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It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful
witness in heaven. Selah.- Psalm 89:37
IN THIS UPDATE:
Announcements
"Consider Thy Heavens" - Final Wrap Up
Dance of the Planets
Another CLOSE Lunar Conjunction With Mars and Saturn
Dear Friends,
Hope you've all had a nice summer. Suddenly, it's Labor Day once again, which is the official end of summer in Cleveland, Ohio. The Old Farmer's Almanac is calling for another cold winter for North America, and has even termed it "Refriger-Nation."
You can read all about in the 2015 edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac, which is available in supermarkets and drugstores throughout the USA. Make sure you grab the real one, with the yellow cover, and not the similarly-named "Farmer's Almanac" (though that one is good too).
The almanacs are a fun piece of Americana, and include a lot of useful information for gardening and home life, in addition to a considerable amount of astronomy information. I've been picking up the OFA every year since 1996, and have always enjoyed and benefited from reading it.
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For more information about topics from Classical Astronomy discussed in this newsletter,
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Visit our archive of previous editions of the Classical Astronomy Update newsletters, going back to 2007.
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Announcements
"Consider Thy Heavens" - Final Wrapup
We had three astronomy campouts in 2014, and I learned a great deal about planning such events from this experience. One thing I learned is that God is the LORD of the weather, while we humans can plan an event for a certain date, we have no guarantee of clear skies, even if people travel hundred of miles and incur considerable expense.
In view of this, I am not going to proceed with any extravagant plans for similar campouts in 2015. We are going to stick close to home, in Ohio and the surrounding states, and not venture south and west as we had hoped. Perhaps we will explore other opportunities for 2016 and beyond, as we continue to learn how to plan and execute such events.
Back
in July, we were completely clouded and rained out the entire three
days at Big Meadows in Shenandoah
National Park, Virginia. I did some other programs and demonstrations
for the families who showed up, and we made "lemonade" from the
situation. Everyone was very kind and gracious.
I am going to try to make it up to those families by planning another
nearby astronomy event for West Virginia in 2015, at a dark sky facility
on Spruce Knob. Dates are TBA at this time, but anyone else is welcome
to join us.
The
Michigan event last week was more successful. Though thunderstorms
were forecast, the sky cleared out by sundown for all three nights,
though we contended with a lot of patchy clouds. The Upper Peninsula of
Michigan is an incredibly beautiful and unspoiled place, and saw some
amazing sights, both in the daytime and at night.
I
judged the skies at our location to be "Bortle Class 2," the next best
to an ideal dark sky. We had the opportunity to share a number of
constellations, and several families reported subsequently that they had
learned enough constellations to get themselves started at home, under the less-ideal
light polluted skies of the American suburbs. But everyone agreed that
we all had an excellent time, and everyone wanted to do this again next
year.
This group is currently holding the week and weekend that includes
Friday, August 14, 2015 for the next UP campout. If you would like to
participate and receive more info, please drop me an email. We also have a
Facebook group devoted to these campouts, and any serious individuals
are invited to join and participate.
Dance of the Planets
CLOSE Lunar Conjunctions With Mars and Saturn
To recap, if you've been reading the Classical Astronomy Update during 2014, you've been following the current apparition of Mars, and all the attendant phenomena. Since springtime, we've described how Mars has been moving through the constellation Virgo, and how the red planet has moved back and forth past Spica, Virgo's brightest star. We've explained how to find Spica, and thus Mars, from following the handle of the Big Dipper, past the bright summer star Arcturus. If you have not read of these things, and still do not know how to find Mars, please read the recent previous editions in
our newsletter archive.
This past week, on August 27, Mars made its closest pass to the planet Saturn. This pair made a very interesting combo in the southwest in the evening sky, after sunset. (I did not complete this newsletter in time to include that, but readers of our Facebook page received a notification.)
The 2014 dance of Mars will come to an interesting conclusion on Sunday, August 31, as the waxing crescent Moon joins the scene with Mars and Saturn. These three bodies will make an interesting "trio" in the evening sky. This event will take place in the constellation Libra, between two moderately visible stars, Alpha Libris and Beta Libris. These stars have very long, awkward Arabic names, but I just call them "Zoob North" and"Zoob South."
As seen from Europe and Africa, this will be a very close conjunction between the Moon and Saturn, where the Ringed Planet will be less than a lunar diameter away from the Moon. They will still be very closely aligned by the time darkness falls over the USA, so everyone in the Americas should plan to take a look. (For a full explanation of lunar and planetary conjunctions, check out Chapter 7 of our Signs & Seasons curriculum.)
At this time, one should easily be able to discern the color difference between these bodies, with the contrast between rusty-colored Mars and the butterscotch-yellow color of Saturn.
I'm hoping to get out another newsletter before October, to cover the next "Blood Moon" lunar eclipse on October, and a sunset partial solar eclipse on October 23.
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
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