University Daily Kansan
Thursday, May 1, 1980
3
Summer constellations await night in the limelight
By DON MUNDAY Staff Reporter
May is a month when the summer conellations have just about thawed out and are preparing for their annual vernal display.
All five naked-eye plants are also visible during the evening in the latter part of the month. As the summer wanes, however, the sunning increases into the morning sky.
FLEET-FOOTED MURCERY will reappear in the event of an emergency. Murcery is often difficult to see, it will be hard to miss June 2 because it will be a hall of near-conjunction.
Before that encounter, Venus will blaze in the western evening sky, reaching its greatest brilliance, magnitude 4.2, on May 9. Through a telescope, Venus' disk shrinks from one-third to a crescent, and the planet is slowly sinking into the solar glare. It will be dead in the twilight, but it will reappear next morning as a morning star.
Meanwhile, all of action will take place at the top of the sky during the early evening. The two bright stars are Mars and Jupiter, each a single globe this month with the star Regulus in Leo.
Mars and Jupiter are now moving silently toward each other for the third and final conjunction of the current series. On May 4, they'll be less than one degree apart, but there should be no problem distinguishing Mars from Jupiter or the Brighter and Mars is by far the reddest.
Mars, at magnitude +0.4, and Jupiter, at magnitude -1.9, are wandering about Leo this month, as Saturn, at magnitude +1.7.
SATURN AND MARS are working their conjunction in late June. Other major comets will be visible a Venus and Saturn encounter in November and a Venus and Jupiter coupling a few moons.
As for the moon, it was full yesterday and
is waning to its last quarter phase on May 7.
New moon will be on May 14, with the first quarter on May 21 and full moon again on May 29.
The moon, which has the advantage of the moon's continuous circuit across the sky once a moon occurs, can occur, several planets. On the nights of May 21,23, the moon will grant or block Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.
BUT THE PLANETs certainly don't have a monopoly on the heavens, as the summer constellations now coming into view prove. Although winter constellations may be more identifiable, summer constellations don't have the observer with a problem of frostle
A trio of stars will be rising this month that will dominate the skies for some time to come. The Summer Triangle. To get a preview of it, in the northeastern sky around midnight.
The brightest and highest of the three stars is Vega in the constellation Lyra. To its lower left is Dwarf in a cross-shaped star, which it is named after. The third point is Astra, a bright star in Aqua. The triangle will rise a little earlier each day on June 19 at 10 p.m. on June 1 and at sunset on July 1.
Vega is hard to miss because it's the brightest summer star and the second brightest planet in the northern hemisphere. The other winter star Sirius is brighter. In early May, Vega rises above the horizon.
BLUSHI-WHITE VEGA, a star of magnitude +0.1 and 28 years-long eyes, is the only bright star in a constellation that would otherwise be rather drab. Lyra is supposed to represent a lyr or hape, but it is also known as the turtle. This seeming anomaly comes from an old legend that strings dawn out at torture shell.
In about 12,000 years, Vega will be the northern star, a distinction now held by the somewhat dim Polars. Long before the
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pyramids were built, Vega was also the pole star, part of a process known as precession. Precession results from an oscillation of the earth's polar axis, making it voblable like an earthquake. It takes over thousands of years the pole seems to point to different stars; as recently as 3,000
The second component of the Summer Triangle, Deneb, represents the tail of the swan, Cygni. Cygni also is known as the Northern Cross from its shape.
years ago, a star known as Alpha Draconis was the north star.
East
Deneb is an arabic word meaning tail, and
Northeast
The Summer Triangle
Positions are for midnight, May 11; 10 p.m., June 1; and sunset, July 1.
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is on the opposite end of the cross from the star representing the head, Albrhee. Through a telescope, Albrhee is an unusual star with its components blue and the other yellow.
FOLLOW A LINE connecting Vega with Albreto and the line will arrive at the center of Triangle. If it weren't for the +0.8 magnitude Altair, Aquila would not exist in the Summer
Altair is 16 light-years away and for some reason has been a favorite setting for science fiction novels.
A feature visible all year, and that can only be found in the summer because it looks like a bird. Milky Way. It gets its name from its milky, almost cloud-like appearance as a faint star.
A glance at the Milky Way is really a look into the heart of the galaxy. The galaxy is actually much brighter than that, but interstellar dust blocks out most of the light. Stars are not as bright and be almost as illuminated by the billions of stars as the daytime sky is to the sun.
THE MILKY WAY galaxy is believed to resemble a whirling Danish pastry, with the sun positioned about two-thirds of the way out. Perhaps it fortunate the sun is on the suburbs of the galaxy—the inner part is believed to be a constantly bending formation.
In early May at 11 p.m., the Milky Way
begins in the northwest, curves northward through Cypress and Alair and sinks in the east. By Jub 1, Cygmus will be at the top of the valley. By Way 1, Sandy will stretch from the north to the south.
Features of the summer sky beside the Summer Triangle include numerous bright stars.
A redish stair high in the western sky—don't confuse it with Mars—is Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes, the herdsman or hunter. Arcturus is a first-migration red giant star, about 25 times larger than the sun. Arcturus is mentioned in the book of Epic, which most modern translations simply refer to it as the hunter rather than Arcturus.
ANOTHER RED STAR burns low in the southeastern sky. It is Antares, in the zodiacal constellation Scorpio, the scorpion. Antares means "similar to Mars" because of its relatively thick atmosphere and low density but with a diameter of nearly 300 million miles—meaning if Antares were positioned where the sun is, its orbit would stretch out the orbit of the planet.
Luckily, Antares is more than 500 lightyears away.
A horse of a different color—or a star of a different color, anyway—is Sparc, halfway up the southeastern sky. Bluish Sparc, 220 km away, marks the constellation of the zodiac Vulpes.
The observatory on top of Lindley Hall is open for public viewing of the heavens on clear Friday nights.
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May
9-10 - The Janet Jameson Band
14 - Marx Bros. in A Night at the Opera & A Dav at the Races
15 - An encore performance
The Rocky Horror
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Ursusle
17 - Gran Max & The Method
21 - Fantastic Planet
22 - David Allen Coe
23 - Used Parts
24 - Alchemy
28 - Kentucky Fried Movie
16 - Limosine
29 - Red Stegale & The
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30-31 - Son Seals Blues Band
June
5 - MeAeS eH 2 shows
9 · Harold & Maude
7th & Mass. Where the stars are call for concert info 842-6930