The Sky Down Under
I got an email this week from Steve in Philadelphia who write:
Hi Jay,
Thanks for your consistently fascinating newsletters. I've been an astronomy buff since I was a kid but I still learn something new with almost every one.
In light of this most recent newsletter, I thought you might be interested in my own experience. Like you, I have done a lot of stargazing throughout my life, but almost always from latitude ~40 N (I grew up around Chicago and now live close to Philadelphia). The cumulative time I have spent stargazing probably would have to be measured
in weeks or months. The stars and constellations are so familiar to me, no matter the season. The constellations are like old friends who come around annually but who always stay the same year after year. I am able to name the stars to family and friends even without context (e. g., as they're just appearing in the evening at dusk or just rising in the east), which seems very natural to me but always seems to impress them. The sky is just a constant of
life.
This is so great to hear, just how I feel about the stars, especially Orion, currently ruling the evening sky after sunset. I'm grateful to Steve and everyone who also loves the sky. There are so few of us! Steve continues....
But on two vacations I have had the pleasure of visiting the southern hemisphere, once to southern Australia and once to New Zealand. One of the special things about those trips was my stargazing opportunities. And almost exactly like you have described in your newsletter, two of the three most remarkable differences about the southern sky are (1) seeing Orion upside down
and (2) Sirius high overhead. The third remarkable difference, like your Canopus example, is the completely new constellations (and galaxies), especially Crux and Centaurus and the Magellanic Clouds, because they are well known but completely invisible to me under normal circumstances. The sky overhead in Australia and New Zealand is really a completely different night sky. I had never thought of that as proof of the roundness of the earth but can confirm that for anyone
who cares.
But I think you as a lifelong stargazer may also appreciate this additional observation. In a strange way the southern sky was an interesting revelation of something else. It gave me a chance to see the night sky through the eyes of the
average person, in the sense that most people have no concept of nor really care about the constancy of the sky. To most, there is just a random collection of stars, some dim, some bright, but more or less scattered around the sky without pattern. For those southern visits, my own familiarity with the sky was dashed to pieces; I would look up and see stars just sort of scattered around (I did bring with me a sky chart, but it's still not the same). It was very
exciting to see those constellations, but it was still a very odd feeling.
This report of Steve's was also great to hear as it tracks closely to my own impressions of experiencing the southern hemisphere sky during our trip to New Zealand in 1992, over half my life ago. It was a strange experience to be an astro-rookie under those unfamiliar stars!
Even though it was a lengthy three week vacation, it was too short a time to really learn the southern sky. One would have to spend at least a year, to see a full four seasons pass by.
I wrote about our impressions and experiences under the southern sky back in the 90s, closer to the time. I've shared this at least twice over the last 23 years of
this newsletter. But it's been a while so I hope this story is new for you. New images are added to help you visualize the differences between the northern and southern skies.
* * * * *
The Sky Down Under - Our
Visit to the Southern Hemisphere
But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible. – Augustine, "City of God" 400 AD
And if you add to these the islands discovered in our time under the prices of Spain and Portugal and especially America -- named after the ship's captain who discovered her... we would not be greatly surprised if there were Antipodes.... – Mikolaj Kopernik (a.k.a. "Copernicus"), "On the Revolutions" 1543 AD
At 5 AM saw for a few Minutes the Top of the peaked
Mountain above the Clowds... it is of a prodigious height and its top cover'd with everlasting snow... I have named it Mount Egmont in honor of the Earl of Egmont. -- from the journal of Captain James Cook of the H.M.S Endeavor, upon exploring the coast of New Zealand in January, 1770 AD
When Debbie and I lived in Washington DC, we became good friends with Richard and Lynn from New Zealand,
who were staying in The States for a time. Richard and I were telescope buddies and attended the same telescope making class. We visited them shortly after they returned home to New Zealand and it was a wonderful experience in every respect.
The First Upside-Down Sunrise
It was a cold winter morning when we left home, in early
February, 1992. That morning I went jogging early before sunrise. I noticed Venus shining brightly as the Morning Star, on the *right side* of the orange sunrise glow, its normal place in the sky as seen from our location in the Northern Hemisphere.
That morning we flew out of Baltimore Washington International Airport. On the flight out to Los Angeles, we passed over the famous Meteor Crater in
Arizona. Even from cruising altitude it appeared huge on the ground below.
