STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Lorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400
/ FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings greetings, fellow star gazers. This week
our Earth is at aphelion and next week the ringed planet Saturn
will have a super close meeting with the Moon plus Venus will
have a super close meeting with Regulus. Let me show you: O.K.,
This Saturday, July 6th, at midnight eastern daylight time our
Earth is officially at aphelion which is the astronomical word
for saying that our Earth is farthest from the Sun. Ap means "away
from" and helion comes from the Greek word helios which means
sun. In fact, we will be 94 million, 511 thousand miles away at
midnight on the 6th which is over 3 million miles farther away
than when our Earth was at perihelion on January 2nd, the word
'perihelion' being the astronomical word for closest to the Sun;
'helion' once again for sun, and 'peri' which means "close
to or near to." Indeed, this week and next our Sun actually
appears 7% dimmer than it did in January which leads one to ask
" So why is it warmer now than in January?"
And the answer is simple, it all has to do with our Earth's tilt. You see, in July our northern hemisphere is tilted more directly toward the Sun and it is the direct rays of the Sun that account for its being hotter even though we're farther away. Conversely, even though we're closest to the Sun in January our northern hemisphere is then tilted away from the Sun and receives less direct rays and thus it's colder, but only in our northern hemisphere. The reverse situation occurs in the southern hemisphere. Think about it.
And now let's take a look at early next week when a slender sliver of an old crescent Moon, complete with earthshine pays a visit to the ringed planet. Go outside on Sunday July 7 just before dawn. Look east/northeast and there you'll see as exquisite crescent Moon just above the red eye star of Taurus the Bull, Aldebaran. And below them you'll see Saturn and if you have an extremely flat horizon you may even see Mercury. But Sunday is just the set up because the big event occurs on Monday just before dawn when an even skinnier crescent is almost smack dab on top of Saturn and will provide a picture of breathtaking beauty. Don't miss this.
Then on Tuesday the 9th if you have an absolutely
clear flat horizon some of you may even see one of the skinniest
Moons you'll ever see parked right along side Mercury. Now for
those of you who don't like to get up early, go out 1 hour after
sunset Sunday the 7th, look west and you'll see brilliant Venus
approaching the brightest star of Leo, Regulus. And on Monday
it will be even closer. On Tuesday closer still and on Wednesday
they'll be at their closest! Only 1 degree apart. Then you can
watch them pull away from each other on Thursday and even farther
apart on Friday when a crescent Moon will join them for yet another
exquisite picture. Plus on Saturday the crescent Moon, Venus and
Regulus will line up in a row. Wow! The Moon and Saturn early
next week ... The Moon, Venus and Regulus at week's end. I'm Jack
Horkheimer, Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: Three interesting cosmic things
are happening this week and next. This Saturday at midnight our
Earth will be at its farthest from the Sun for the year, over
3 million miles farther away than when our Earth was at its closest
on January 2nd. So why is it warmer now? It all has to do with
our Earth's tilt. Think about it. And while you're thinking go
out Monday morning July 8th just before dawn and you'll see an
exquisite old crescent Moon almost smack dab on top of the ringed
planet Saturn. Then on Wednesday night the 10th, look west and
you'll see the brightest planet, Venus, parked right next to the
brightest star of Leo, Regulus. I'm Jack Horkheimer, Keep Looking
Up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
Lorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400 / FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings greetings, fellow star gazers. Every once in a while a song comes along whose lyrics are just plain fun to pronounce. For instance, when I was a kid we all used to sing "mairzy doats and dozey doats and little lamzie divy." And then a few years later every one was singing "supercalifragilisitic expialidocius." Well, would you believe there's a cosmic version of "mairzy doats" and "supercalifragilistic expialidocius?" Let me show you: O.K.
We've got our skies set up for any night the next couple of weeks
just after it gets dark out and if you look south you will see
the giant fish hook shaped constellation Scorpius followed by
the teapot shaped portion of Sagittarius. But up and to the right
of the fish hook of Scorpius you will see 2 semi bright stars
with 2 of the strangest names in the cosmos. They are Zubenelgenubi
and Zubeneschamali. Now in arabic Zubenelgenubi means the southern
claw and Zubeneschamali means the northern claw and over 2,000
years ago they were the claws of Scorpius.
