Fomalhaut reigns in solitary splendor on the southern horizon in the company of five fainter stars making up the constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish. However, as it turns out, Fomalhaut is not quite as alone as first thought. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
The European Space Agency’s Venus Express, in orbit about Venus, is trying to determine whether Earth is habitable. While this may seem like a pointless exercise, there is a serious purpose behind the effort. To the Venus Express, Earth looks like a single dot of… Read More
On Sept. 5, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta deep-space probe flew past an asteroid located in the asteroid belt orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. The probe passed within 500 miles of the asteroid that is located 250 million miles from Earth. Images will be sent… Read More
Not long after the Phoenix landed on Mars, it found indirect evidence for the existence of water. A few small pellets found in a trench dug by Phoenix’s robotic arm vanished two days after they were exposed, leading researchers to believe they were ice that vaporized in the… Read More
J.B.S. Haldane once said, “The universe is not only queerer than we imagine, it is queerer than we can imagine.” A few recent discoveries of astronomical record setters certainly bear this out. The farthest galaxy in the universe is 13 billion light-years distant and formed… Read More
The $420 million Phoenix spacecraft touched down on the Martian surface May 26 and inadvertently began to pay dividends at once. Its thrusters had blown away a thin layer of topsoil and revealed a patch of white shiny material directly beneath the craft. Was it… Read More
On Jan. 9, astronomers were able to witness something never before seen, a supernova at the instant of birth. Supernovae form when dying giant stars collapse upon themselves, building up unimaginable heat and pressure. They collapse to a neutron star and then explode in a titanic release of… Read More
On Jan. 14, 2008, the Messenger spacecraft made a close fly-by of the planet Mercury, the first since Mariner 10 made a similar pass in 1974. Messenger is sending back many close-ups of the planet, showing features that astronomers never knew existed. But if two… Read More
On March 19, the explosion of a star located nearly halfway across the universe was observed by a NASA satellite that spotted its burst of gamma rays. What made the star unique was that the visible light from it was so bright that it could… Read More
An astronomical “age” is defined by the constellation in which the vernal equinox takes place. The sun is in Pisces so this is the “Age of Pisces.” Because of precession, the vernal equinox does not always take place in the same constellation or house of… Read More
On the night of Feb. 20-21, residents of Maine will be treated to their first total lunar eclipse in nearly three years. These occur only at a full moon when the Earth passes between the sun and moon and the latter passes through the Earth’s shadow. For this… Read More
When the Apollo 11 spacecraft lifted from the moon in July 1969, it left behind a plaque that read in part “We came in peace for all mankind.” This sentiment has become part of space folklore but what is all but unknown is that another… Read More
On Oct. 24, an inconspicuous comet visible only through a powerful telescope startled sky watchers by brightening by a factor of more than 1 million times to become easily visible to the unaided eye. Comet Holmes was first spotted in 1892 when it underwent a similar, though much… Read More
Vega, Deneb and Altair are the stars that make up the asterism known as the Summer Triangle. Two of these stars, Deneb and Vega, have another distinction in that they are, or will be, the pole star. Today we all know the pole star is… Read More
Fifty years ago, on Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik 1 weighed 183 pounds and looked like a shiny basketball with four antennae ranging in size from 7.9 to 9.5 feet in length. It circled the Earth every… Read More
A piece in this month’s issue of Astronomy magazine reports that this is a prime time to observe the “zodiacal light” or “false dawn.” This is a hazy band of light that stretches across the sky along the ecliptic and is best seen just before sunrise or after… Read More
Tens of thousands of “near-Earth objects,” or NEOs, are constantly passing near or through Earth’s orbit and have the potential to collide with our planet. Only a few of these are large enough to cause the global devastation that wiped out the dinosaurs, and none is known to… Read More
The first recorded supernova, the titanic explosion that accompanies the death throes of certain large stars, was recorded by the Chinese in the year A.D. 185. Now referred to as SN185, the Chinese reported it took eight months to fade from the daytime sky. googletag.cmd.push(function… Read More
Did two full moons occur in May as some calendars list or will they occur in June as others maintain? Surely there can’t be a question as to which month houses two full moons? Well, yes, there can depending upon where in the world you are and what… Read More
