Great night sky viewing in store for 2017
Happy New Year! Another new year of great nights under the stars!
Let me begin my column by reminding readers that this is the year of the Great American Eclipse! Mark Aug. 21, 2017, on your calendars because that is the day of a total eclipse of the Sun. This eclipse will cross America starting in Oregon and ending in South Carolina. At maximum, the eclipse will last about 2 minutes, 42 seconds, near Carbondale, Ill. Here in Arkansas, we are too far south to see totality — we will see an excellent partial eclipse, however. Travel north to Missouri and there will be many good places to see totality. But … several million people in the U.S. will be gathered at any spot where totality occurs so if you want to see it, make travel reservations immediately after you have decided on a site. I will have much more to say about this event as the time approaches. I plan to photograph the event from a little town in Oregon.
Venus is about as visible as it ever gets in the early evening. It is rather featureless when seen through a telescope. Watch as, over the next few months, Venus changes position in the night sky. This change of position is the result of the motion of Venus around the Sun and the Earth’s motion around the Sun too.
We are now seeing the winter sky. As the Earth moves along its orbit, different parts of the night sky can be seen after dark. In winter, we look off the plane of the Milky Way. There are many quite bright stars in the night sky in winter but, unless you know very well where to look, you can only see faint traces of Milky Way at all.
Be sure not to miss Orion the Hunter. He starts the evening nearly on his side, but as the night continues, he stands upright. Betelgeuse, on Orion’s right shoulder, and Rigel, the left foot of Orion, are very big and bright. Betelgeuse is a large Red Giant, Rigel, a large multiple star. The Belt Stars (three in a row) are O and B type stars that are early in their life spans, very bright and very big!
If you have binoculars and you are at a dark site, look at Orion’s ‘sword.’ It will appear fuzzy or cloudy. This is because a cloud of mostly hydrogen, but also nitrogen and oxygen too, is caused to glow by large stars that emit much ultraviolet light and shine within the cloud. Difficult to imagine but this cloud of mixed gases is roughly 50 light years across and about 1,500 light years away. It is a place where many new stars are formed and photographs of this region are truly beautiful.
Jupiter shines very brightly in the southeastern sky from 4 a.m. until dawn’s light causes it to fade. I recently used my 10-inch reflector to see the four brightest satellites of Jupiter — Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. From night-to-night they change position as they circle giant Jupiter. Fascinating to watch!
Of course, we have many a snowy or rainy night in winter here in Arkansas. However, we also have cold, clear nights that surpass most other nights in other season. Wrap up and get out there! It’s a free show and glorious!