Dance of the Planets
My Second Joversary
Jupiter is in the evening sky once again. Jupiter passed opposition on December 3, when it was opposite the Sun in the evening sky. For the rest of the winter and spring, Jupiter will be the brightest object in the evening sky, after the Moon. You can't miss Jupiter. It's that really bright "star" coming up in the east right after sunset during December.
(If my 10 years of experience with Classical Astronomy is any indication, I can now expect a flood of emails from readers over the next couple weeks asking, "What is that really bright star coming up in the east, right after sunset?")
Anyway, the current apparition of Jupiter is sentimental for me, as this winter marks the second "Joversary" of my discovery of Classical Astronomy. So what's a "Joversary"? I made up that word. We all know that an "anniversary" is a commemoration of a number of years, taken from the Latin "annus" which means "year." A year is simply the length of time for the Sun to return to the same place in the constellations where it was the previous year. A "Joversary" would then be the length of time for Jupiter to complete a circuit of the stars, and return to the same place in the constellations as in its previous cycle.
Mrs. Ryan and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in January, 2013. This means the Sun has completed 25 loops through the zodiac since the day we got married, and the Sun will be in the same place along the constellations as it was on the day we got married in 1988.
Like the Sun, the planets also wander through the zodiac constellations, each in cycles of their own. Rapid Mars takes two years to complete a circle of the zodiac, and slow Saturn takes nearly 30 years. But Jupiter takes 12 years to complete this same loop through the sky, and leisurely strolls through the stars at the rate of one zodiac constellation every year.
Last year, Jupiter was in the constellation Aries, where it still was during the big evening conjunction with Venus this past spring. By now, a year later, Jupiter is amidst the stars of Taurus, the next constellation to the east of Aries. By next year, Jupiter will be in Gemini, and so on with each following year, until it completes a loop of the zodiac after 12 years.
Anyway, Jupiter was also among the stars of Taurus when I first discovered this planet in December, 1988. This was two complete Jupiter cycles ago, and hence the term "Joversary." At that time, I was pushing 30 and knew only four constellations, and did not yet understand anything about Classical Astronomy.
I saw a TV weather report that mentioned that Jupiter was in the constellation Taurus, and sharing the sky with the planet Mars. This caught my interest, since Taurus was one of the few constellations I knew, poised as it was was above that great hunter Orion. I had learned these two constellations at age seven, in second grade. I also knew the Big Dipper since early childhood, and in my early 20s, I figured out which constellation was Cassiopeia.
So I was a 27 year old newlywed in December, 1988, walking home from the DC Metro station. I looked up, and there was good old Orion, where I'd always seen him in the winter sky, since age seven. But in Taurus there was also a VERY BRIGHT STAR that I didn't recognize. I was puzzled. Could that bright star possibly be Jupiter??? It's so bright! I always thought the planets were invisible, unless you had a telescope! How could this be? Then nearby, I noticed another VERY BRIGHT STAR. That one was a distinct copper color, like a shiny new penny.
"Hey, wait a minute!" I realized, "It's red! That bright star is actually red! The Red Planet, just like I always heard! I'm actually looking at the planet Mars! Those two bright stars are actually Jupiter and Mars! Right there in Taurus, very near my old friend Orion! You really can see the planets! They're really not invisible! They're actually much brighter than the actual stars! Wow! This is like the coolest thing ever!"
Anyway, I ran home as fast I could to tell my young bride. She was interested, but not as excited as me (a situation which prevails to this day!) After that, I followed these planets from night to night, watching the dance of Jupiter and Mars, during the period of our first wedding anniversary. I read voraciously on the subject, consuming astronomy books and magazines, trying to learn everything there was to know about the sky. I made a telescope, grinding the mirror by hand, and explored the sky through the eyepiece.
Thing is, I had always considered myself an astronomy enthusiast, but somehow never learned about how to find the planets in the night sky. I watched all those Carl Sagan programs, read all kind of books about black holes, all the "spaced-out" theories about the birth and death of stars, quasars, pulsars, red dwarfs, white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, on and on and on. Yet somehow, I never heard that you could go outside on a clear night and actually see Jupiter and Mars with your own eyes. I was very puzzled.
I eventually discovered that telescope-toting amateur astronomers and planetarium directors were the only people in our generation who knew how to visually observe the sky. Mainstream professional astronomers were not interested in looking at the actual sky. Instead, they sat inside, looking at data collected from telescopes. Since these professional astronomers write all the books and create the PBS programs, nothing of the sky is included. As a result, we live in a generation that is unknowledgeable about the sky, and the natural cycles of the Sun, Moon and planets.
Upon further research, I discovered that "Classical Astronomy" was once commonplace knowledge, among the farmers and sailors of old. I learned of the old almanacks, which were sources of astronomy information since the 1600s, to help farmers tell time by the Sun and Moon. However, somewhere down the line, this knowledge was lost, and these techniques were unknown in our time. Thus began a long, weary crusade to help our generation reclaim this lost legacy.
The years continued, and I diligently followed Jupiter as it strode through the constellations. Meanwhile, the 80s became the 90s, and we moved back to Cleveland from Washington, D.C., and began to have children. We watched the calendrical odometer flip, and we entered the 21st century. I celebrated my first Joversary in December, 2000. At that time, Jupiter was sharing the stars of Taurus with the planet Saturn. These two had been in conjunction the previous spring, but it was too close to the sunrise to be readily visible.
This year, on my second Joversary, I'm now an old married guy, homeschool dad to five, one of whom is grown, on the threshold of our 25th wedding anniversary. I hope to see a couple more Joversaries before Jesus takes me off this mudball.
Just like the Sun and Moon can be used to measure off the shorter spans of time, the planets can be used to measure longer periods of time. Following Jupiter can give us a visual marker in the sky to measure the span of decades. It's just one other way that a knowledge of the sky can enrich our lives. If you can get your young kids looking at the sky this winter, they'll have more "Joversaries" to celebrate in the decades to come of their lives.
Look for the nearly-full Moon to pass very closely to Jupiter on the night of Christmas Day. Mark your calendars, since there will be no more reminders from me! Europe will be well-placed to see a very close conjunction on Christmas night, and locations in Africa will actually see an occultation, where the body of the Moon will pass in front of Jupiter, blocking it from sight for a time.
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