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September Stargazing
by Phil Jones
The cool dry
season in
Zambia
is rapidly becoming warmer, drier, and dustier but there are still a
few weeks left of good stargazing evenings before the haze and smoke
set in from the traditional burning of underbrush. In the early
evenings in September find yourself a good viewing spot well away
from lights and overhead trees and enjoy a truly great spectacle of
the heavens, filled with Greek images recalling the recent
Olympics. This is a dramatic novel and soap opera with love, war,
jealousy, obsession, abductions, science, mythology, and great
scenes played out right over our heads.
The constellation
Scorpio is one of the few constellations with an asterism (a cluster
of stars smaller than a constellation) that really looks like its
namesake. High above the early evening western horizon this month
it is quite easy to visualize the outline of a scorpion with its
tail high and moving head first toward the horizon with each passing
hour. The tip of the tail curves around to the stinger tip and just
the sight of it should remind you to empty out your boots before
putting them on in the morning. The bright reddish star in the
scorpion’s body is Antares, whose meaning (“opposed to Ares”) makes
sense when you realize that Ares, the mythological Greek god of war
(and not to be confused with the nearby constellation Aries The
Ram), is associated with the red planet Mars (the Roman god of war).
Antares is in the
ecliptic plane of the solar system, along which path the planets
pass and thereby create the opportunity to eclipse stars and other
planets. Ancient stargazers watched closely for encounters between
Antares and Mars. Nothing to worry about this month while Mars is
well below the horizon in the early evening, but by January, were it
not for the rains and overcast skies, the two might be seen together
low on the eastern horizon in the early mornings just before sunup.
While we are
still in the evening, and if you have a clear sky and good
southwestern horizon, watch for the last we’ll see this year of Cruz
the Southern Cross lying low on its side. This is the smallest
constellation and doesn’t look so much like a cross as it does a
child’s kite, with the four corners illuminated by the
constellation’s brighter stars. Bright stars this evening are Spica
(due west) and the extremely bright Arcturus in the northwest.
The early
mornings before sunup offer several memorable sights this month.
The constellation
The Hunter Orion - is visible above the eastern horizon with the
constellation The Bull Taurus in their eternal battle in the
heavens. Above Taurus is the asterism the Pleiades the Seven
Sisters.
Orion is perhaps
the most easily recognized heavenly figure (please don’t hold it
against me, Brittany!) with its three-in-a-row Belt, angled
scabbard, and four corner stars representing the knees and
shoulders, with the shield in Orion’s hand toward The Bull, and the
sword upraised in the other hand. Another red star, Aldebaran, is
at the end of one of the Bull’s vee-shaped horns. Aldebaran got its
name from the Arabic meaning phrase “the following,” referring to
the Pleiades. The legends surrounding these figures tell of a
boastful Hunter obsessively pursuing one of the seven daughters of
Atlas (of world-on-his-shoulders fame), who are defended by The
Bull. The Hunter must have got the girl because now only six stars
are easily seen in the Pleiades.
Still in the very
early morning watch for the Morning Star the planet Venus - rising
above the eastern horizon only a few hours before the sun.
This month Venus
forms a close grouping with the main stars of the Twins (Castor and
Pollux) the constellation Gemini and the planet Saturn (the
Roman god of agriculture). These “twins” were mythological half
brothers with the same mother Leda, queen of Sparta- but different
fathers: Pollux by Zeus (in the form of a swan), and Castor by
Tyndareus, the king of Sparta. Pollux’s full sister was Helen of
Troy, whose later kidnapping by Paris (not Nicky) triggered the
Trojan War between the Greeks (winners) and Troy (big time loser).
In the second week of September the sliver of the moon will be in
among the group.
The brightest
star in the heavens is Sirius (the Dog Star), in the constellation
Canis Major the Large Dog - by now above and to the right (south)
of the Morning Star. Venus will remain the Morning Star for a few
more months, then go into close alignment with the sun and not
visible to us, and will become the Evening Star in mid-2005 after it
becomes more separated from the Sun.
The author
recently returned for a short visit to Zambia and graciously revived
his celestial observations, having contributed to the early editions
of the Lowdown. |
September 2004