use in hard, not is now only improving himself, our lab and working on maintenance and upgrades but fellow classmates well. lab. for other printers in the TDHS as fabrication to retire in the coming years, that’s going to create a different but ongoing source of difficulty for them to have enough available workforce,” Krumenauer said. 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