Cumberland-Times Sky Columns
January 2005

January 2 - Planets in 2005
January 9 - Moon in 2005
January 16 - Surprises About Energy
January 23 - Full Moons and Related Issues
January 30- Spotting the Big Dipper

January 2nd Column Excerpt - PLANETS IN 2005

Viewing the planets is one of the most enjoyable aspects of sky gazing. But there is much confusion as to where and when to look. The planets look just like stars except for their steady light.

In the evening, planets can either rise or set. Just as the sun, the planets rise in the East and set in the West. Once a planet rises, it stays in view in the eastern sky and then slowly climbs into the southern sky. Once a planet sets in the West, it is gone from the sky.

Just as in the evening, planets can either rise or set in the morning hours.
Once a planet rises in the East, it slowly climbs towards the right (South). If a planet rises just before the sun, it will be invisible in the sun's glare.

In the customary spring months (April through June), both Jupiter and Saturn are on view. The planet Venus begins a slow climb out of the western dusk. It will be setting over an hour after the sun in June making it visible low in the western dusk then.

In the warm months (July through September), the giant planets slowly drop out of view in the West. Saturn drops out of view in July, followed by Jupiter in September. But at the same time, Venus is setting later and more easily seen. As fall approaches the planet Mars shines brightly in the late evening sky.

In the cooling months (October through December), our neighbor worlds (Venus and Mars) are prominent in the evening sky. In the same months, the planet Saturn appears late in the evening in the East.

January 9th Column Excerpt - MOON IN 2005

Common questions about the moon include: Why does the moon display shapes like no other sky object? Why can't the moon can't be seen some evenings? Can the moon be seen during the daylight hours?

The moon's lighted shapes or phases is a mystery to many. Just as the Earth, the moon has two sides - the sunlit half and the night half. As the moon travels around the Earth, we see varying amounts of its lit and unlit half. When the moon and sun are less than 60 degrees apart, the moon has a crescent shape as we see mostly the moon's unlit half. When the sun and moon are about 90 degrees apart, the moon appears half full. As the angle to the sun grows over 90 degrees, we see more of the moon's lit half and less of its dark half. Finally, the moon and sun appear opposite in the sky and we have full moon, where we see only the moon's sunlit half. The sun-moon angle is then about 180 degrees.

The moon can't be seen some evenings once it passes full. For it is then mainly shining in the morning sky as its angle to the sun begins to fall. Finally, the moon appears as a slender crescent at dawn.

The moon can be seen during the day both before and after full moon. From a week to two days before full moon, the moon rises in the afternoon hours. It is then quite easy to see if you look South or Southeast in the late afternoon hours. From about two days to a week after full, the moon is on display during the morning daylight hours. You will then see the moon in the South or Southwest about the time you eat breakfast.

January 16th Column Excerpt - SURPRISES ABOUT ENERGY

Energy is frequently mentioned in the media. But the most commonly held views of energy are distorted or incorrect. Many people think that the energy in nature is for all intents and purposes, nearly unlimited. Once we develop technology to tap into this energy, our energy problems will be over. Another common belief is that the energy choices we make don't have any serious consequences for our environment or for future generations. A prevalent outlook is that America is so rich in natural resources that with a little bit more work, we can become energy independent and not be beholden to other countries.

Let's start out with a definition of energy. A body has energy if it can do work, exerting forces on other bodies so they are moved around, deformed or changed. Energy has three main forms: kinetic or motion energy, potential or stored energy and thermal energy (connected with warmth). Energy is unusual in that can shift from body to body and from one form to another. Every day, we take in chemical potential energy (food) and combine it with oxygen; the result is mostly heat to keep our bodies at temperature where our biological reactions can take place at the proper rate.

America and the industrial counties get most of their energy from burning fossil fuels, mainly petroleum, coal and natural gas. All three fossil fuels come from sunpowered vegetation from hundreds of millions of years ago that was buried, compressed and transformed so that these fuels are mostly carbon by weight.

When carbon burns in the presence of oxygen in our atmosphere, it produces 44 pounds of carbon dioxide from each 12 pounds of carbon that is burned. As more of the world is becoming industrialized and raising their living standards, fossil fuels are being used up at such a rate that within a century, most of the high grade fossil fuels will be gone.

Left will be low grade fuels that will release much more air pollution because of their impurities. At the same time, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is expected to rise from 380 parts per million presently to 500 parts per million at the end of this century. This increase in carbon dioxide will likely lead to increases in the average global temperature of 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Even a 5 degree rise will result in major changes in agriculture in the U.S. and around the world.

Is there anything that we can do to avert this kind of future? Presently, the U.S. with less than 5% of the world's population consumes 25% of the world's energy. It would be helpful if we could slowly wean ourselves from our addiction to fossil fuels, particularly by developing renewable sources of energy, such as solar power and wind power. Solar power is economical primarily for home heating, where solar panels on the roof heat fluids that release heat into the house during the night.

Large wind turbines are placed on windy areas so that they can generate electricity as long as the wind blows. The turbines are computer controlled so they turn into the wind; the blades stop turning if the wind speed is too low or too high. If you want see some wind farms, take a ride along Route 219 into Somerset County.