The April 25 edition of the Bangor Daily News carried a piece about astronomers detecting an earthlike planet around a nearby star. This is “nearby” only in astronomical terms for the star, Gliese 581, is 20 light-years or 120 trillion miles from Earth. And to… Read More
It was retrieved by divers off a Greek island in 1900 and remained a mystery until 2006, when a team of researchers at Cardiff University in Wales used three-dimensional tomography to unlock its secrets. What they learned astounded everyone. The Antikythera mechanism was built by… Read More
The brightest star in the evening sky is Sirius, which translates as “the scorching one.” Because it appears in the constellation Canis Major, the Big Dog, Sirius is commonly known as the “Dog Star.” The Egyptians had a deep reverence for Sirius for its “heliacal”… Read More
According to Guy Ottewell in his Astronomical Calendar 2007, late February on clear moonless nights is the best time to look for the zodiacal light and gegenschein. Zodiacal light is a diffuse band of light visible along the eastern horizon before sunrise or the western horizon after sunset. Read More
The year 2007 marks the end of a three-year period of “superhigh” moons that began in 2005. Depending upon the relationship between the moon’s orbit and the sun’s apparent orbit about Earth, the moon can follow a track that is higher, lower, or about the same as that… Read More
The Mars Global Surveyor is lost after having operated for over a decade, sending 240,000 images back to Earth, and, says Mike Meyer, NASA’s lead scientist for Mars exploration, having greatly exceeded all expectations. The MGS has experienced a broken stabilizer wing, failed gyroscope, and a worn-out gear… Read More
In his book on the Leonid meteor showers, “The Heavens on Fire,” Mark Littmann writes that the Leonid meteor storm of 1833 was so intense, estimated from records to be in excess of 72,000 an hour, that terrified viewers thought the world was coming to an end. Some… Read More
In a bizarre twist of events, Pluto, which recently lost its status as a planet, has been downgraded to No. 134340 in the asteroid belt by the Minor Planet Center while the object, called 2003 UB313, which led to Pluto’s planetary demise, has been given the name Eris… Read More
It is common for major league baseball players to be sent to the minors, but Pluto’s recent demotion from planetary status is only the second time such an event has occurred. When Ceres was discovered in 1801 between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, it was first classified… Read More
In November 2005 the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Venus Express on a three-year mission to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus, our sister planet. Venus is closest to Earth in size and mass of all the planets. It lies about three-quarters of… Read More
The Earth is at aphelion, its greatest distance from the Sun, on July 3rd. It will be slightly over 3 million miles farther from the Sun than it is on its closest approach on Jan. 4 this year. It may surprise some that it is… Read More
Ever wonder what makes the sun so hot and bright, or if it will ever burn out? In the past, some believed that the sun was a ball of hot metal, a gigantic chunk of burning coal, or that it was heated by gravitational contraction as it shrunk. Read More
What do astronomers mean when they say they can look back into time? The further a star is from Earth, the longer it takes for light from it to reach us. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. In a year it travels a ‘light-year,’ which is approximately… Read More
What is an asteroid? Is one likely to strike the Earth? Asteroids are solar system debris ranging in size from Ceres, nearly 580 miles in diameter, down to grains of sand. The asteroid belt is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and several hundred thousand are… Read More
This month the Sun enters the astronomical sign of Pisces on the 12th and, on the 20th, the astrological sign of Aries. More than once I’ve been asked the question: How can the Sun be in two places at once? The answer is that Pisces is where it… Read More
Why are stars different colors? At a casual glance they may all appear to be a uniform sparkling white but astronomers classify them differently. If you look at the constellation of Orion that dominates the night sky in February, Betelgeuse in the giant’s shoulder is classified as a… Read More
For the next year we will look at questions readers often ask about the universe. One of the most frequent is: What are the closest and most distant objects from Earth outside the solar system? The closest star to our own sun is Proxima Centauri… Read More
Sacred monuments For more than 1,500 years, countless Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples labored to build the mysterious stone structure known as Stonehenge. Why? What was its purpose? Legend once tied the structure to the Druids, but it was built far earlier than their era… Read More
Sacred monuments Stonehenge is a concentric ring of circles encompassing far more than the main ring everyone pictures when the name is mentioned. Given the builders’ level of technological sophistication, it should be listed as one of the great engineering feats of ancient times. The… Read More
