An Amateur’s Guide to the Night Sky Now

AN AMATEUR’S GUIDE TO THE NIGHT SKY NOW The Ceremony of Summer Stars

This image captured by photographer Libby Henderson at Lavender Hill Farm during Adams’ “Giants of the Night Sky” program July 13.

By Mary Stewart Adams gave it dominion over all things that can be experienced through the element of space.

In each and every day there’s a singular Jupiter is very bright — and will be moment when, all at once, we realize … the the brightest object in the nighttime sky stars. This moment brings a curious and all summer long (excepting the Moon, of immediate sensation of time moving on and course). You’ll know it, because it’ll be the allows us to recognize how little aware we first to appear after sunset each evening. are of what is present in the world around us, To find Jupiter, look low in the southeast until we see it with our own two eyes. Even starting around 9:30pm. though the stars only begin to appear in the Note that each planet makes its opposition twilight, when the blue day has faded into to the sun when it’s exhibiting its apparent its darker hue, and the sunlight has waned retrograde, or backward-going motion, over the western horizon, we realize at the moving from east to west against the moment of a star’s first appearance that it has background of stars, rather than west to east. been there all along, steady and certain, no During the retrograde, planets loop closer to matter the events of our days. the Earth than at other times, which can also

Twilight is the best time to begin any make them appear brighter than usual. Jupiter summer stargazing adventure, especially just made its closest approach last week, on if you are just beginning to learn your way July 15. around the sky. The brighter stars will It takes Saturn about 28 years to always appear first, like signposts, pointing complete its orbit — more than twice the the way to well-known asterisms like the time it takes Jupiter. For ancient stargazers, Big Dipper and the Summer Triangle, and this behavior of Saturn’s lent to it being indicating the region where the Milky Way identified with all things governed by the will appear. element of time. Saturn to the Romans

This summer, the array of naked-eye was Cronus to the Greeks, who established planets is intriguing, with Mars approaching the boundaries of the Titan world and was his lady love Venus in the morning sky, regarded as the lord of the universe, but where she is like a brilliant beacon heralding only after he expelled his father, Uranus. each new day as the morning star in the east, Saturn is not nearly as bright as Jupiter, while Saturn and Jupiter are making a slow and it appears golden in the nighttime and steady procession beyond the Milky sky. Like Jupiter, Saturn is also making its Way and toward one another, for their onceretrograde motion right now, as though every-20-years “great conjunction.” time were slowed down and lending a

This auspicious meeting will happen this mood of laziness to the summer season. year at winter solstice in December, but now Saturn comes nearest Earth on July 20, is the season to get the best views of these rising in the southeast just after Jupiter. two gas giants, since each of them comes to The two of them have bridged the thickest opposition with the sun this month (Jupiter region of Milky Way stars to their right, on July 14; Saturn on July 20). The opposition where we find the constellation Sagittarius, of a planet to the sun is like a planet’s full and are now wandering on with the moon phase; it rises in the east just as the sun mountain goat, Capricorn. is setting in the west, and then will march Have you ever wondered what ancient across the field of stars throughout the night, sages were doing when they established only setting in the West at dawn, when the the constellations — because they certainly sun begins to rise. don’t look like the objects and creatures

It takes Jupiter 12 years to complete one for which they’re named. This mystery is orbit of the sun, and in ancient cultures, this settled when you realize that the ancients 16 • july 20, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly

believed that every human being comes from a star, and that on the descent to life in the physical world, which is governed by time and space, the spiritual beings inhabiting the starry regions bestowed the gift of form to the human body, while the rhythms of the wandering stars, our planets, gifted harmony between the inner organs of the human being.

This way of knowing the human being in relation to the stars existed well into the Middle Ages; it’s evidenced by images depicting the relationship of the signs of the zodiac to the different members of the human being, from the head (Aries) to the feet (Pisces), and the planets in relation to their respective organs (Venus rules kidney; Jupiter rules liver, etc.). There were 48 recognized constellations in the ancient Graeco-Roman world, each described according to the member of the human being to which it was aligned.

It wasn’t until the 16th century that European explorers, traveling to regions of the world unknown to them, began to see stars over lands they had never known, which in turn inspired them to start creating constellations of their own, based on the patterns they made up.

So here’s the rule of thumb: If it looks like what it’s named for, then it might be a constellation that belongs to 16th century ideas, rather than to ancient concepts regarding our relationship to the stars.

Now, even though Jupiter and Saturn are at opposition to the sun this month, they join the lineup of planets that are visible in the morning, beginning with these two low in the southwest, and following on to Mars in the southsouthwest, then brilliant Venus in the east, with Mercury joining the scene low in the east toward the end of the month.

Identify your best stargazing spot by day, avail yourself of a map for familiarizing yourself ahead of time with what you what you want to see, then gather up some stories and head to the stars.

GEAR TO GET YOU STARTED Here are some of my best tips and favorite resources for finding your way around the summer sky in 2020:

 First and foremost, a really good, clean star map, like MSU’s Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar.Just $12/year for one map each month, highlighting the best things to see each week on the calendar side, with a map of the whole night sky on the other side. Available at www.abramsplanetarium.org/SkyCalendar/

 A red filter on your flashlight, so you don’t disturb your night vision — or the views of anyone around you. Wrap red cellophane or even a red balloon over a regular white light, but test it out at home first.

 A good pair of binoculars can be helpful, ranging in price from $80 to, well … the sky’s the limit. I particularly like the Vixen Optics 2.1x42 SG wide-angle binoculars, available at Enerdyne in Suttons Bay.

 Though I much prefer maps to apps, there are a few night sky apps that are really impressive. Just always be sure to plan your viewing before you’re out in the dark, so you’re not wasting too much time looking at a screen instead of looking at the sky: • Star Walk 2, and Star Walk for Kids, which uses GPS to calculate the exact position of the celestial objects from your location. • I also like Distant Suns and Pocket Universe as apps that offer fun features. • The International Space Station Tracker website is fun to check, especially if you want to impress friends and family with predicting its appearance beforehand: www.spotthestation.nasa.gov

 The best guide of all to what’s in the northern hemisphere night sky is the Big Dipper, which is overhead every night and can lead you to the North Star, Polaris, while its handle also arcs to the bright star Arcturus, from where you can speed on to the star of abundance, Spica. And then there’s the back of the Lion, which is where the Dipper’s contents would spill if its cup leaked! Following the Dipper’s pointer stars to Polaris allows leads you on to Cepheus the King — and Cassiopeia, his Queen. The Dipper’s position in the horizon can reveal the time of night and even the seasons of the year, plus the sweetest collection of three double stars, which skips along beneath this region of stars, known as the three leaps of the gazelle.

 Want to learn more about the sky and its stories? Check out StorytellersNightSky.com — the website of “Star Lore Historian” Mary Stewart Adams — to stay abreast of upcoming star-gazing events, audio recordings of her radio segment, and sign up for The Storyteller’s Night Sky newsletter.