Welcome to the first in a series of articles that will cover everything in the universe! We’ll cover everything from “what’s up” in the skies over Manitoba, to the latest in astronomical research, to some of the “big questions” at the frontier of science: Are we alone in the Universe? Are there other planets like ours? Where did everything come from?
To quote Douglas Adams, “The universe is big. Really big.” This point is key to any discussion of astronomy and can be intimidating when we confront the cosmic. It’s the reason most of us block out the universe and cocoon ourselves in our own private world, blocking out the big picture in favour of the minutia of our daily lives. Granted our personal lives have great meaning on the individual scale, but it can be very liberating to draw back the curtain and look beyond, to glimpse the rest of our universe and our place within it.
One of the great things about astronomy is that it is a very accessible entry point into science. There is something visceral in our response to the beauty of the tapestry of night that everyone can relate to. Few are not moved by the beauty of a really dark night sky, and few do not respond with delight to their first view through a decent telescope. You can be a casual star gazer, an amateur astronomer, a “naturalist of the night” as author Terence Dickinson puts it, and enjoy the sky on your own terms. I know of nothing more humbling, more awe-inspiring or more inviting than a clear, dark sky. Let’s take a look and see what we can find outside our own private universes.
The month of October is arguably the best for Manitoban skywatchers. The weather is cool, the nights are often clear and the dreaded provincial bird of Manitoba — the mosquito — is usually gone for another season.
This week the evening sky is dominated by the giant planet Jupiter. Jupiter is the brilliant white “star” over in the east after sunset — you can’t miss it if the sky is clear. Jupiter currently ranks number one on my list of “lights in the sky people report as UFOs” here at the planetarium. Jupiter appears as a small dot to your unaided eye, but of course that’s due to its distance. The giant planet is just a shade less than 600,000,000 km away from Earth. This is actually the closest as Jupiter’s been to Earth in several decades, due to the variations in orbital mechanics.
If you can get your hands on some optical aid, Jupiter is a great world to discover. An ordinary household pair of binoculars will show you a better view than Galileo had the first time he pointed his telescope at the sky 400 years ago. Binoculars show that the planet is not just a point of light, but has some size to it, and will also reveal several tiny starlets lined up with the planet. These tiny dots are Jupiter’s largest moons; you can usually see three or four of them on any given night, and they change position nightly as they orbit the planet.
A view through a telescope can be mind-blowing — it starts to show details on the face of the planet that look just like the pictures you’ve seen. Jupiter’s visible face is crisscrossed by brown and reddish stripes that are bands of cloud in the planet’s thick atmosphere. Depending on the telescope and how practiced your telescope-eye is, you can also make out the Great Red Spot or other storms in the clouds. Sometimes one or more of the moons crosses in front of the planet and casts its inky shadow on the clouds. Through a telescope, Jupiter is a dynamic world, changing from night to night and year to year.
If you don’t have your own telescope, don’t despair — you can still see Jupiter. The planetarium, Oak Hammock Marsh and the local chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada all host public telescope events around the city. Check their web pages for details.
Besides Jupiter, this week we also have the thin crescent moon reappearing in the evening sky after the new moon on Oct. 7. During the first few days of the lunar cycle, the thin crescent of the moon seems to cradle the darker full moon — a phenomenon called earthshine. The nighttime side of the moon is being dimly lit by sunlight that has reflected off of the Earth and back to the moon. The “old moon in the new moon’s arms” hanging in the colourful sunset is a beautiful sight and great photo-op — one of astronomy’s simplest and most pleasing observations.
Coming next week, the fall edition of Astronomy Day is upon us, and we gear up for the Hunter’s Moon.
Clear Skies!
