A lOT has happened since my last article. The mysterious light in the west has climbed higher into the evening sky and is plainly visible now as planet Venus, just a tad smaller than Earth.
At the time I write this it is at 1.308 astronomical units (Earth-Sun distance) as it catches us up and appears to grow in size. But its brightness is countered by the fact the closer it comes, the less of its disc is illuminated. This is because, from our view, more of its dark side will be facing us in the months to come.
The prominent constellation Scorpius has progressed across the sky noticeably by now and is descending to the west. Saturn (now 10.616 AU) has moved relative to the giant star Antares.
Much of this is due to the perspective of Saturn against the background stars as a result of our orbital movement around our star, the Sun. One year (orbit) for Saturn is 29 years for Earth.
Mars, now 1.137 AU, has appeared to have really put on the pace, due to our close pass to it in May.
It has moved right away from Scorpius and is now moving through Sagittarius, which is the central region of our galaxy. The current moon passed close to Mars too, but was unseen due to the persistent clouds we have endured of late. To the south, the familiar Southern Cross is continuing to sweep low in its circle of the south celestial pole, while to the south east, Achernar, the star virtually opposite the cross, climbs in its circle also.
Below, the giant star Canopus has since reappeared and is a prominent object as well, being off the plane of our Milky Way. The large and small Magellanic Clouds are also gaining height in this region as they circle the south celestial pole in a tighter radius.
Of interest here, visible with good eyesight near the Small Magellanic Cloud, is the globular cluster, 47 Tucanae (pictured above-right courtesy www.spacetelescope.org) looking like a fuzzy star. This is comprised of millions of older stars that appear in a tight ball, about 120 light years across and 16,700 light years distant.
For a comparison, the outer pointer to the Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri, our nearest visible star, is about four-and-a-quarter light years distant. One light year = 9,460,528,400,000 kilometres.
By Norm Izett