Bob Drieslein

This year the Autumn Equinox, also known as the first day of the fall season, occurs on Sunday, Sept. 22. The question arises, what’s so special about this date and how is it determined?

Astronomers tell us that the planet Saturn will be at “opposition” on Sept. 8, 2024. So why is this significant to myself and other stargazers?

The genus “Cygnus” in the wildlife world includes two species of native birds found in the United States. Most of us are familiar with tundra and trumpeter swans, but did you know that another “Cygnus” is found in our night sky, thanks to the ancient Greeks?

The dazzling variety of new and improved camera equipment available to amateur astronomers is making astrophotography one of America’s fastest-growing hobbies. With just a digital camera or a small telescope with a smart phone attachment, you can snap pictures today that were once only in the realm of professional photographers.

If you have a good imagination and are willing to stay up late some nights during July or August until the skies get good and dark, you may find a “teapot” above the southeastern horizon. This familiar-shaped object is part of a group of stars that make up the constellation Sagittarius.
Sagittarius means “archer” in Latin. This is what the ancient astronomers saw when they viewed this group of 20 or so stars.

It’s almost summer, and you’ll have to stay up later now for skies to darken enough to see these celestial features, but trust me, it’ll be worth it!
If you follow the arc from the handle of the Big Dipper, you come to a bright star, Arcturus, by far the most prominent feature in the constellation Bootes, the “herdsman” according to Greek mythology.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) and other early Greek astronomers thought that the Earth was stationary and at the center of the universe with the Sun and other planets rotating around it. Historians tell us that this so-called “geocentric” or earth-centered view of the universe was accepted as fact for over 1,500 years!

We can only wonder if Mars’ menacing, red color may have prompted the ancient Greeks to name it after their God of War. Actually, scientists tell us that the planet’s red color is due to the presence of iron oxide, silicon, and sulfur in its dusty surface layers.