SKYLIGHTS
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, July 13, 2001.
We begin the week, Friday the 13th, with the Moon in its third
quarter, from which it will wane toward new, that phase reached
next Friday, the 20th.
The week is highlighted by numerous passages. As the Moon wanes,
it will in succession occult, or cover (seen only in specific parts
of the world), Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury, the first two
on Tuesday the 17th, Jupiter a day later, and Mercury a day after
that. (Be sure to look in the morning sky on Wednesday, the 18th,
to see the Moon approaching Jupiter.) The occultations of Saturn
and Jupiter will respectively be seen in South America and in the
west Pacific, that of Mercury in northern Europe and the Arctic.
The occultation of Venus, however, will be beautifully visible in
North America. Unfortunately, the event takes place during
daylight, shortly after noon. Fortunately, that matters little to
those with a telescope -- even binoculars -- as both the Moon and
Venus are visible in the daytime. Just scan the binoculars well to
the west of the Sun (avoiding the Sun itself!) until you pick up
the Moon, and there will be Venus. Exact times depend on latitude
and longitude (and time zone). For Chicago, Venus disappears
behind the Moon at 1:16 PM CDT and reappears at 2:28. For New York
the times are 2:32 and 3:33, while for San Francisco they are 10:08
and 11:42.
The planets pass through other conjunctions as well. On the
morning of Saturday the 15th, brilliant Venus makes an extremely
close pass to Saturn, the two (Saturn much the farther away and
fainter) only 0.3 degrees apart! At the same time, both are only
3 degrees north of the star Aldebaran in Taurus. (Be sure to
admire the Pleiades just above the group.)
Mars, the lone planet in the evening sky, calls for some attention
as well. Since last May 11, the red planet has been moving
retrograde, or to the west against the background stars. Now well
past its opposition with the Sun, and beautifully visible in the
early evening to the southeast, Mars stops retrograding on Thursday
the 19th. Seemingly stationary for a few days (of course ignoring
its daily passage across the sky), it will soon begin an obvious
and rapid motion eastward as the Earth slowly pulls away from
it.
Directly to the west of Mars is the ever-engaging Scorpius with its
bright reddish star Antares. North of Antares lies the sprawling
paired constellations of Ophiuchus and Serpens, north of these
Hercules. Directly south of Scorpius's curved tail is Ara the
Altar, which requires you to be south of roughly 30 degrees north
latitude to see much of it at all. South of Scorpius's head and
claws (represented by Libra, the Scales), however, is the bright
constellation of Lupus the Wolf, the northern part of which is
easily visible up to 45 degrees north latitude or even a bit
higher.