But Julius Caesar and his egocentric buddies came along and chopped them off and renamed them Libra the Scales, for the symbol of Roman justice which would be the equivalent of congress renaming Orion "Elvis". At any rate, these 2 stars are as wonderful as their names are weird and although they look alike and appear to be the same brightness they are actually very different. Zubenelgenubi is 65 light years away from our Earth and is twice as wide as our million mile wide Sun. But it shines 25 times brighter and is racing toward us at the incredible speed of 6 miles per second.
Plus upon closer examination we find that Zubenelgenubi is not just 1, not even 2, but 3 stars, 2 of which are so close together they orbit each other once every 20 days. On the other hand, or other claw I should say, Zubeneschamali, the northern or higher claw is over twice as far away as Zubenelgenubi, 140 light years distant. So if it appears as bright to us as Zubenelgenubi, it must be larger. And indeed it is 30 times wider and 6 times brighter than Zubenelgenubi which means that it is 60 times wider and 150 times brighter than our Sun. And it is speeding toward us 4 times faster than Zubenelgenubi at a rate of 21 miles per second. Plus Zubeneschamali is the center of a centuries old debate.
You see over 2,000 years ago when it was still
part of Scorpius it was listed as the brightest of all the Scorpion's
stars, even brighter than Antares, Scorpius' super bright heart
star. In the 2nd century A.D. however the great astronomer Ptolemy
wrote that Zubeneschamali was equal to Antares in brightness.
But today, 1800 years later, Antares appears to be 5 times brighter
than Zubeneschamali. The mystery is: has Zubeneschamali dimmed
over the past 2,000 years or has Antares gotten brighter? No one
knows. At any rate, some night the next couple of weeks find these
2 wonderful tongue-twister stars for yourself. It's even easier
than saying "mairzy doats" or "supercalifragilistic
expialidocius." I'm Jack Horkheimer, Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: It's Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali
time. Just after dark look south and you'll see the fish hook
shaped pattern of stars, Scorpius the Scorpion and to its right
the 2 brightest stars of Libra.. The star closest to the horizon
is named Zubenelgenubi which means the "southern claw"
and the star above it is named Zubeneschamali which means "the
northern claw". And 2,000 years ago these were the official
claws of the scorpion. But then Julius Caesar came along and chopped
them off and renamed them Libra for the Roman scales of justice
which to me would be the cosmic equivalent of congress renaming
Orion "Elvis". Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali, easy
to find and fun to pronounce. I'm Jack Horkheimer, Keep Looking
Up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star GazerLorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400 / FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings greetings, fellow star gazers. You know most everyone knows that our Sun is just one star in a family of 200 billion stars we call the Milky Way Galaxy. But did you know that some of the stars in our galaxy are clustered together in tight balls like cosmic cities containing hundreds, sometimes thousands and even up to a million suns? And that every summer you can see one of the very best? Let me show you:
O.K., we've got our skies set up for late July, early August, between the hours of 9 and 10 p.m., your local time, facing due north where you'll see the Little Dipper directly above your horizon. To its left you'll see the Big Dipper and if you shoot an arrow through its handle, following its curve, that arrow will land smack dab on the brightest star is summer's skies, Arcturus. Then if you look northeast you will see 3 bright stars that make up the Summer Triangle, the brightest star of which is Vega. Then if you draw a line between Vega and Arcturus you will see 2 interesting but rather dim, constellations, a half circle of stars marks the constellation Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. To its right, toward Vega a faint sort of butterfly pattern of stars named Hercules.
But to see Hercules and Corona Borealis you'll have to make sure there's no bright moon out on the night you do your viewing. Plus if you're far from city lights you should be able to see a very dim fuzzy star in the square portion of Hercules, which astronomers call M-13 and which some early astronomers thought was either a comet or a cloud-like object called a nebula. In fact if you have a pair of binoculars and look at M-13 it will indeed look like a tiny round cloud which never ever moves in relation to the other stars. Charles Messier, for whom M-13 is named, described this cosmic cloud in 1764 as "round and brilliant with a brighter center, a nebula which I'm sure contains no star." Of course Charles Messier didn't have telescopes like we have today because even with a good amateur telescope, if you look at M-13 you will be able to count several stars in this fuzzy ball of light. And with a professional telescope you'll count thousands.
