This column was provided by San Benito resident and amateur astronomer David Baumgartner as part of a local series on astronomy. Lea este articulo en español aqui.
Many eons ago, when I was quite young, living on the corner of Hawkins and Washington streets, I remember looking up at the night sky with all of its wonderus stars, constellations, moon and what not. And without actually saying it out loud to anyone but just thinking it to myself, I would wonder if this is our sky, our stars, and our moon here in California, then what do they see at night on the other side of the Earth?
Do they look at different stars and constellations than we do? Do they have a moon such as ours? Now remember, I was quite young. Anyone with any kind of education would most likely know that on the other side of the Earth they see the same sky, with the same stars and moon as we do, just at a different time of the day. Well, at least I didn’t share my thoughts on this subject with anyone else, until now.
So, now that I am somewhat grown up, I look back and remember some of the thoughts that were going through my mind about astronomy and how I imagined things would work. I must admit I was very naive.
So you are saying to yourself right now “where in the blazes is he going with this?” Well as you will see it’s not much, but it is something that just struck me funny. Our youngest daughter, Lisa, and I made a trip to Denmark awhile back and we had a great time. On the first night we were there, I waited until dark, which wasn’t until after 11 p.m., to see the night sky. Denmark is farther north than the California so the Sun goes down considerably later in the summertime.
But the minute I recognized the bright stars in the sky, a little voice in the back of my head voiced its opinion on the fact that this is the very same sky that we have back home. Well, duh!! I did catch the thought before it was finished but nonetheless, it did come out.
I started to laugh at myself, glad no one else was around and starting to think, here I am educated in astronomy, to some extent, I know enough to understand what is being seen around the world and when, and yet I go back to my adolescent thoughts. So, I guess you might ask; am I still the same naive individual I was when I was young? I think when you are young you have very strong thoughts and ideas and evidently sometimes they are very hard to get rid of as you grow up, whether those thoughts are right or not.
But I must admit, I still retain many thoughts and happenings that occurred way back when. They have left a warm place in my mind as well as in my heart.
One thing did happen on the trip that I will always remember, and this just goes to show you that there must a God. On the way back, flying on Scandinavian Airlines, I was sitting next to a young man who was next to the window. He was one of those kind of, well you know, know it alls. He spent an hour just telling me how great he was. And boy was he great.
Now to the point. The skies were dark and the stars were at their brightest when my new know it all friend said to me “see that bright object out there, I’ll give you $50.00 if you can tell me what it is”. Before his monetary offer he never let me get a word in edge wise, in the one-sided conversation, to maybe let him know some of my interests. Well, I looked out the small window and said “let’s see, this is June, the end of June, and it is 10 o’clock p.m. So that has to be Jupiter,” I said with a ho hum attitude. If you could only have seen his face. His mouth dropped open and he looked the other way as to ignore me. And a moment later he said, “so you are into astronomy?” “A little,” I said.
The mention of the $50.00 didn’t come up until about a half hour later, when he said I don’t have the money with me. At that time I interrupted him and told him not to worry about the money. He seamed quite relieved. I would wager that the next time my know it all friend will think twice before he wants to bet some stranger without letting him get a few lines of chat in first. See, life can be good.
Constellation of the Month:
No one ever seems to like scorpions. No one even seems to say anything nice about scorpions. Well, when it comes to the constellations, Scorpius is one of my favorites. Not just because that is my sign but because it is one of the few constellations that even looks like its namesake. It is one of the larger designs in the sky. Scorpius used to be even bigger, until the Romans decided there should be 12 constellations in the zodiac, instead of 11, so they made the two claws from Scorpius into the arms of the balance in Libra.
The bright star, Antares, is the scorpion’s heart. Antares is one of the reddest stars in the sky. Its name means “rival of Mars”. As most know, Mars is red as well, and when it goes along the ecliptic just north of Antares, they look as if they are competing with each other.
Orion was killed by a scorpion. Now the constellation Orion in the sky keeps as far as he can from the scorpion in the sky. As soon as Orion sees Scorpius rising in the east, he sets in the west.
Just as Orion is the brilliant central constellation of the winter evening sky, so Scorpius is the brilliant central constellation of the summer evening sky. Take your binoculars to this scorpion in the sky; there is an awful lot to see here. Clear skies.
What’s up there this month?
Jun 02 First Quarter Moon
Jun 06 Moon passes 0.5ׄ° south of Spica
Jun 07 Moon is at apogee (251,999 miles from Earth)
Jun 08 Mercury passes 2° south of Jupiter
Jun 10 Moon passes 0.3° south of Antares
Jun 11 Full Moon
Jun 14 Moon passes 0.1° south of Pluto
Jun 16 Mars passes 0.8° north of Regulus
Jun 18 Las Quarter Moon
Jun 18 Moon passes 3° north of Saturn
Jun 18 Mon passes 2° north of Neptune
Jun 20 Sommer /solstice occurs
Jun 22 Moon passes 7° north of Venus
Jun 22 Mercury passes 5° north of Pollux
Jun 22 Moon passes 5° north of Uranus
Jun 23 Moon is sat Perigee (225,668 miles from Earth)
Jun 25 New Moon
Jun 27 Moon passes 3° north of Mercury
Jun 29 Saturn passes 1.0° south of Neptune
Jun 29 Moon passes 0.2° north of Mares