Did you see the lunar eclipse? What was the most exciting part of it for your family? Did you take any photos to share? Was there anything that surprised you about it? Let me know on the South Texas Astronomical Society’s Facebook page. We would like to see your photos and read your thoughts.
One thing that puzzles me is why we get so enthralled at the idea of “blood moons.” The term seems to be designed by advertisers to create a “feeding frenzy” related to a common characteristic of light and to cause hyperventilation among “the folk” who think something mysterious or even evil is related to a regularly occurring physics event — a lunar eclipse.
Our moon, the planets, and the International Space Station, and often planes in flight, reflect sunlight off their various surfaces into the eyes of viewers. As that white sunlight passes through the protective atmosphere of earth, the colors within that light are scattered away, except for the band of red in the spectrum of white light. Hence, those colorful sunrises, sunsets, and lunar eclipses are just light that is bent out of shape. Common, but marvelous — even miraculous —that our system of the sun, Earth, and the moon can create such beauty together.
For star gazing, well, individual stars to enjoy in the west within 10 minutes of sunset this week include golden Capella in the constellation Auriga, the Charioteer, and Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor. Turning right to the north, will show the Big Dipper high in the sky, pouring its contents into the Little Dipper, surrounded by the drifting stars of Draco, the Dragon.
Constellations to enjoy now include Leo the Lion, followed by Coma Berenices, Berenice’s hair. This small constellation shaped like a right angle represents the long beautiful hair of the faithful wife of Ptolemy Soter II of Egypt. He was off waging war and she was worried about him and offered her long red-gold hair as a gift to the various gods of her country for the safe return of her husband. Ptolemy was extremely angry when he found her shorn of her glorious hair, until the temple priest took him outside to look up at the night sky to see where her delicate cluster of amber hued stars sparkled in the darkness.
Other constellations include Ophiuchus emerging from the east-southeastern horizon around ten o’clock p.m. This very large constellation resembles a companion for C3PO although it is not gold. Farther towards the south are the front claws of Scorpius, whose red heart star will be visible if there are no trees or rooflines blocking your view. That star is named Antares, anti-Aries — the rival of the ancient Greeks’ god of war in mythology.
Last week there were several opportunities to watch our International Space Station pass across our sky 225 miles above us at 17,500 mph. The same opportunity was possible in San Antonio at the same time-and of course all the area between here and there. If you have never seen the ISS speeding across the sky, you can sign up for email or text alerts from NASA and head outside to look up and have the neighbors wondering what you are staring at. The site is https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/signup.cfm A note to the wise: when the time states 1:32 AM it means exactly that. It is astonishing to realize that we can measure time so exactly because the motions of our planet are the same and predictable, not random.
Creation is math in action and we benefit from it daily. Until next week, KLU.