For the past nine months, Maine Skies has been looking at monuments erected by the ancients to track significant astronomical events to which they attached religious connotations. None of these edifices has inspired more awe down through the ages than Stonehenge. It is fitting to end this topic… Read More
Sacred monuments Near the Nile River lies a temple complex called Karnak in what was once ancient Thebes and is now modern Luxor. The great Temple of Amun or Amen-Ra was a principal focus of Egyptian religious activity for millennia but what makes Karnak of… Read More
Sacred monuments In the Mayan city of Uxmal in Mexico are the ruins of an observatory dating to about A.D. 600. It was used to plot the synodic period of Venus, the time between two appearances of the planet at the exact same point in… Read More
NASA is planning a few fireworks of its own for July fourth. Early in the morning a probe named Deep Impact will smash into Comet Temple 1 at a speed of 23,000 miles per hour. The impact, equivalent to about 5 tons of TNT, is expected to carve… Read More
Near the village of Penrith in Cumbria stands Long Meg and her Daughters, the third largest stone circle in England. It is actually an ellipse measuring 300 feet by 360 feet, originally having about 70 stones, of which 27 remain standing. The ring represents the… Read More
Sacred monuments Innumerable medieval Christian sites were constructed to include both religious and astronomically significant events. Many churches were aligned in an east-west direction with the altar in the east and facing west into the rising sun, the direction from which it was commonly believed… Read More
Sacred monuments Near the great temple of Dendera in Egypt stands a smaller temple dedicated to the goddess Isis that was constructed around 700 B.C. Archeoastronomer Sir Norman Lockyer discovered during the 1890s that the axis of the smaller structure was oriented to coincide with… Read More
Sacred monuments Near the town of Oldcastle, Ireland, a series of stone cairns, dating to around 3500 B.C., lay scattered over three hills known as the Loughcrew complex. The largest of these, Cairn T, is 120 feet in diameter, rises 900 feet above sea level… Read More
Sacred monuments The “hippie” revolution of the 1960s may have been predated by some 6,000 years if researchers’ suspicions about the chambered mound called Gavrinis are correct. The mound, more than 26 feet high, is located on a small island off France’s Brittany coast and… Read More
On Jan. 14, the Huygens space probe is scheduled to land on Titan, a moon of Saturn. The Huygens probe is aboard the U.S. spacecraft Cassini, which was launched on Oct. 15, 1997. After a journey of more than six years, it went into orbit around Saturn on… Read More
The feature on Sacred Monuments will be shelved this month to report on an extremely rare planetary occurrence reported by Roger Sinnot in this month’s issue of Sky & Telescope. For three days, beginning on the 10th and ending on the 13th, all of the planets, Mercury through… Read More
Sacred monuments On a barren, windswept plain on the largest of the Orkney Islands looms a mound that is 24 feet high and 115 feet in diameter. It houses a tomb whose main feature is a 36-foot passageway that leads to an inner chamber with… Read More
Sacred monuments In the desert of southern Arizona stands a mysterious four-story building built by the Hohokam people. The Hohokam, “those who have gone,” arrived in the region about 300 B.C. and disappeared with almost no trace around A.D. 1400. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
Sacred Monuments On a French peninsula jutting into the Bay of Quiberon lies a massive enigma. It is a menhir, or “long stone,” that now lies on its side shattered into four pieces. When upright, it stood more than 66 feet high and weighed in… Read More
Sacred monuments The moon exhibits seasonal positioning to the sun as does the Earth. In midsummer, the moon rises in the southeast and sets in the southwest while riding low in the sky. In midwinter, it rises in the northeast and passes high overhead to… Read More
Sacred monuments One of the earliest astronomical measurements made was the length of the year. A shaft called a gnomon was set in the ground perpendicular to the horizon and the length of the shadow cast measured at the same time each day. The sun’s… Read More
Sacred monuments Many structures around the world have been built to mark the solstices and equinoxes. One is found in the Chaco Canyon of Arizona, which was populated by the Anasazi people, the “ancient ones,” more than a millennium ago. On June 29, 1977, artist… Read More
Sacred monuments Near Keswick, in England’s Lake District, stand two stone circles dating to about 2000 B.C. A smaller circle consists of 10 stones and is surrounded by another circle of 28 stones. All but five still stand. The structure, called Castlerigg, has been shown… Read More
Sacred monuments Japan is dotted with dozens of keyhole-shaped burial mounds called “kofuns” that were constructed between AD 300 and AD 700. One of the most famous is the Hashihaka kofun, located in the heart of the country very near the sacred mountain Miwayama. The… Read More
