Event Date: July 30th
Time: 1:00 AM/4:00 AM
Brief
Today, the clock is forwarded only two hours past yesterday's date, to look a little further east along the ecliptic. That is, Aquarius' zodiacal neighbor to the east, being Pisces. I have shown the former over the last two days, and at the hour above, the latter clears the horizon, as seen from our global coordinates of 38ºN and 122ºW. Pisces however, has no bright stars seen easily through atmospheric pollution, so waiting for it to get much higher helps see the shape that its stick figure gives us. Let's first take a look at it as it clears the horizon, and then when higher up for those who need to wait that long--light pollution levels pending. For the first, I kept Aquarius' figure visible to show that the two rise only a short time relative to each other. More on that shortly in the detailed section.
Time: 1:00 AM/4:00 AM
Brief
Today, the clock is forwarded only two hours past yesterday's date, to look a little further east along the ecliptic. That is, Aquarius' zodiacal neighbor to the east, being Pisces. I have shown the former over the last two days, and at the hour above, the latter clears the horizon, as seen from our global coordinates of 38ºN and 122ºW. Pisces however, has no bright stars seen easily through atmospheric pollution, so waiting for it to get much higher helps see the shape that its stick figure gives us. Let's first take a look at it as it clears the horizon, and then when higher up for those who need to wait that long--light pollution levels pending. For the first, I kept Aquarius' figure visible to show that the two rise only a short time relative to each other. More on that shortly in the detailed section.
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| click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp. |
Detailed
Although I do not include the ecliptic for image one, looking at the altitudes of both constellations reminds us that this the section of the Sun's path where it starts to rapidly gain northern declination when moving along it in February and March. If I did have the ecliptic showing, it would form a low angle with the horizon. Besides earlier Sunrises and later Sunsets as a result of declination change northbound, this is also in this part of the sky where we see the Moon rise only about 26-30 minutes earlier each day, with the time depending on the phase: (near) full Moons rise in the evening, while old, waning crescent Moons rise only a short time before Sunrise and seen low. This isn't too important to remember, unless you want to try to predict Moonrise times without the help of online almanacs! Minus the Sun for now, for every zodiacal constellation that rises up to the time of twilight, we are looking further north towards our axis. Gemini, which I showed a few days ago, is the most northern of the constellations with Taurus close to the same in declination. The Sun visited those constellations during June, and we see them both now low in the sky during [morning] nautical and astronomical twilight respectively.
For a final note on Pisces, getting back on topic, it is almost perpendicular to the galactic plane, so nearly void of any deep sky, Messier-type of targets. More on that tomorrow.
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