STARGAZING REPORT'S New Website

For the last year I've been recording weekly, "What's Up in the Sky" pieces for WXIX Fox19 news in the morning.  These 1-minute pieces called The Stargazer Report will get you ready for upcoming astronomical events and stuff you can see even without a telescope.  The bad news is that they air at 4:20am on a Monday morning.  The good news is that I don't record them live...

The even better news is that now you can watch them whenever you want - no need to set the Tivo, DVR or anything.  Go to: http://www.fox19.com/category/242740/stargazer-report-with-dean-regas  and watch what's coming to a sky near you this week.
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TAURUS THE BULL

Taurus the Bull is easy to identify even in light polluted skies. This year you have a extra bright clue to help point your way.  The giant planet Jupiter is hanging out in the bull's horns and you can't miss it.  Look east after sunset and Jupiter will be the brightest starlike object.

Just to the right of Jupiter is a bright star that should look a little orange.  That's the Bull's Eye star called Aldebaran.  Fainter stars nearby make a "V" shape with Aldebaran and represent the bull's face.  Aldebaran means "the follower," but what is it following? If you look about 15 degrees above Aldebaran you will see a little cloud of stars.  Those are the Seven Sisters (aka the Pleiades).  As the night goes on, Aldebaran follows the Seven Sisters through the sky.



See the "V"?

Inside the "V" are a lot of stars. This is called the Hyades star cluster (in Greek mythology five of these were the half-sisters to the Pleiades) ((wait a second... seven plus five... that's a lot of kids for the god Atlas to raise!)). The Hyades are the closest open cluster to Earth at only 150 light years distant. You can observe dozens to hundreds of these stars with a good pair of binoculars. Aldebaran is not a Hyade, though. It is much closer to the Earth and just appears in the same neighborhood.

In November and December you can see Jupiter and Taurus all night long. In the evening they'll be in the east.  Around midnight they'll be high in the south.  And before dawn, they'll be setting in the west.  Check them out and watch Aldebaran "following" those Seven Sisters!

Shameless, eye-catching picture of Jupiter

PLANETS, PLANETS, EVERYWHERE!

This has been a busy month for extrasolar planet discoveries.  First amateur astronomers discovered a planet orbiting four stars.  That's right, if you lived there you'd have up to four suns in the sky (of course when you visit, some of them may have set ;).  This planet is about the size and composition of gaseous Neptune - so you couldn't actually stand on the planet.  But imagine the view!    

Second, the planet around Alpha Centauri is doubly cool - first because Alpha Centauri the closest star system to us - and second because it is really a triple star system, two big stars orbiting each other with a tiny third one nearby.  Alpha Centauri A is a star just slightly larger than the Sun and Alpha Centauri B is a smidgen smaller than ole Sol.  The third star is Proxima Centauri which happens to be slightly closer to Earth than the others.  So finding a planet around a triple star system was unheard of just a few months ago.  This planet orbits around Alpha Centauri B every 3.2 days only 3.6 million miles from the star.  It's though that the surface is rocky but boiling at an average temperature 2,240 degrees F!  Hopefully, this is just the first of many discoveries we make in our stellar neighborhood. 

Artist rendition of planet Alpha Centauri Bb

Now before you start packing your bags for Alpha Centauri Bb, remember that it is still over 25 trillion miles away.  The New Horizons space craft would take over 74,000 years to get there!

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DELPHINUS THE DOLPHIN

This small constellation is one of my favorites to find in the summer sky. It can only be seen on very clear nights through the summer haze - a rarity for city dwellers.  But now that the crisper, fall skies are here, you may get lucky and see it.  The Dolphin looks like a small diamond-shape of four stars with an extra star off to the side for a tail.  In fall, it's just above the longest side of the Summer Triangle. With some imagination you may see a faint dolphin, arching its back, jumping out of heavens.  Of course, it's upside-down too!

Delphinus was said to be the messenger of Poseidon. Delphinus won great acclaim for saving Arion’s life (Poseidon’s son) when his ship was attacked at sea. The ancients attributed the Dolphin with great wisdom (I wonder how they knew dolphins were so smart), and also a love for humans. Dolphins were a sailor’s best friends and often got shipwrecked folks out of trouble.

Delphinus also helped Poseidon get a date from a the beautiful Nereid named Amphitrite by delivering her a message in the Atlas Mountains.  I'm not sure how this dolphin-gram reached her since he couldn't exactly swim it there! 

The two brightest stars in Delphinus have an interesting history. They are:

SUALOCIN and ROTANEV - both blueish-white

These stars are the reverse spelling of the name Nicolaus Venator who was an assistant to the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi – the discoverer of the first asteroid. What a creative way to get your name in history.

AQUILA the EAGLE

Located high in the southern sky and in a rich part of the Milky Way, Aquila the Eagle was thought to be Zeus' favored pet. Many Greek myths indicated that Aquila carried the thunderbolts Zeus frequently hurled at troublesome humans. In fact since eagles seemed to be the fastest creatures, the Greek associated them with lightning strikes. In other Greek myths Aquila swooped down to carry away a mortal named Ganymede who Zeus fancied. Zeus to his servants: “I’m so busy today. Send my eagle around to pick him up.”

