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| This web site is a joint venture of the
Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium and
Vermont Public Radio with support from the Partnership
for a Nation of Learners, a Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Institute of Museum and Library
Services leadership initiative. |
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July Skies 2009
As the twilight fades around 10 o’clock, the southern skies feature the Scorpion, its “heart” marked by the red star Antares, with claws stretching to the west, and its tail right along the horizon. Rising higher in the east are three bright stars forming the Summer Triangle, seen overhead by midnight. Rising with them is the Milky Way, arched from the Scorpion in the south, to the Queen, Cassiopeia in the north, while the Big Dipper settles slowly into the northwest. Saturn is slipping lower into the west, while Jupiter rises before midnight in the east. Early mornings feature Venus and Mars, Venus much brighter, while Mars slowly climbs higher and away from Venus.
2 – The waxing Gibbous Moon slides past the red star Antares over the next few nights. Tonight it will be well to the right of Antares, low reddish beacon due south at 10:30 PM EDT. Friday night the Moon will be just to the right of the star, and Saturday evening finds it to the left.
3 – The Dog Days of summer begin today. The term goes back to Roman times, and doesn’t concern the family pet, but the celestial “dog” in the skies. The Dog Days come when the Sun is closest to the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, knick-named the “Dog Star”. We see this star in the winter as the nose of the Great Dog, companion to Orion.
4 – The Earth reaches aphelion today – its greatest distance from the Sun – at 94,513,144 miles. Yes, it might be “as hot as the 4th of July”, but it is our tilted axis, angled toward the Sun in summer, and not our distance, that gives us longer days and more direct sunlight.
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