Sacred monuments The Great Pyramid of the pharaoh Khufu or Cheops is truly one of the wonders of the ancient world. It has a square base of 756 feet on a side, is 481 feet high, and covers 13 acres. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote… Read More
Sacred monuments About 20 miles east of St. Louis, Mo., is the site of Cahokia, a pre-Columbian settlement that once housed around 25,000 residents. All that remains today is a number of manmade mounds, the largest of which is Monk’s Mound, named after a French… Read More
Sacred monuments In coming months this segment of Maine Skies will be devoted to structures built by the ancients to mark the passage of celestial events important to their cultures. These creations were often of religious significance. I hope they will fill you with the… Read More
Moon myths and legends The full moon of December is higher in the sky and remains in view for more hours than any other full moon during the year. Not surprisingly the most common name for this moon is The Long Night Moon. It also… Read More
Moon names and myths The full moon of November is commonly known as the Beaver Moon, or the Frost Moon. The former is attributed to the Algonquins and the latter to Colonial Americans. Other American Indian names include the Trader’s Moon (Cherokee), Geese Going Moon… Read More
Moon Myths & Fables This year, the full moon nearest the fall equinox fell on Sept. 10, making it the Harvest Moon. The full moon of October becomes the Hunter’s Moon or Blood Moon, the names given the full moon following the Harvest Moon. The… Read More
Moon myths and fables This year, September’s full moon is the closest to the fall equinox, making it, by tradition, the “Harvest Moon.” When it occurs a bit later, in October, this full moon becomes the “Corn Moon.” Other names used, when September’s full moon… Read More
Moon myths and fables The Ottawa nation called August’s full moon the Sturgeon Moon since it was a time of plentiful fishing around the Great Lakes. It is also known as the Red Moon because of its color coming up through the thick, hazy atmosphere… Read More
The most common names for July’s full moon are the Thunder Moon and Hay Moon. Another is the Moon of Blood, said to have originated with the Okanagon who lived around the Columbia River, where mosquitoes are particularly voracious! Several American Indian tribes referred to… Read More
Moon myths and names The full moon of June is called the Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon, Honey Moon or Rose Moon. American Indian tribes called it the Strawberry Moon (Algonquin, Seneca, Ojibwe), Corn Planting Moon (Hopi), Green Corn Moon (Cherokee) and Full Leaf Moon (Cree). Read More
Moon names and legends The full moon of May is known as the planting moon, corn planting moon, and milk moon. Some references also call it the flower moon, although other sources reserve this name for the June full moon. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
Moon names and legends The full moon of April is called the Grass Moon, Egg Moon or Pink Moon. The last name comes from the herb moss pink or wild ground phlox that, in colonial times, was one of the widespread flowers blooming in the… Read More
The full moon of March is known variously as the Sap Moon, Crow Moon or Lenten Moon. Another name is the Full Crust Moon because the snow becomes hard enough to walk on from thawing during the day and freezing at night. A name attributed to the Patamints… Read More
Most references refer to the full moon of February as the Snow Moon, Hunger Moon or Wolf Moon. It was known as the Hunger Moon by the Passamaquoddy Tribe as it was a time when supplies were running low and it was hard to hunt or fish during… Read More
Each month, I list the names of the full moon derived from several sources, mostly old English, but have never specifically used some of those given by American Indians. I will attempt to rectify this omission during 2003. My sources include Lillian Budd’s “Full Moons: Indian Legends of… Read More
December, the twelfth month, is named after ‘decem’ the Latin word for tenth. In case you’re wondering how this apparent discrepancy came about, the Roman calendar, whose names for months was carried over to our own, started in March. Focus on the planets googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
November, the eleventh month, is named after the Latin word “novem” for ninth. Remember that the pre-Julian Roman calendar started its year with what is today March, which would have made November the ninth month. Focus on the planets googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
October, the 10th month, is named after ‘octo,’ the Latin word for eight. Remember, the ancient Roman calendar started in March until Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar in 1582, establishing January as the first month of the year. Focus on the planets googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
