This column was provided by San Benito County resident and amateur astronomer David Baumgartner as part of a local series on astronomy.
This October is a good month, no it is a great month, to step outside about 45 minutes after sunset and look east to see the beginning of a special parade being provided to us by our own solar system.
This parade consists of nothing more gorgeous than a string of jewels. We know these jewels as planets, and it’s not every evening we get to drag our chairs out to the backyard, sit and watch these astronomical jewels pop up one at a time from the eastern horizon until they fill the sky.
The only thing we are missing in our parade is the Hollister Baler Band, a few old decorated wagons, some cowboys riding their horses, followed by city employees cleaning up their droppings as they pass by. (That would be the horse droppings, not the cowboy’s, well never mind.)
Our parade starts off right after sunset with the planet Pluto. Yes Pluto, still a planet, just down grated to a minor planet of sorts, going along with the larger asteroids twirling around between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Out of our nine main planets, Pluto is the furthest from the sun, ranging some 2.76 to 4.59 billion miles away. Just compare that with the distance from the Earth; 93 million miles from the sun.
To say Pluto is difficult to find would be putting it mild. If you don’t have a fairly large telescope, and have no idea where to locate Pluto, then I wouldn’t spend too much of your time looking for it. It took astronomers hundreds of years to finally come up with this little puppy. (Get it; Pluto, Puppy…never mind.)
But our next jewel is something you just don’t want to miss, and that would be Saturn. True that Jupiter with its bands of clouds and four of its larger moons circling around this huge planet is in itself a splendid sight, but you have to admit it doesn’t stand a chance competing against Saturn, the wonder of them all.
Forever, it seems, Jupiter has always been number one when it comes to the most moons in our Solar System. Well now I just heard that the beautiful Saturn has surpassed its neighbor and reigns king in that department.
Next in the parade is the large planet Neptune following right behind Jupiter. These are two of the large gas giants, the other two being Saturn and Uranus. Jupiter is so large that you could stuff all the other pieces of matter circling around the sun, including all the planets, into the center of Jupiter. You could place eleven Earth’s across the face of Jupiter, hence the king status. Starting to feel a little in-significant, are you?
Next comes Uranus right behind the city employees. Uranus is the third largest planet just edging out Neptune. Uranus is around 1.78 billion miles from the sun and Neptune is 2.83 billion miles. We have Mars next following right behind a real estate float. Won’t be saying much about Mars this time around for in the next few months this red planet will be closer to Earth than it has in two years. So we will be talking about Mars extensively. Our last planet is Mercury, probably not the most exciting item in the sky this month. The best time for spotting Mercury will be around the 16th just before sunrise, but don’t dilly dally it will be gone before you know it.
Well that’s about it for our parade of jewels. But wait, you say; aren’t we missing one? Yes we are, very well done. And that would be Venus, the brightest of all the planets. Venus is hidden too close to the Sun at this time for us to view. But not to worry; it shall be back soon.
So that is it for our string of jewels, you say? Well, I have to say no. There is still one more remaining. Which one could it be? Let me give you a little hint; not only can you see this planet at night, but in the daytime as well.
I must admit this is a good trivia question. The answer is the Earth. Well don’t forget Earth is a planet as well. And don’t forget to take advantage of this parade going on in your backyard the next couple of months to show these jewels to your children.
It may be the last chance you get before your children disappear into their bedrooms not to be seen or heard of again until they emerge from that dark room one day to go to college. Then not to be seen again until they stop by to drop off your grandchildren for one of your many babysitting adventures. You know you will love it; the grandchildren that is, not the children.
Smell the roses
The other night we had some friends over for dinner and I thought that our guest would like to get a glimpse of Jupiter and Saturn through the binoculars. So I focused the binocular on the two gassy figures. The planets, not our guest. I was so surprised how excited they got. It made me realize how one can take things for granted until someone else comes along and makes a big deal out of it. It’s like taking for granted the beautiful tree you have out back until your neighbor mentions to you how nice it looks. You think; you know he’s right, it is beautiful. So when our guest made a big deal out of Saturn I almost yanked the binoculars from his grasp to see that he was right. I actually had a very hard time passing the binoculars back to my guest. Under my breath I’m saying to myself “get your own.” But being the good host that I am I gave the binoculars back to them, but only for a short time. As a child I never was one for sharing, and it looks like I may have maintained that same attitude as a grownup.
So I guess my point here is don’t forget to smell the roses now and then, maybe not right after you fertilize them though.
Constellation of the Month
The Big Dipper is no doubt the best-known constellation in the sky, even more so than Orion or Pleiades. This is how all the amateur astronomers find the North Pole star by first finding the Big Dipper and the two bright stars at the end of the bowl that point almost directly to Polaris.
This group of stars has many names around the world. In England it is called the Plough. Other people call it Charles’s Wain, or the Churl’s Wain. (Wain is a wagon; churl is a peasant.) But the official name used is the Great Bear. In Latin it is Ursa Major. This is somewhat odd because a bear is one thing it does not look like.
But the Big Dipper is only part of the main constellation Ursa Major. There is a large area to the right and below which also belongs to this constellation. If you try to draw a bear out of this group of stars the Dipper is his back and tail. I have never seen a bear with a tail so long as portrayed on the sky maps. But the shape does look like a dipper. That must be why in modern times it is known as the Big Dipper.
The Big Dipper is good to be used as an eye test. Take a look at the star at the bend in the handle. If you have good eyesight you can see Mizar and its little companion Alcor. But it would take a telescope to split Mizar itself into a double star only a fiftieth as far apart as Mizar and Alcor.
That’s it for the month of October. Hope you enjoy the gassy giants.
What’s up in October
Oct. 4 Moon is at perigee (229,488 miles from Earth)
Oct. 5 Moon passes 4° south of Saturn
Oct. 7 Moon passes 3° south of Neptune
Oct. 8 Moon passes 2° south of Jupiter
Oct. 9 Full Moon
Oct. 12 Moon passes 0.8° north of Uranus
Oct. 15 Moon Passed 4° north of Mars
Oct. 17 Moon is at apogee (251,238 miles from Earth)
Oct. 17 Last Quarter Moon
Oct. 20 Wife JoAnne and my 60th anniversary
Oct. 21 Orionid meteor shower peaks
Oct. 25 New Moon
Oct. 25 My 81st Birthday
Oct. 29 Moon is at perigee (228,845 miles from Earth)