{"id":9631,"date":"2012-06-14T13:52:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T18:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=9631"},"modified":"2012-06-14T13:54:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T18:54:34","slug":"scorpio-and-antares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2012\/06\/scorpio-and-antares\/","title":{"rendered":"Scorpio and Antares"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Unfortunately we were not able to see or photograph the Venus Transit here in SW Florida due to cloudy weather\u2026\u00a0 During our Summer months the weather becomes unpredictable for star gazing.\u00a0 We have increased clouds and humidity – and we have the mosquitos.\u00a0 Still, there is allot to see overhead if you get to go out when it is clear.\u00a0 If you go out when it is later in the evening, you\u2019ll find the bugs tend to be not as bad as earlier on.\u00a0\u00a0 The sky also improves for star gazing.\u00a0\u00a0 Later in the evening being after midnight.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve included a star chart Link<\/a> for June.\u00a0 Early in the month, Scorpio is coming up by sunset and by 10pm, is visible in the East.\u00a0 Scorpio is a distinctive constellation, looking like its namesake or, as New Zealanders called their North island,\u00a0 Te-Ika-a-Maui, meaning The Fish of Maui.\u00a0 Maui was the chief of the gods, and using a fish jawbone as a fish\u00a0 hook he pulled the island of New Zealand up from the underworld. Having created the islands in this way, Maui then tossed his fish hook up into the sky where it now makes up the outline of\u00a0 a Fish hook.\u00a0 Knowing this constellation, it seems to me more of a fish hook than a Scorpion.<\/p>\n

In the heart of Scorpio is a red\u00a0 supergiant star called Antares.\u00a0 Antares appears visually to be red.\u00a0 It rises at 7:41pm, and is overhead by midnight.\u00a0 Antares is the 16th brightest star in the sky and one of the navigational stars (before GPS.)\u00a0 It takes its name from the red color, its Greek name meaning \u201cRival of Mars\u201d\u00a0 Mars being the Roman god of war, the Romans called it Cor Scorpionis meaning the Heart of the Scorpion.<\/p>\n

When you gaze at Antares, consider that if it were placed at our suns location, it would swallow all of the planets from Mercury to Mars so it\u2019s quite large.\u00a0 Distance wise, its 550 Ly meaning as you are looking at it, you are seeing it as it was 550 years ago!\u00a0 This is what Carl Sagan called \u201cLook back\u201d time.\u00a0 You are seeing things in the sky not as they are, but as they were.<\/p>\n

If you look around Antares with your binoculars, you might spot a small cluster of tightly packed stars.\u00a0 This is M4 which is one of the closest and brightest globular (owing to its roundness)\u00a0 clusters in the night sky.\u00a0 It was discovered in 1746 and was included in Lacaille\u2019s catalog.\u00a0 M4 is one of the easiest globular clusters to find and I hope you will take a shot at looking for it from a dark sky.\u00a0\u00a0 Pan around Scorpio with your binoculars once Scorpio gets up higher.\u00a0 The sky is changing on us for Summer and we\u2019re getting a look at a different part of our galaxy as the Summer wears on.\u00a0 The Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way.\u00a0\u00a0 More on that later.\u00a0 If you have questions about the night sky, observing, etc.. drop me a note at Linda@AstronomyGal.com\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Get outside and observe the sky with your family, it\u2019s a great pasttime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately we were not able to see or photograph the Venus Transit here in SW Florida due to cloudy weather\u2026\u00a0 During our Summer months the weather becomes unpredictable for star… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}