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Skies Over Lee's Summit July 15-31
July 14, 2012
By Bob Riddle
Our Moon, like many things celestial, has recognizable repetitive natural patterns – and from regular observations of our Moon you may notice one of these patterns, in addition to the more obvious phase changes. Each evening the Moon sets about an hour later, or conversely rises about an hour later. This happens because the Moon orbits toward the east as do the planets and so each night the Moon moves further east with some nights finding the Moon in conjunction with planets and other bright stars that lay near the path the Moon follows.
With new Moon phase on the 18th the Moon is in the direction of the Sun and so is not visible. However a few days later as the Moon moves eastward the angle between the Moon and the Sun increases. As this angle increases the amount of sunlight reflected to us from the Moon increases giving rise to the waxing, or increasing, phases of the Moon. The net result is that each evening the Moon sets later and has increased in phase. This continues each evening until the Moon reaches an angle of 180 degrees from the Sun, in effect putting it on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, and at what we call the full Moon phase. Following the full Moon phase are the waning phases which are perhaps more familiar to those up around the time of sunrise.
While 9:30 pm may not give us totally dark skies it may still be dark enough to see the 3-day old thin waxing crescent Moon and to the right Regulus the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. Over the next few nights at 10 pm or so watch for the waxing crescent Moon as it is close to Mars then Spica a bright star in Virgo. The planet Saturn is just up to the right from Spica. Several days later, still at 10 pm, watch for the waxing gibbous Moon to be close to the reddish star Antares in Scorpius the Scorpion.
Word Bank: When planets, the Moon, or Sun line up so that they appear very close they are said to be in conjunction.
Next time observe the annual Perseids Meteor Shower, conjunctions and elongations, and follow the waning, or decreasing, phases of the Moon as it encounters bright stars and the morning planets.
Be sure to check out the stars of the Pleiades and see if your can make out a small dipper shape.
Word Bank: An open star cluster is a group of tens to several hundreds of stars held together by their mutual gravitational attraction in a loose grouping. Next time use the Moon as a guide to the evening planets, some bright stars, and the ever changing Moon phases.
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