Another gruesome Greek tale involved Prometheus and the Eagle. The gods punished Prometheus for stealing fire from Mt. Olympus and sharing this powerful gift with us lowly humans. As a punishment he was chained to a rock while a giant eagle came to feast on his liver. But having this happen only once wasn’t good enough. The gods magically restored his liver every day so that the eagle could return to torture Prometheus for eternity. Wow, that’s harsh. What was poor Prometheus thinking as he awoke in the morning, whole, only to hear the ominous flap, flap, flapping of the eagle’s wings coming ever closer?  Prometheus was finally freed from the tortuous existence by Hercules who killed the eagle with an arrow. Fire anyone?

Aquila’s Main Star:


Rapidly Rotating Altair

ALTAIR - “Flying Eagle” in Arabic
One of our closest neighbors at 17 light years away
Part of the Summer Triangle with Deneb in the

constellation Cygnus and Vega in the constellation Lyra.

Easily identified for its brightness as well as two sentinel stars on each side of it, Alshain and Tarazed. These stars get their names from the Persian name for Aquila, Shahin Tara Zed, or the Star Striking Falcon.

“She (Altair) steals into the sky timidly and seems to tremble there as if half afraid and shyly reveals her beauty to us before we are scarcely aware of her presence.”  Altair spins so fast that it's squished at the poles!
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BLUE MOON of Cincinnati

Blue Moon over Cincinnati (open in new window for a bigger pic)

On August 31 we had a "Blue Moon."  It didn't appear blue in color or anything it's just a strange label for insignificant full moon.  But anything to get people looking at the Moon!

What is a Blue Moon?

It depends on who and when you ask.  Today a Blue Moon refers to the second full Moon in a calendar month. The term, as we now know it, only dates back to a 1946 Sky and Telescope magazine article by James Hugh Pruett. The term did not become mainstream until 1980 when the radio program StarDate used the Pruett definition - and the meaning has stuck ever since.

The earliest reference to a Blue Moon dates back to a sixteenth century poem.

    If they say the Moon is blue
    We must believe that it is true.

Here the term Blue Moon means something that never happens. Calling the Moon blue is like calling the Sun cold. You would have to be blind to call the Moon blue. Ironically, the joke that the Moon is made of green cheese also originated in the 1500s.

Of course the term “Blue Moon” has appeared in several popular songs dating back to the 1930s. Blue Moon of Kentucky was written by bluegrass legend Bill Monroe in 1944. And who can forget Elvis singing Blue Moon? In these songs, the term refers to a time of loneliness and sorrow, not the second full Moon in a month.

The Moon can actually appear blueish on very rare occassions.  When enough particles are in the atmosphere, like after a volcanic eruption, the Moon can appear a little tinted as in this picture.

On the flip side, what do you call it when you have two New Moons in one month? So far there is no such term. I suggest calling it a Black Moon. That would actually make sense.

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Lyra the Harp

This constellation represents the musical instrument invented by the messenger god Hermes. It has also been visualized as an Eagle or Vulture. Although small, Lyra holds many bright stars including the fifth brightest star in the sky, Vega.

VEGA

Vega is the brightest star in the Summer Triangle and is high overhead during the fall evenings. This blueish star is only 25 light years away and will replace Polaris as our Pole Star in about 12,000 years. Vega will be our distant ancestors' new North Star. Vega is also the place where an alien message originated in the fiction movie and book Contact.

Also called the “Queen of the Summer Skies”

“Falling Vulture” (Arab)

“Spinning Maiden” (Chinese/Korean)

“King Arthur’s Harp” (Britons)

“Fiddle in the Sky” (Bohemia)

Worshipped by ancient Egypt as early as 6000 BC

The Greek Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus was a tremendous harp player. He was the best that ever walked the Earth. His music was so sweet and pure that even the trees bent over to listen. The river ceased flowing, wild beasts became tame, even mountains listened with pleasure when Orpheus played his magical music.

One day he met a beautiful nymph named Eurydice. She too was mesmerized by Orpheus’ music and they fell in love and got married. Unfortunately, soon after the marriage, Eurydice was bit on the heel by a serpent and died. Orpheus was deeply saddened by her death and vowed to never play music again.

Well, no one was happy by this. Not even the gods. So the gods came to Orpheus and told him how he could cross over through the gates of death and retrieve his love Eurydice. Orpheus jumped at the idea and made the journey to the Underworld.

But first he had to deal with Hades, god of departed spirits. Hades was never anxious to let anyone leave his realm. But Orpheus began to play his harp, and Hades was so moved by the music that he agreed to release Eurydice to him on one condition (there’s always a condition). Orpheus had to walk in front of Eurydice all the way back to the land of the living. He was not allowed to turn around and look at her until they crossed through the gates of death.

Of course, Orpheus, being so much in love with this woman, could barely contain himself. They walked out of the Underworld in single file, Orpheus constantly listening for his beloved's soft footsteps. Upward and upward he marched never sure if Eurydice was there behind him. And he saw the end of the tunnel ahead - he had almost reached the light of day. But then doubt entered his head. Eurydice’s footsteps fell silent. Was she really there? Was he tricked by Hades? And if he went outside could he ever come back? Orpheus finally couldn't take it any longer and turned to look at his beloved. There she was, as radiant as he remembered her. And in another moment, her smile faded, faded, and she vanished forever.

Lyra, Orpheus’ harp remains in the sky as a reminder of true love, love lost, and why death is so hard to cheat.

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