In reality however we know that M-13 is what
we now call a globular cluster, a gigantic spherical city of stars
all circling around a common center of gravity, a city of not
hundreds, not thousands, but of at least a million stars, a cosmic
city in the constellation Hercules, truly deserving of the adjective
herculean. Indeed many of M-13's stars are 2,000 times as bright
as our own Sun and we can't even imagine what it would be like
to live on a planet circling one of these stars if indeed these
stars have planets. But it would seem any planet would rarely
ever experience true night because these stars are packed so closely
together in a ball only 150 light years wide. And it is an ancient
city we see this summer because the star light we see now left
this cluster 25,000 years ago before the dawn of written history
on this planet. I'm Jack Horkheimer, Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: Every summer we can see a spherical
city of a million stars. Look north for the Little Dipper, to
its left the Big Dipper. Shoot an arrow through its handle to
Arcturus, draw a line between it and the brightest star of the
Summer Triangle, Vega. Between them you'll see Corona Borealis
and a butterfly-shaped pattern of stars called Hercules. And if
there's no bright moon out and you're far from city lights you'll
see a dim, fuzzy star in Hercules called M-13. Through binoculars
it looks like a tiny cloud but in reality is a tightly-packed
ball of a million stars 150 light years wide and so far away the
light we see this summer left this city of stars 25,000 years
ago. I'm Jack Horkheimer, Keep Looking Up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star GazerLorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400 / FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings greetings, fellow star gazers and don't you think it just a bit un-fair that of all the constellations named for animals not one of them is named for america's favorite household pet, the pussy cat? After all Orion is not only ac-companied by one but two of his favorite dogs, Canis Major the big dog and Canis Mi-nor the not so big dog. Oh, I know there's Leo the Lion and even a lynx but they would hardly qualify as household pets. So until somebody gets around to offi-cially naming a kitty in the cosmos we'll have to settle for the second best thing; the two mar-velous cat's eyes that appear every year in summer's skies. Never heard of them? Let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for any night in July and August from after dark to midnight where if you look to-ward the south you will see summer's biggest constellation Scorpius the scorpion. It's one of the few constellations which actually looks like its name. It even has a red star where its heart should be named Antares, a humongous star 700 times wider than our own Sun plus you can even see how it's rather nasty tail curves around up and back on itself just like a real scorpion's with two stars marking it's poisonous stinger. Their Arabic names from left to right are Shaula and Lesath. And these names mean "the sting". In folk legend, however, they are not only "the sting" but are also the two eyes of an ancient celestial cat which stare out at us every single sum-mer.
Now although they don't appear to be all that
exceptional to the naked eye, if we look deeper into these cat's
eyes with a tele-scope we can see the secrets they have hid-den
within them from human eyes for thousands of years. Wonderful
secrets be-cause when we com-pare each star to our sun they are
truly marvelous. Indeed while our Sun is about a million miles
wide, Shaula is almost twice as wide. And it is a much hotter
star than our yellow Sun and burns a fierce blue-white and is
in fact 1200 times more lumi-nous. It looks dimmer only because
it is 280 light years away which means that we see Shaula not
as it exists now this sum-mer but as it existed when its light
left it 280 years ago in 1722. Lesath, the dimmer of the two,
is even more incredible and appears dimmer only because it is
over 5 times farther away than Shaula, 1600 light years beyond
which means that we see it not as it exists now but as it existed
1600 years ago around 400 A.D. And it burns an even fiercer blue-white
hot than Shaula and is 15,000 times brighter than our sun, plus
Lesath makes both Shaula and our Sun seem puny by compari-son
because it is 2 1/2 times the diameter of Shaula and 7 times as
wide as our Sun. Some pussy cat, eh folks? So get thee outside
the next few weeks and find these two magical cat's eyes peering
through summer nights as they silently ride across the south-ern
sky masquerading as the sting of the scor-pion. I'm Jack Horkheimer,
Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: Although there's no constellation
named for America's favorite household pet, there are 2 cat's
eyes in summer skies. Look south for the fish-hook shaped pattern
of stars, Scorpius the scorpion. The 2 stars which mark his stinger
named Shaula and Lesath were also known in ancient times as the
cat's eyes. Shaula which is 2 times as wide as our million mile
wide Sun is so far away we see it as it existed 280 years ago.
