Download May 2013 - Joliet Junior College

MAY 2013 ASTRONOMY
From the Trackman Planetarium at Joliet Junior College
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Jupiter is low in the evening sky after sunset and will be gone from the evening sky by
the end of the month. Saturn is now in the sky in mid-evening. Look for Saturn five
degrees to the east of the moon on May 22nd. By the end of May, Venus will be visible in
the western sky after sunset. Venus is the third brightest object in the sky after the sun
and the moon, and will be easily visible during the summer. The sun passed Mars
during April and by the end of May Mars will be visible before sunrise. Mars will be in
the early morning sky throughout the summer - moving farther from the sun each day.
Mercury orbits behind the sun on May 11th and will continue to move eastward until it
reaches the eastern point in its orbit in early June. It will be visible after sunset at the
end of May.
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The stars of late spring and early summer are now in the evening sky and we’ve lost
Orion and the winter constellations until next year - unless you want to go stargazing in
the middle of the night. High In the mid-evening sky is the easiest group of stars to find the stars of the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper is not a constellation, but an asterism. An
asterism is a part of a constellation and the Big Dipper is part of the constellation of Ursa
Major or the Big Bear. Follow the two stars opposite the handle of the dipper and you
will find Polaris or the North Star. The North Star is in the Little Dipper, but most of the
stars in the Little Dipper are too dim to be seen from populated areas. Between the Big
Dipper and the Little Dipper are some of the stars of Draco. Under the Big Dipper is Leo
the Lion with the bright star, Regulas, marking his chin. On the 15th, if you look to the
east of the moon with a pair of binoculars, you will find the Beehive cluster - a cluster of
stars in the constellation of Cancer. They are an awesome sight in binoculars. Follow
the curve of the Big Dipper’s handle to the red star Arcturus. Arcturus is the fourth
brightest star in the sky. In 1933, at the start of the Chicago World’s Fair, it was thought
that Arcturus was 40 light years from Earth. (We now know it is closer to 37 light years.)
In 1933, it had been 40 years since the last World’s Fair at Chicago (1893), so the
promoters of the 1933 fair used the light from Arcturus to throw the switch to start the
1933 World’s Fair. To do so, they used a photocell which was a new invention at the
time.
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The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower is in the early morning of May 5th. The meteors are
debris left from Halley’s Comet. The Eta Aquarids will be in the eastern sky in the hours
before sunrise.
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As you probably noticed, the sun is crossing the sky higher every day. This change in
distance above the horizon is due to the Earth’s axis being on an angle. The sun will
continue to cross the sky higher every day until the first day of summer (summer
solstice) on June 21st. If you live in Barrow Alaska, (population 4,300) the northern most
point in our country, the sun will rise on May 14th and will be so high in the sky that it
won’t set until July 29th.
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The full moon in May is on May 24th. The full moon in May was know as the Full Flower
Moon by the Native Americans.
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The sun starts May in Aries and enters Taurus on May 14th where it will remain for the
rest of the month.
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May 1st is a cross-quarter day on the Celtic Calendar. A cross-quarter day is a day
between solstices and equinoxes. May 1st was called Beltane and it was the first day of
summer on the Celtic Calendar. The summer solstice on June 21st was mid-summer.
Shakespeare’s “A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream” takes place on what is currently the first
day of summer because Shakespeare used the Celtic Calendar
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The good people at the JJC Foundation and the Corporate and Community Services
Department have decided to keep me on at the planetarium for another year and so the
schedule for 2013-2014 is being prepared. New shows include one on Comet Ison
which will be here at the end of November and on Lunar eclipses in time for the eclipse
of the moon on April 15, 2014. hanks to all of you for your support during the current
season.
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Shows for the month of May are: ”A Trip Through the Stars” on May 2nd at 6:30 pm; “The
Fermi Paradox” on May 7th at 7:30 pm; “Sun, Earth and Moon” on May 16th at 6:30 pm;
“Colliding Objects in Space” on May 21st at 7:30 pm; and “We Go To The Moon” on May
30th at 6:30 pm.
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There are approximately 22,000 man-made objects larger than 10 centimeters orbiting
the Earth. 87% of them are fragments or inactive satellites. NASA estimates that one
piece of space junk enters the atmosphere each day. Meanwhile, 100 tons of dust and
rock fragments enter the Earth’s atmosphere each day as meteors. If you are
concerned about the big rocks (asteroids) that may be passing the Earth this month, you
can relax. 2004 BV102 (1.4 kilometers wide) will miss us by 16.6 million miles on May
25th and 1998 QE2 (2.1 kilometers wide) will miss us by 3.6 million miles on May 31st.
It’s nice to know someone is watching out for those.
¶
Art Maurer
Director -Trackman Planetarium
Joliet Junior College
815-280-2601
[email protected]