September, the ninth month, is named after the Latin word septem, meaning seven. In case you might think the Romans couldn’t count, their calendar used to start in March and contained only 10 months. In 45 B.C., Julius Caesar reorganized the calendar so that the year started on… Read More
August, the eighth month, was named in honor of Augustus Caesar, emperor of the Roman Empire from about 30 B.C. to A.D. 14. Focus on the planets googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for… Read More
July, the seventh month, was named for Julius Caesar, who besides being emperor of Rome and conqueror of most of the known world, reorganized the calendar in 45 B.C. The Julian calendar was created to clear up confusion caused by the fact that the Etruscan calendar, then in… Read More
June, the sixth month, may derive its name from the Latin word ‘juventis,” which means youth, but it’s more probable that it was named for Juno, the Roman goddess of the moon. She was particularly venerated by women, who associated her with marriage and childbirth. One legend has… Read More
The month of May is named for Maia, the Roman goddess of the fields and plants. Maia was said to be the daughter of Atlas, whose seven daughters are represented by the Pleiades, and the mother of Mercury. In medieval times, people went “a-Maying” on the first day… Read More
April, the fourth month, is named from the Latin word “aperire,” which means to open, as in a flower bud. The poet Thomas Stearns Eliot called April “the cruelest month” because it holds out the promise of summer while last year’s dead vegetation lies sodden underfoot drenched in… Read More
March, the third month, is named for Mars, the Roman god of agriculture. This may surprise many readers who associate him with the martial arts, but he was first worshipped as the protector of those who worked the fields in dangerous times so he eventually became famed as… Read More
February, the second month, is named for Februus, the Roman god of purification. It marked a period for making sacrifices to atone for crimes or sins and making amends to any you have wronged. Focus on the planets googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes… Read More
January is named for Janus, the two-faced Roman god who could see both the past and the future. Ovid wrote that Janus was the keeper of the gates of heaven and the custodian of the universe – all in all, an appropriate choice to start a new year… Read More
Focus on the planets Mercury will be hidden in the sun until the last few nights of the month, when it briefly appears at twilight for a good showing during the first half of January. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]];… Read More
Focus on the planets Mercury is low on the east-southeast horizon about a half-hour before sunrise as November opens. Look for the innermost planet to drop from view shortly after the fifth of the month. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]];… Read More
Focus on the planets Mercury aficionados are in for a treat during October. Starting Oct. 27 and lasting for 11 days, Mercury and Venus will be within one degree of each other on the predawn eastern horizon. This rare sight is well worth getting up… Read More
Focus on the planets Mercury is found low on the western horizon about a half-hour after sunset and sets about an hour later. The bright star very near, and to the upper left of Mercury is Spica. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes… Read More
Focus on the planets Mercury is at superior conjunction, meaning that it is behind the sun for Earth viewers, during August. Mercury will reappear low in the evening sky next month. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = [];… Read More
Venus is the second planet out from the sun, being not quite three-quarters as far from the sun, as Earth. The size and mass of Venus is not greatly different from Earth, but there the similarities end. It has a year of about 225 Earth days but its… Read More
Mercury makes a brief appearance low on the pre-dawn eastern horizon at month’s end but will likely prove too dim to see in the brightening sky. Venus rises well before sunrise on the eastern horizon as June opens. Make an effort to look for Venus… Read More
Focus on the planets Mercury is at its best and brightest for the entire year during the early part of May. Starting May 1, watch the innermost planet as it climbs on the west-northwest horizon in company with Saturn and Jupiter. googletag.cmd.push(function () { //… Read More
Focus on the planets Mercury appears just above the eastern horizon before sinking into dawn’s glow during the first week of April. It will reappear low in the western evening sky as the month comes to an end. Venus is in the east at dawn. Read More
A reader wrote, after last month’s landing of the NEAR spacecraft on the asteroid Eros, asking for more information on these wanderers of the solar system. Asteroids are the rocky debris left over from the formation of the solar system and orbit mainly between Mars and Jupiter. Read More
Focus on the planets Mercury makes a brief appearance on the west-southwest horizon as February opens but drops from sight by week’s end. Look for the innermost planet very low on the horizon for an hour after sunset. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var… Read More