And humongous Lesath which is 7 times our Sun's diameter is so
far away we see it as it existed 1600 years ago. Pretty impressive
for a pussy cat. I'm Jack Horkheimer, Keep Looking Up!
How did you like this episode?
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
Lorain County JVS NASA CORE / 15181 Route 58 South / 440/775-1400 / FAX 440/775-1460 / nasaco@leeca.org / http://core.nasa.gov
Horkheimer: Greetings greetings, fellow star gazers. This week
I'd like to tell you how to get started in astron-omy and show
you how to find and actually see two comets that never ex-isted.
Now in the 25 years we've been doing "Star Gazer" I
can't tell you how many times people have asked me "How do
I get started star gazing?". So right off the bat I'll tell
you.
#1. If you watch "Star Gazer" regularly you'll get a taste for stargazing which I hope will make you want more. And if you miss an episode I'd like to remind you that you can download not only the current shows but shows for the past several months onto your computer and see them in streaming video ab-solutely free any time of night or day. Plus you can also down-load the script of this show and hundreds of shows complete with star charts and dia-grams. Simply log onto www.jackstargazer.com. Secondly, I rec-om-mend that you buy any children's book on the constella-tions. If it's simple enough for a child to understand, you'll understand it too. 3rd, attend the free meetings of a lo-cal astronomy club. Not only will you learn a lot but you'll get involved with people who love ama-teur astronomy and who'll let you look through their tele-scopes ab-solutely free. And fi-nally in this August's issue of "Reader's Digest" you'll find a wonder-ful ar-ticle on how to get started star gazing, to which yours truly, humbly contributed. But now I'd like to show you how to find two comets that never ex-isted but which you can actually see.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for any night in Au-gust in early evening. Look due south and you'll see a fish hook shaped group of stars which is Scorpius the scorpion. And if you're far from city lights just above Scorpius' stinger you'll be able to see two tiny fuzzy clouds which look like the heads of comets, but unlike comets they never de-velop tails and they never move in relation to the stars. They're always in the same place. These two comet heads that never were, were named M-6 and M-7 by Charles Messier, an 18th century as-tronomer who made a list of fuzzy cloud-like objects so he wouldn't get confused when he went comet hunting.
And although they really do look like de-capitated comet heads with the naked eye through a pair of binoculars, they re-veal themselves to be great clusters of stars, other suns far, far away. The one closest to the stinger, M-7 is a cluster of about 80 stars and is 800 light years away which means that the light we see now is actually the light that left these stars 800 years ago around 1200 A.D., 300 years be-fore Columbus set sail. The higher clus-ter M-6, also has about 80 stars in it but is quite a bit dimmer. The reason being that it is exactly twice as far away, 1600 light years beyond. Which means the light we see now is actually the light that left these stars 1600 years ago around 400 A.D. About the time of the fall of the Ro-man Empire. Wow! So get thee out to see M-6 and M-7 the two comets that never were and log onto our website at least once a week. Because once you get started star gaz-ing the universe is the limit. I'm Jack Horkheimer, Keep Looking Up!
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Horkheimer: In the 25 years we've been doing
"Star Gazer" I can't tell you how many people have asked
me, "How do I get started star gazing?" So I'll tell
you: No. 1 watch "Star Gazer" regularly. If you miss
an episode you can not only download our scripts and star charts,
but also see our shows on streaming video. No.2 buy any children's
book on the constellations. If it's simple enough for a child
to understand you'll understand it too. Third join a local astronomy
club. You'll learn a lot plus you'll get to look through telescopes
for free. Finally, you'll find a great article on how to get started
in this August's issue of Reader's Digest to which yours truly
humbly contributed. And once you get started stargazing the universe
is the limit. Keep Looking Up!
How did you like this episode?
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
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