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Mon Feb 27, 2012 LONGFELLOW AND THE EVENING STAR Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807. He is probably best known for his epic poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” He also wrote about some things in the sky, like evening stars. An evening star is another name for a planet that’s seen after sunset. Tonight the brightest of evening stars, the planet Venus shines in the west at sunset. Here’s a portion of his poem, “Evening Star”, in which he compares the planet to the love he had for his beautiful wife: “Lo! in the painted oriel of the West … Like a fair lady at her casement, shines The evening star, the star of love and rest! My best and gentlest lady! even thus, As that fair planet in the sky above, Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night, And from thy darkened window fades the light.” Above Venus tonight you’ll also find another evening star, the planet Jupiter, and above Jupiter, the waxing crescent moon. Tue Feb 28, 2012 HOLST’S “THE PLANETS” On February 27th, in the year 1919, Gustav Holst's suite, "The Planets," was first publicly performed: it featured theme music for seven planets of the solar system (Pluto wasn’t included as it wouldn’t be discovered for another 11 years.) And Holst was certainly no astronomer – his knowledge of the subject was limited. Holst did dabble in mythology, and in writing the music for “The Planets,” he anthropomorphized them. That is, he gave these worlds human characteristics. So the music for Mercury, which takes only 88 days to go around the sun, is a fast-paced, allegro tempo, as would befit the Olympian messenger of the gods. On the other hand the music for Saturn, which revolves about the sun only once every 29 years, is adagio, or slow and stately. Mars is militant and loud, while Venus is beautiful, and Jupiter, the king of planets, is majestic! Tonight the moon is above Jupiter and Venus, in the west after sunset. Wed Feb 29, 2012 LEAP YEAR DAY Why is February so short? If we were to apply Vulcan logic when devising a calendar, we’d have alternating months of thirty and thirty-one days. But the Romans who created our original calendar considered February to be an unlucky month, and they made it as short as possible. Now the earth takes 365 and a quarter days to make one full orbit of the sun. We ignore that extra quarter day until we’ve saved up four of them, a whole extra day, and then every four years we add that day to February. So now why is today called leap year day? Look at last year's calendar. January 1st, 2011, fell on a Saturday. In this year's calendar; January first was on a Sunday. In a 365 day year, there are exactly 52 seven-day weeks, with one day remaining - so the calendar dates advance by that one extra day each year. But leap years have 366 days, which is 52 weeks and 2 days. Look at January first for next year. It falls not on Monday but on Tuesday. So the date goes from Sunday to Tuesday, effectively "leaping over" Monday. Thur Mar 1, 2012 NEW GIBBOUS MOON IN ORION The waxing gibbous moon is well-placed in the southern sky after sunset this evening. It appears above the head of the constellation of Orion the Hunter. In Greek mythology, Orion was a hunter, the son of Poseidon, and he was in love with Artemis, the goddess of the moon and of the hunt. Now Artemis had a brother, Apollo, the sun god, and he didn’t like Orion – not good enough for his sister, he decided. One day while Orion was swimming in the ocean, Apollo found his sister and pointed to Orion, who appeared as just a little dark speck way out at sea. He bet Artemis she couldn’t hit such a small target. And so she shot the far-off target with an arrow, not realizing it was Orion’s head. But Orion was a hero and he was given immortality as a constellation of the night. Once a month the moon travels through this part of the sky, and to the storytellers this was a time when Artemis could visit with her old hunting companion. Fri Mar 2, 2012 LEO'S RETURN March, they say, comes in like a lion. This is meant to refer to the changeable weather of the new month. But there’s also an astronomical connection. Look south this evening and there you will find the bright stars of winter. Chief among them is Orion the Hunter. Along with him are the constellations Taurus the Bull, the Big and Little Dogs, Auriga the Charioteer, and the Gemini, all marked by bright stars. Now look toward the east. Not much there. But toward the eastern horizon, you'll find a fairly bright star – it’s called Regulus, and it marks the heart of Leo the Lion. There are several other stars nearby which, with Regulus, form the outline of a backwards question mark in the sky – the lion’s head and mane. Leo is the first of our springtime constellations. The Lion always comes into our eastern evening sky when March begins.