January

Starry Skies

With nearly 14 hours of darkness still cloaking our nights this month, it’s a perfect time to take advantage of the lack of sunlight to explore the night skies. Easy to spot constellations like Orion, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, and Ursa Major/Big Dipper all track across the sky during pre-bedtime hours, and this week’s night sky includes bright-shining Venus and Mars simultaneously in the southwest. As an amateur star-gazer who would like to instill a sense of wonder and delight in my own children’s upward surveillances, I’ve had to amass a small toolkit to keep myself informed and able to point out even the simplest nighttime sights. Although I have the SkyView app on my smartphone (which is undoubtedly the coolest way to know what you’re looking at in an instant), I’ve found the good ol’ planisphere with a rotating dial that matches date and time, works best to spot constellations and – more importantly – help users learn them. Somehow the tactile experience of dialing in January 12th at 6pm and noting the starry possibilities, followed by searching and confirming their presence, helps the information sink in. The book “365 Starry Nights” has also helped me build stories around the more famous constellations and stars.

Last summer as we grabbed bug spray and a blanket, heading out to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower, I also took a quick glance at a light pollution map. Turns out, if we wanted truly dark skies, we had to find a park further out of town than I expected. Light pollution, according the the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), is “the inappropriate or excessive use of artificial light [which] can have serious environmental consequences for humans, wildlife, and our climate.” IDA not only claims that the environment – including plant and animal natural rhythms – is disrupted by light pollution, but that “millions of children will never see the milky way,” destroying their opportunity to experience the perspective and inspiration the night sky provides. Luckily, they also offer solutions – some as simple as talking to your friends, or joining a local IDA chapter and working to change policy and raise awareness.

If you’ve found a dark enough locale and you’re thinking of star-gazing, here’s a few more resources to aid your adventures, including where to look for Orion, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, and the Big Dipper:

• MMSD Planetarium rents or loans telescopes (free to Madison residents) and offers monthly, printable sky charts
• Look for specific weekly and daily sky events with
  • Astronomy Magazine’s “Sky This Week“
  • “In the Sky this Month” by StarDate.org
• HubbleSite.org proiveds a monthly video “Guide to Constlations, Deep-Sky Objects, Planets, and Events”
• Learn how to take photographs of the night sky sights you see

Nature Net News Flashback from 2007:

Star Vs. Planet
Long-ago-scientists first discovered a difference between planets and stars by regularly observing the night sky, tracking each point of light. They noted stars trekked across the sky with regularity – they were, in a scene, a fixed palette of lights. They also discovered, however, that several points of light did not rise and set as stars did, but appeared to meander across the sky, sometimes moving forward, sometimes stopping and then moving backward. These unique bodies were named planets – meaning “wanderers.” Through these early observations, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were discovered – planets which can be seen without the help of a telescope. If you would like to track these wanderers like Copernicus, you’ll first need to know where to look in the sky. For closer, faster orbiting planets, like Venus, Mercury and Mars, check the sky every other night or at least once a week. If you’re tracking Jupiter or Saturn, make your observations every week. Or, try a more advanced method developed for 4th through 12th graders from the Center for Science Education, called “Find That Planet.”
If you’re unable to get out on a regular basis, there is another way to tell stars from planets: stars twinkle, planets do not. Because stars are so far away (the closest (besides the sun) being 25 trillion miles away), they seem very small. So small that they appear smaller than the particles of atmosphere we gaze through to see the star. As the atmospheric particles move around, they bend the star’s light before it reaches our eyes, making the light twinkle. The planets, on the other hand, though much smaller than stars, seem larger because of their proximity to Earth. Rather than a pinpoint of light, planetary light is more like a disc – a disc of light large enough to be unaffected by the shifting atmosphere thus, no twinkling occurs.

To Do This Month:

Catch up on this breaking news on blazars, the quasar-black hole combo that scientists now know to “put on a space version of a fireworks show, shooting out shredded stars and other things in a stream of light [and] accelerates particles to 99.99 percent of the speed of light.”

Find out what’s going on at UW Space Place, including Saturday Science Workshops and Guest Presentations. “Ring in the New Year” with public planetarium shows at the Madison School District’s Planetarium on January 17th and 18th. Or check in with Bethel Horizons who often offers “Exploring the Heavens” astronomy programs throughout the year.

Check out the many events happening at Nature Net sites this month on our joint Events Calendar.

Bethel Horizons

January Events

Our Favorite Star Books

DIY Nebula Jar

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For Educators:

Windows to the Universe

Windows to the Universe is a “interlinked ecosystem” for learning about Earth and Space sciences. It was developed in 1995 thanks to a NASA grant awarded to research faculty at the University of Michigan. Now maintained by the National Earth Science Teachers Association, the site includes images, movies, animations, and data sets ideal for learning and teaching. For teachers, the site offers webinars, classroom activities and literacy frameworks.

Windows to the Universe believes “Earth system science literacy means that we understand how our planet functions as a system of interdependent, interconnected parts on which all living things depend, and that we use this knowledge to make decisions that affect Earth’s sustainability.” To that end, the site offers endless bits of information on earth, space, the solar system, and famous scientists perfect for educating oneself or providing students with research links.

For Families:

Moon Gazing

If star gazing is not your bag (or if you’re like me, and the thought of sitting outside in the cold of night – though the stars may be beautiful – sounds too chilly), there’s always the moon. Ever since picking up “Strictly for the Chickens” by Fran Hamerstrom, I’ve been enchanted by her story of leaving her big-city and debutante life to study prairie chickens in central Wisconsin during the 1930s. Though all her stories (and misadventures with frozen water wells) entertain, what stuck with me most was the promise she made one year to take her two children exploring in the wilderness every time the moon was full. Their thirteen unique adventures were chronicled in her 1975 book, “Walk When the Moon is Full.”

Phases of the Moon

If you’re interested in tracking the phases, along with the set- and rise- times of the moon so as to know when to set out on your own moonlit adventure, there’s plenty of help out there, including numerous apps (I use Moonrise but there are plenty of others), and websites like these from MoonConnetion.com or StarDate.org.

Here’s my little trick for remembering the names of the phases. First you have to know the names of the shapes: aside from full and new, there’s also gibbous, quarter, and crescent (which, happily, is the shape of a croissant – that’s easy enough to remember). You also have to know that as the moon shifts from new to full it’s waxing, and as it shifts from full to new, it’s waning. Now when you look up in the sky, channel your inner Karate Kid and, starting with your right hand, WAX on, then WANE off with your left. If the moon’s shape (as either a gibbous, quarter or crescent, matches the shape of your right hand (a backwards C), the moon is waxing. If it matches the shape of your left hand (a regular C), the moon in waning.

And by the way, it’s true that we only see one side of the moon – here’s why. And here’s a mesmerizing video that reveals the moon’s relationship with the earth in detail.

One more PS: here’s the full moon names for 2017 – plus a catchy video on full moon facts.