Invariably, it’s too cloudy or rainy here for me to see any of this stuff. But I can hope, can’t I?
Saturn and the bright star Spica have been making a pretty pair in our evening skies recently. This week they will be joined by the waxing gibbous moon, making a perfect threesome.
Next Monday evening, June 17, the moon will be nine days old and just to the right of Spica. On Tuesday evening, it will have moved to a position between the two, as shown in the graphic above. By Wednesday night (June 19) it will be off to Saturn’s left, 11 days old.
Star gazing is like naval gazing. “What was once called the objective world is a sort of Rorschach ink blot, into which each culture, each type of personality, reads a meaning only remotely derived from the shape and color of the blot itself.” Lewis Mumford.
Last summer, the skies were clearer and there were gorgeous gatherings of planets and stars in the early evening western sky. I remember commenting to a friend…who now, from a bad stroke, can barely make out the stars. Enjoy them while you can….
Also:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=oceans-melt-antarcticas-ice-from-below
When over at Scientific American, readers might want to read about how warm ocean currents are melting Antartic ice from below.
(BTW, so far I am not enjoying climate change as it’s affecting the Mid-Atlantic coastal states. Rain, rain, rain, unpredictable rain, rain, heavy rain, humidity. Thanks goodness that so far the temps are not too high, bcz high temps with high humidity are awful. And deadly for some who can’t afford AC.)