Page 29 - Town Crier November 2016 Rev C

ISSUE NUMBER 161 NOVEMBER 2016
THE TOWN CRIER

509 E BY-PASS 123 Watching the Night Skys
SENECA, SC 29678 By Edwin Evans, MD
864-882-0223
If you are a beginner at ob-

serving the night sky, you will
quickly learn that winter presents
 ON SITE GUN SMITH many more opportunities than sum-
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 UPSTATES LARGEST SONIC GUN CLEANING TANK longer, of course, but the sky is more
 DURA COAT & HYDROGRAPHIC “stable” because there is less heat in the atmosphere. Heat is what
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and it makes observing with binoculars downright frustrating.
This month there are excellent binocular targets, one for
mornings and one for evenings. Venus absolutely dominates the
evening sky in the West, where each night it seems a little higher in
the sky as it slowly moves eastward. With your binoculars you can
easily see that Venus is a disk in a shape called “gibbous”. This is
Remington 770 Sporter * Any Caliber * Online Sale the appearance of the Moon when it is changing from full to its
third quarter appearance (exactly what is happening on November
mornings this year). If you watch Venus all month, you will easily
tell it is getting thinner (just like the Moon). The first week of No-
vember, if you look to the West after sunset you will also see Sat-
urn very close to the horizon. Unlike Venus, Saturn will be moving
westward and by mid-month it will be very difficult to see between
the time of sunset and when the planet “sets”. Again, be certain
you NEVER look at the Sun with your binoculars!
In the mornings, look to the East-Southeast and Jupiter
$699.27 $515.00 will be the brightest object in that half of the sky. [The much
brighter moon will be more westerly]. As always with Jupiter, try
to spot the four large moons which Galileo discovered. In order of
increasing distance from the planet, they are Io, Europa, Ganymede
and Callisto. Try your luck at following them every clear morning,
and note when one or more of the moons pass in front of or behind
the planet. All the moons you see will always be in a straight line,
- New Boat Sales and the plane of their orbit around Jupiter is exactly in our line of
sight from Earth. This means you are watching eclipses from our
-Consignment Boat Sales perspective! Two interesting mornings would be the 7 , when they
th
th
- RV & Boat Storage are all four seen to the left (East) of the disc of Jupiter, and the 30
-Engine Sales/ Service when they are all to the right (West).
Finally, there is also a minor meteor shower this month,

best viewed on the morning of the 17 of November. Unfortu-
th
Gordon’s Marine Service, Inc. nately, the moon will be pretty bright that morning and it may be
hard to spot the meteors. As we discussed in August, meteor show-
ers are best observed with the naked eye, leaned back in a comfy
1057 Lightwood Road chair and watching the whole sky. Face the South for this one,
PO Box 387 since the meteors will appear to be coming from the constellation
Hartwell, Georgia 30643 Leo in that direction. There are also, every October and November,
some meteors which arise from the constellation Taurus. It’s a
706-376-3355 great month to enjoy the cooler temperatures and steadier skies
with your favorite person, talking philosophy or religion or politics
(or nothing at all) and having the surprise of a fireball streaking
Pontoon
across the sky. It never gets old! If you do get bored from a lack
Boat Rentals of meteors, just pick up your binoculars again to enjoy Jupiter and
the Moon!

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