We flew out of Los Angeles on the "red-eye" and our flight departed after dark. The fully-booked flight from LA to Aukland took 12 hours, quite a long time to be in an airborne sardine can! We crossed the Equator while I slept. It was the first time I ever could sleep on a plane!
It so happens that, while flying west, an airplane pretty much keeps pace with the Earth's rotation. Since it was a night flight, we remained in the Earth's shadow as the world turned underneath. We were in darkness for a total of 16 hrs. Having always lived near 40 north, it was the longest night that either of us had ever had.
By the way, our trans-Pacific carrier was Air New
Zealand. This is the classiest airline I've ever flown. The planes are very clean, unlike their American counterparts. They also serve good food (not stale peanuts) and bring along hot towels in the morning and other wonderful amenities.
We completely lost all track of time during the long airborne night. We arrived in Auckland before dawn the next "day," the next sunrise I'd seen after that
morning run. As the plane taxied down the runway after landing, I looked out the window and once again saw Venus, shining brightly in the orange morning glow. Only this time, the Morning Star was to the left of the sunrise! It then hit me like a load of bricks -- wow, we really were in the southern hemisphere! I was observing what appeared to be an upside-down sunrise!
There are many
differences between the skies of the northern and southern hemispheres. And most of these differences arise simply because people in opposite hemispheres stand upside down relative to each other. Wherever you are standing, your feet point straight toward the center of the Earth. and your head points out to the sky. But since the Earth is essentially a sphere, if two people are on opposite sides of the globe, their heads would point in opposite directions at the sky. And this causes nearly
everything to appear reversed and inverted between the hemispheres.
Timekeeping in Reverse
Debbie and I enjoyed a pleasant visit with Richard and Lynn and their family. During the visit we experienced quite a bit about the local culture. For example, Richard taught me the rules for cricket, so that I could actually comprehend the
televised matches. For a while, I was the only Yank on my block who could fathom the game! However, by now, all these years later, I've forgotten everything, so dont ask me about it now!
The first thing that struck me was the reversal of seasons between the hemispheres. I noticed in comparison that our northern winter is not only cold, but also a very still and quiet season. When we arrived "Down
Under" summer was in full swing, very warm, and a very noisy and active season in comparison. There was a distinct "feel of summer" in the air, unlike the distinct "feel of winter" that we had left behind. When you stay at home, you don't notice the changes as much over the course of the year since the seasons come on slowly. But when you're suddenly dislocated to the opposite season on the opposite side of the world, all the little nuances become very apparent.
This was actually quite disorienting. Being a working class stiff, I've only taken a couple plane trips in my whole life, and this was the biggie. After we arrived back home and it was winter once again. I found that my internal "seasonal clock" was pretty messed up for quite a while. That spring, following soon after after our three-week "summer," it somehow felt like fall. I was misdating checks for a long time
afterwards!
Under the inverted New Zealand sky, I could never get my bearings for the time of day. The Sun appeared to move the wrong way through the sky, seeming to rise in the west and set in the east. Of course, the Sun still rises east and sets west, but it reaches Noon in the north! In this way, the Sun appears to follow an opposite track to the northern sky. It was especially confusing an
hour on either side of midday, as the 10:00 AM sky looked like a 2:00 PM sky, and visa-versa. It really turns you around when you intuitively rely on the sky to tell time.
We left home when the waxing crescent Moon was in the evening sky. In the northern hemisphere, the "horns" of the waxing crescent Moon point to the left. But as seen "Down Under," the horns of the waxing crescent point to the
right. This is how a waning crescent should look in the mornings up north.
During our three week visit, the phases of the Moon appeared to run in reverse! I followed what appeared to be an old waning crescent Moon that increased backwards to a Full Moon and then diminished again into a new waxing crescent Moon. Also, the "Man in the Moon" appeared upside down.
New Heavens That Also Declare the Glory of God
On our first night in New Zealand, Richard showed me the constellation "Crux," better known as the famous "Southern Cross." At first I was actually disappointed. The Cross was smaller than I expected. And without the little connecting lines you always see on star maps, it didn't seem very cross-shaped. It
looked more like a *kite* than a cross! Somehow, I don't think "The Southern Kite" would sound very impressive!
However, over the nights, I quickly came to love Crux. Since the Big Dipper is not visible from the southern latitudes, the Cross made an excellent substitute. Over the course of the night, Crux rotates around an invisible southern pole, just as the Dipper turns around the North Star.
