SKYLIGHTS
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, September 3, 1999.
The Moon moves through its waning crescent phase this week as it
heads toward its rendezvous with the Sun and new Moon on Thursday,
the 9th. Invisible now in the evening, the Moon makes a fine sight
in the early morning hours and as dawn twilight ascends the eastern
horizon.
The twilight morning also now contains brilliant Venus, seen easily
low to the east shortly before sunrise. The slim crescent Moon
will pass a few degrees to the north of the planet the morning of
Tuesday, the 7th, the pair making a lovely sight. Venus, in
retrograde motion to the west against the stars, has popped up in
the morning sky very quickly. It ceases retrograde and will begin
direct easterly movement against the stars on Thursday, the 9th,
just as the Moon hits new. The Sun is moving faster to the east,
however, so it will still pull away from the planet. As a result,
Venus will rise ever earlier and will climb higher away from
morning twilight, at the same time continuing to brighten. Its
companion Mercury, however, is entirely out of sight, as it passes
superior conjunction with the Sun (on the other side of the Sun) on
Wednesday the 8th.
The evening sky now holds Jupiter and Saturn, the bright giant of
the Solar System well up in the east by 11 PM, Saturn just a bit
behind it. Slowly falling behind Earth, but hanging on to the
early evening is Mars, visible low in the southwest as darkness
falls. As the week begins, Mars is entering the constellation
Scorpius as it heads toward its bright namesake Antares, the Greek
name meaning "like Mars" ("Ares" the Greek version of the god of
war), the two having similar brightnesses and colors. This week,
the planet plows through the head of the celestial Scorpion,
passing only 0.2 degrees north of second magnitude Dschubba (Delta
Scorpii) on Monday the 6th. The presence of so many bright stars
makes the rapid easterly motion of the planet (now about 0.6
degrees per day) very evident.
While examining Scorpius, look up to a set of dim but historically
important constellations. Directly above Scorpius lies huge
Ophiuchus, appearing as a large mis-shapen pentagon. Wrapped with
Serpens, the Serpent, Ophiuchus represents the ancient healer
Asclepius, the figure the source of the physician's symbol. Above
Ophiuchus is Hercules the famed Hero of ancient times and on top of
that to the north is Draco the Dragon, which lies between Hercules
and the Little Dipper.
