sky in motion

summer is just around the corner and it seems that the weather in these here parts is playing with us. it is breezy, and cool in the shade. not at all like the endless hours of northern california summer heat that will bear down upon us in a few weeks time.

the definitive end of a season (any season) is important to me for a myriad* of reasons. the biggest reason is the night sky. as an amateur astronomer and one who has, her entire life, had “her head in the clouds”, what goes on up there↑ affects what i do down here↓.

a clear, winter night sky is possibly my most favourite to view. Firstly there is Orion. everybody should be able to find orion as he is visible on a clear winter night in moderate light pollution. (i’ve never been to the east coast, so i have no clue if orion is visible in super-saturated skies.) in the sheath hanging from Orion’s belt, you can spy the Orion nebula with a low-power telescope. hell, you could probably see it with high powered binoculars. it’s that big.

orion is supposedly “hunting” the seven sisters, or Pleiadies (or Subaru in Japan…what, you didn’t know that? look at the car emblem next time, notice the stars.) i like to think of orion as protecting them, and me, during the long winter nights.  when viewing the seven sisters with a low powered tele or binoc, you will notice there appears to be only 6 sisters.  one star is eclipsing another, creating what seems to be one big star. (this is the reason there are only 6 stars in the car emblem)

Sirius is another rad sight with a tele. at 8.6 light years away it is one of our closest neighbors. it is about twice as big as our sun and glows blue. its apparent magnatude is -1.47. (the lower the number the brighter the object is to us. our sun is at about -27 i think) when looking through the ’scope, you can practically see the corona lapping at the vacuum of space surrounding it. Sirius is in Canis Major and is known as the “Dog Star”. (i sure hope the animagus was not lost on people. it was pretty obvious. come to think of it, most of them were pretty obvious. with a last name like “Lupin”, how could he not have been a werewolf? but i digress.)

then there are the long nights that afford more viewing time for planets that might be heading across the sky.

“but we are heading into summer!” you say. yes, yes, summer is good too! deep sky objects a plenty in summer, Andromeda being one of them. the Andromeda galaxy and the milky way are actually on a collision course, and man, i wish i were going to be around in 3 billion years. to see Andromeda hovering in the sky, galaxy spread out before us, so close we could be illuminated by its light at night. too cool.

during the summer months our night is angled toward the center of our galaxy. if you can get to a really dark place (black rock desert, NV being my favourite) you can see the plane of stars painted across the sky. it is truly amazing and can make me feel so small and utterly insignificant. in fact, want to feel small? check this out. if this doesn’t put it all into perspective for you, nothing will.

we can’t forget about everyone’s favorite meteor shower! the Perseid meteor shower in August. the peak is usually around the 12th, but one can spot meteors on the days flanking either side. did you know that the leading edge of the earth is during the morning? this means while going through a “cloud” of meteors, more will be captured by the side of the earth facing and heading into the cloud. that is why it is beneficial to set the alarm (and get up when it goes off) for about 3am to get the best views. or you can go camping and stay up all night which is my preferred method.

november 18 brings another strong meteor shower, the Leonids. unfortunately, it is almost always cloudy here during that time and i don’t think i’ve ever actually caught this shower. maybe last year i tried, but to no avail.

so i think that concludes this part of my obsession with the sky. and your astronomy lesson.

get solar power.

RAmen.