STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Monday 9/26/2005 through Sunday 10/2/2005
"The Moon Visits The Goddess Of Love
And The Rival Of Mars (Antares)
Plus Mars Becomes Master Of The Eastern Sky"
[
link to www.jackstargazer.com]
Mars and Antares (or īrival of Marsī)
Photo by Steve Luzader
[
link to antoine.frostburg.edu]
Mars and Antares, taken the same night as the picture of Mars and M19 above. This piggyback photo was a 3 minute exposure with a 50 mm lens at f/2. The globular cluster M4 is visible to the west of Antares, below Sigma Scorpii. M19 is barely visible above Mars. The color of this image was adjusted in Paint Shop Pro because the southern sky is tinted strongly green by a street light that pollutes the southern sky as seen from our home in Frostburg.
[
link to antoine.frostburg.edu]
[
link to www.kidsastronomy.com]
[
link to www.spectral-design.net]
Antares (or īrival of Marsī) is a huge star 600 light years away, shining in visible light with 12000 times the power output of our own sun. But Antares is also so much cooler than the sun (hence the red colour) that most of its energy output is in the infrared, and its total power output is 40 000 times that of the sun. If Antares were suddenly placed at the centre of our solar system, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars and the asteroid belt would be inside this monster star, whose surface would be 4/5 of the way from the centre to the orbit of Jupiter. Gravity at the surface of Antares is so weak that it is losing mass fast enough to create a visible nebula or gas cloud around it, lit by Antares hot companion star. One of these first million years or so, Antares may explode as a supernova - so keep your eyes on the Scorpion if youīre the patient sort.
Just NE of Scorpio in the Milky Way are the stars of Sagittarius the Archer, making a pattern a bit like a teapot. Itīs in this constellation that the centre of our galaxy is located, but you canīt actually see the centre directly because of the thick dust clouds in between. Only one in a billion photons of light from the Galactic Centre can get through, and infrared cameras are needed to show whatīs there. High in the NE, toward the edge of the Milky Way, is the bright star Altair in Aquila the Eagle. Altair is easy to recognise because of the dimmer stars more or less equally spaced on each side.
[
link to www.saao.ac.za]
[
link to www.saao.ac.za]
Viewing the Sky in October 2005
Sky Calendar -- 17 -- Venus near Antares at 2h UT (evening sky). Venus mag. -4.3, Antares mag. +1.0.
[
link to www.infoplease.com]
