Wolf Pack

Backyard astronomy can be a marvelous, viewing adventure. Here are some visual delights easily seen on clear fall evenings:

--Most folks recognize the Big Dipper. That star pattern just after dark this time of year is located high in the northwestern sky. Its handle will be curving from straight south toward the southwest. Did you know the two stars that form the dipper’s ladle opposite the handle and from bottom to top always point to the North Star? And, the dipper is always visible in our night sky? It is circumpolar which means it revolves constantly above our northern horizon around Polaris—the North Star; both always in our sight in clear viewing conditions.

--Yes, there is a Little Dipper as well. Polaris is at the very end of its handle but due to light pollution and the fact most of its stars are not very bright it is very, very difficult to see.

--Straight overhead these early evenings you will find the brightest star in this part of the sky. Look carefully. Not only is it very bright it also has a bluish cast. That star is Vega. A little ways to its east is another fairly bright star. That is Deneb. Hold your hand out at arm’s length and open it wide. Put the end of your little finger on Vega and the end of your thumb will nearly touch Deneb.

Deneb is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus “The Swan”. Almost straight south of those two and almost directly between them is the third bright star in that part of the sky. That’s Altair. If you do the same distance measurement with your open hand you will find Altair is about one and ½ times the span of your hand from both Deneb and Vega. Together those three form an almost perfect triangle and the latter two are about the same apparent brightness.

--If the moon happens to be passing by it’s a mere 250,000 miles away, give or take a few. With your naked eyes you can see more detail on the moon’s surface than astronomers can see in all the other celestial bodies combined with the most powerful telescope on Earth. See, your eyes are not so bad after all.

--Here’s one final tidbit for our excursion into the celestial sphere. Our sun, which is simply a very ordinary star--as stars go--, is about 93 million miles away. Tell someone you can stand in your backyard and clearly see an object over 90 million miles away and they’ll likely scoff at your obvious fib. (But, don’t ever look directly at the sun. That can blind you!)

And, when you first see the sun peak over the eastern horizon you are seeing the sunrise which actually happened about eight minutes previously. That’s because light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second and it takes that long for the sun’s rays to travel those 93 million miles to Earth. You are actually looking back in time.

Finally, while you are peering skyward some evening you likely will see one of the near countless satellites that orbit our planet. They will look like semi-bright stars passing by at the apparent speed of a high altitude jet airplane, but they are much, much higher than passenger jets; likely over 250 miles above Earth or more.

There! In our little adventure you learned about some constellations, a few stars, some astronomical figures, satellites and a bit about two of our solar system neighbors. Later in the year, the winter sky will treat us to a delightful view of the constellation Orion, arguably the most popular in the entire sky.

Maybe we will take another celestial excursion then.