Like all new energy sources, the wind farms are subsidized by state and federal governments. But after 6-10 years, the wind turbines will have generated enough electricity to have paid for themselves. Wind turbines have no emissions. Wind farms are most popular in Europe where Germany and Denmark are the leading countries in this new field of energy.

January 23rd Column Excerpt - FULL MOONS & RELATED ISSUES

Usually each of our calendar months has one full moon. This is due to the lunar phase period of 29.5 days, which nearly matches the average length of our months (30.4 days/month in an ordinary 365 day year). But it is possible to have two full moons in a month, particularly if the month is long (31 days) and a full moon occurs at the beginning of the month. Then the moon can be full at month's end. This second full moon of a month is called a 'blue moon', which ocurrs on the average once every 3 years. Last July, we had 2 full moons, the first on the morning of July 2nd and the second on the afternoon of July 31st.

The moon's changing phase cycle (starts when the moon is hidden in the sun's glare) includes two weeks during which the moon is easily seen in the evening sky and two weeks following when the moon is most easily in the morning sky. The full moon takes place in between the evening and morning viewing times; only the full moon can be seen throughout the evening and morning night hours.

In terms of its brightness, the full moon averages 1 millionth as bright as the mid day sun. The light we see from the full moon is reflected sunlight. Our moon's distance from the Earth is about 240,000 miles or about 30 times the Earth's diameter. When the moon is at the closest point of its orbit around Earth, it is about two Earth diameters closer. These closer full moons will appear about 15% brighter than the average full moon. These extra bright full moons will occur on the evening of July 21st and around midnight on the night of August 18-19 this year.

As the Earth orbits the sun, each full moon is displaced eastward along the zodiac typically by one zodiac star group each successive month. Our full moon this month will be seen in front of the stars of Cancer. February's full moon around the 23rd will be in Leo. The following months and full moon star groups are: March - Virgo, April - also Virgo, May - Scorpius, June - Sagittarius, July - Sagittarius/Capricornus, August - Aquarius, September - Pisces, October - Pisces, November - Taurus and December - Taurus again.

The full moons occupy the opposite side of the zodiac as the sun. So when the sun has a low sky path (end of fall and start of winter), the full moons then have a high sky path and are in view up to 15 hours at a time. Conversely, when the sun has a high sky path (end of spring and start of summer), the full moons then have a low sky path and can only be seen for about 10 hours at a time. Around the start of fall and spring, both the sun and full moon are in view for about 12 hours.

January 30th Excerpt - SPOTTING THE BIG DIPPER

On mid winter evenings, the 7 stars of the Big Dipper are stunning in the North Northeast, appearing about a third of the way from the horizon to the top of the sky. The stars above and to the right of the Big Dipper form the rest of the Big Bear; the Big Dipper's handle is the Bear's tail while the Dipper's scoop is the Bear's behind.

The two top stars of the Scoop are now pointing left to the North Star. The left pointer star is Dubhe. This is 2nd brightest star of the Big Dipper; this orange star lies at a distance of 124 light years. Light just arriving from Dubhe left that star's surface in 1881, the year that President James Garfield was assassinated.

The right pointer star is Merak, at a distance of 79 light years. Merak and the four Dipper stars below it are part of an association, a group of bright stars all traveling together through space.

The next star downward is Phecda, at 84 light years away. Phecda is about 70 times as powerful as our sun. From Phecda's distance, our sun would be invisible to the bare eye, requiring binoculars to be seen.

The dimmest star of the Big Dipper is Megrez, situated where the handle and
the scoop connect. Megrez is 81 light years distant. This white star is 24 times as luminous or powerful as our sun.

The highest star of the handle is Alioth, the brightest of the 7 stars of the Big Dipper. Just as Megrez, Alioth is 84 light years away. This star's light now reaching us left that star in 1921, the year of the Black Sox scandal when 8 Chicago White Sox players were thrown out of baseball for conspiring to fix the World's Series.

The middle star of the Big Dipper's handle is Mizar, the closest of the 7 Big Dipper's stars at a distance of 78 light years. If you look carefully, you may a dimmer star just to the left of Mizar; this is Alcor at a distance of 1/5 of a degree away. (The moon is 1/2 of a degree across.)

The last star in the handle is Alkaid, the third brightest Dipper star at a distance of 101 light years.

Each season, the Big Dipper moves to a different position in the northern sky. Each spring evening , the Big Dipper appears high over the North Star. On warm summer evenings, the Big Dipper appears to the left of the North Star. And on fall evenings, the Big Dipper appears underneath the North Star. These shifts in the Big Dipper's position is due to the Earth's movement about the sun.

Other cultures had very different visions of these 7 bright stars. The British see a Plow (Plough). The Babylonians saw a wagon with a long handle. The Sioux Indians saw these stars as forming a skunk with a big bushy tail. The Egyptians saw a Bull's hind leg. The Chinese imagined the scoop to represent the Emperor Wen-chang in a carriage; following behind (the handle) were three petitioners.