If you have children who are interested in space exploration or astronomy, you may want to take them to the Brownsville Public Library on Saturday, Feb, 11, for the Voyager Missions presentation. The members of the South Texas Astronomical Society do begin these programs on time, from 2-4 p.m. They do linger a bit afterwards for further questions from interested persons though.
The Voyager missions were launched in 1977 and both spacecraft are well into interstellar space and NASA is still receiving messages from them, just like the old Star Trek show about them; imagine that.
Have you been outside in the evening as full dark arrives? The brilliantly shining planets reveal the sharp tilt of our orbital plane at this time. Venus is the lower brightest object in the west, with Jupiter higher and slightly left of Venus; farther left and almost overhead is Mars. It is a good thing we have gravity to keep us in place. This mysterious force keeps all of us on the surface of earth, as well as all the planets etcetera in their proper positions as well. It is even making sure the comet that is currently returning to its home base is continuing on its assigned track.
You may remember the excitement in the summer of 1994 when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was heading past Jupiter. Instead, Jupiter’s gravitational pull ripped it apart into a ‘string of pearls’ pattern that entranced and intrigued sky watchers at the time. There are numerous images captured by telescopes and shared via the internet still today of this once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event. I was in Chicago at the time learning many amazing things about astronomy myself, with a group of 30 teachers from around the USA and Puerto Rico as part of a cohort of teachers selected to be part of the American Astronomical Society/National Science Foundation’s professional development grant. It was an unforgettable experience.
Of course, the special comet of this year, Comet C/2022, is now too faint to be seen. Perhaps you had an opportunity to glimpse it in between bouts of cloudy skies. If not, there are many images online of the spectacular green comet to explore.
What to watch for in our skies over South Texas? Mars will be passing the red “eye star” Aldebaran in Taurus on the 5th. Observing the motion of Mars during the month and possibly even recording its changes will likely bring some surprises and possible science fair data — not many entries in the astronomy category for those which means greater probability of earning a place.
Early morning risers will be able to sneak peek at the spring constellations and be amazed at the regularity of the rotation, which makes all of the constellations appear at predictable seasons. The stars are like bees in a swarm; they move as a whole while individual stars/bees have unique motions. Astronomy is the most ancient of all the sciences and thus has multiple sources of ancient data gathered over millennia from a variety of ancient cultures from Asia to the Americas. What a marvelous heritage we enjoy.
Those spring constellations for early morning include Leo the Lion, Virgo, and Ophiuchus, each traveling along the ecliptic. Boötes is a night constellation but because it is so high and northerly, it is also up in the early morning, just farther west than it was in the evening. Those circumpolar constellations just keep rotating about Polaris and remind us we are sort of on a carousel ride day in and day out.
Until next week, KLU.
