This is the
Classical Astronomy Update, an email newsletter especially
for Christian homeschool families (though everyone is welcome!) Please feel free to share this with any interested
friends.
They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. - Psalm 72:5 IN THIS UPDATE Lunar Conjunction With Jupiter Hello Friends, I've been wanting to write a newsletter for months but life has been so busy! Hoping to find more time now that
the seasons have changed and the cool season is upon us. The leaves are starting to change here in Northeast Ohio. We love the beauty of the four seasons, how the landscape changes so much from winter to summer. The atmosphere over Lake Erie was just right this summer and I had the good fortune to witness the elusive green flash a total of four times. I've really wanted to write a newsletter reporting on this, but for now I need to rush out this timely missive. We are coming off a summer of planet-free evenings. All the visible classical planets were clustered up in the morning sky for months, and since I'm not up at 4:00AM, I didn't see them! But that situation is changing, and soon we will have a sky-full of evening planets again. Saturn passed opposition in August and Jupiter followed in September. That means that these objects are now in the evening sky after
sunset. Mars is approaching its opposition in December 8, and you can currently spot this red "star" before midnight. Venus aligns behind the Sun at its superior conjunction on October 22, and it will then emerge from the sunset glow and again become visible as the "Evening Star." We've had several new subscribers in recent times. Welcome! We look forward to helping you learn to spot the planets, and also to learn the seasonal cycles of the Sun, Moon and stars. If you like what we're doing here, invite your friends to sign up to also become subscribers this FREE email newsletter. For more information about topics from Classical Astronomy discussed in this newsletter,
please check out a homeschool astronomy curriculum (but popular with adult readers too!) Visit our archive of previous editions of the Classical Astronomy Update newsletters, going back to 2007. ***** Lunar Conjunction With Jupiter - This Weekend!
As mentioned above, the bright visible planets Saturn and Jupiter have returned to the evening sky in recent months, and are now visible after nightfall. There is a common misconception that the planets are invisible and require a telescope to be seen. However, the "classical" planets have been known since ancient times, millennia before the invention of the telescope. In fact, the planets are among the brightest
"stars" in the sky, and can be seen "wandering" amongst the fixed stars over a period of months and years. The planets can be easily identified when they align with the Moon in a lunar conjunction. These
lunar-planetary alignments occur each month as the Moon orbits the Earth, circling through the stars. These monthly conjunctions are also opportunities to learn the constellations, which are often more easily identified by "asterisms," informal groupings of stars that form distinctive shapes. In the present season, Jupiter is lined up with the constellation Pisces, a very faint constellation not readily visible from the city, but more easily seen from pristine dark rural skies. Pisces is distinguised by the "Circlet" asterism, a pentagon of faint stars, and a real test for good eyesight and the quality of a dark sky. The Circlet is directly under the "Great Square" of the constellation Pegasus. This asterism is more readily visible than the Circlet since it is a neat and tidy square formed of conspicuous 2nd magnitude stars. So if you can locate Jupiter as that blazing bright "star"
coming up in the eastern sky, you can then use Jupiter to find the Great Square and maybe even the Circlet, dark skies permitting. Jupiter will be impossible to miss on the evening of Saturday, October 8, when the
nearly-full Moon aligns with this brilliant body. If you have clear skies in your area, go outside after nightfall and take a look. Also be sure to step out again throughout the evening to see this celestial pair rising higher in the night sky. If your sky is clear tonight, Friday, October 7, take a look to see the Moon on the night before the conjunction with Jupiter. The next
day you can then notice the daily movement of the Moon, how it leaps across the sky closer toward Jupiter from one night to the next. By Sunday night, you'll see the Moon then draw away from Jupiter, heading for its monthly conjunction with Mars next week, the evening of October 14. If you become adept at spotting the Great Square and even the Circlet, look to the west and try to spot the "Water Jar" asterism in the constellation Aquarius. This Water Jar is a little zig-zag of stars high above a bright first magnitude star called Fomalhaut. To the west of the Water Jar is the constellation Capricornus, a somewhat chevron-shaped star pattern, which is
currentlty hosting the planet Saturn. The Moon, Jupiter and Saturn are the most interesting objects you can see through a telescope. But DO NOT run out and buy a telescope just yet. Instead, visit a public viewing
night of a local astronomy club or planetarium and look through someone else's scope. A searchable list of such local organizations can be found at the Sky & Telescope magazine web site. There will be a total lunar
eclipse visible over the USA before dawn on the morning of November 8. Hope to get out another newsletter sometime before that. Meantime, feel free to drop me a line, it's always great to hear from you! Til next time, God bless and clear skies, - jay The Ryan Family Cleveland, Ohio, USA When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? - Psalm 8:3-4, a Psalm of David
|
|
|
|
