First, I’d like to apologize to those around Yorkton who might have been out to view the Perseids on the 12th. I was too, and so, of course, the City skies were muggy and humid and generally disappointing. Sorry. I’ll never do it again. The shower’s tapering off, but still active, so if you’re out, keep looking up, except maybe when crossing streets.
Tonight (the 20th), the crescent Moon sets at about 10:30, and Saturn, a hand-span to the left, a half hour later. Seeing as the Moon is around again after a couple of weeks vacation, we might as well use it to point things out.
On the 21st, our moon will be about a fist-width (ten degrees) west of Saturn in the constellation Libra, and the next day, three fingers east in Scorpius. No excuses now for not knowing which light is Saturn. And, don’t be embarrassed about measuring distances with your hands; it’s dark.
The other bright object low in the south west is the red supergiant star Antares, ten degrees south east of the Moon. It’s called a supergiant for a reason; at 1700 times the diameter of our Sun, if it were to replace our Sun at the centre of our solar system, it would swallow up Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Global warming would cease to be controversial.
On the 23rd the Moon passes through the difficult to spell, and almost impossible to pronounce, Ophiuchus. Just mumble the letters quickly, and move on.
If you look beyond the Moon on the 24th, you will be looking at Sagittarius and toward the centre of our galaxy, the core of the multibillion star pinwheel we call home. The Milky Way, essentially the stars that make up the arms of our galaxy, spreads out to the north east and south west.
On August 25th, the Moon lies just two degrees (two finger widths) above Pluto in Sagittarius. Even if the Moon weren’t washing out the sky near it, Pluto would still be a challenge. It is a speck among a multitude of other specs. Through my telescope under a dark sky, I know I can see it, but just have no clue which dot it is. It’s the proverbial needle in a hay stack.
We’ll get to Neptune and Uranus, another hard to pronounce word, next week when the Moon continues to guide us across the southern skies visible from our own back yard.
