This article was contributed by David Baumgartner as part of a local series on astronomy.
When I was quite young 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 (53, no, much younger). 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 in some ways 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 naïve, or at best uneducated about this subject.
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 a few years back, and we had a great time. On the first night we were there, I waited until dark, which wasn’t until after 11 a.m., to see the night sky. Denmark is farther north than the U.S. 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 and stopped it before I shared it with anyone else, but nontheless, it is now out.
I started to laugh at myself, glad no one else was around, and started 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 instead. So, I guess you might ask; am I still that same naive individual I was when I was young? I think when you are young you have very strong thoughts and ideas, and evidently they are very hard to get rid off as you grow up, whether those thoughts are actually right or not.
But I must admit, I still retain many thoughts and happenings that occurred way back when. They have left me with 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 be a God. On the way back, flying on Scandinavian Airlines, I was sitting next to a young man who was sitting 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 in the sky?”
I said “yes, I do.”
“I’ll give you $50 if you can name that object,” he said.
Before his monetary offer, in this one-sided conversation, he never did let me get a word in edge wise to maybe let him know some of my interests.
Well, I looked out the small window and said “lets see, this is June, the end of June, and it is 10 p.m. o’clock. So that has to be Jupiter.” I said it 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 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 has the notion to bet some stranger without letting him get a few verbal lines in first. See, life can be good. There must be a God.
Clear sky’s,
July 1: Last quarter moon
July 4: Moon passes 2 degrees south of Uranus
July 5: Moon is at apogee (221,867 miles from Earth)
July 5: Earth is at aphelion (94.5 million miles from the sun)
July 8: Moon passes 4 degrees north of Mercury
July 9: New moon
July 12: Moon passes 3 degrees north of Venus
July 12: Moon passes 4 degrees north of Mars
July 12: Mars is at aphelion (154.9 million miles from the sun)
July 13: Venus passes 0.5 degrees north of Mars