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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
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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
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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.
The report found this
aging workforce trend can
be expected to accelerate in
the near future. It also found
the pace of retirements
will quicken in industries
that have higher shares of
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Call 800-620-0950 or email
gary@akiyamafinancial.net.
Call 800-620-0950 or email
gary@akiyamafinancial.net.