SEPTEMBER 2011 ASTRONOMY
From the Trackman Planetarium at Joliet Junior College
The Trackman Planetarium lost a good friend with the passing of Dr. Gena Proulx, the
President of Joliet Junior College. Dr. Proulx passed away on August 12, 2011. Dr.
Proulx always had encouraging words about the planetarium and for our programs.
She will be missed.
The Autumnal Equinox is on September 23rd. On that date, the sun crosses the celestial
equator, getting lower in the sky each day for us in the northern hemisphere. The
celestial equator is an imaginary line across the sky from true east to true west and is
directly overhead if you are on the equator. (48 degrees above the southern horizon for
us.) From this equinox until the equinox in March, the sun will be above the southern
hemisphere and the people in the southern hemisphere will start enjoying spring and
summer. Although the equinox is supposed to mean equal hours of sunlight and
darkness, because of the Earth’s orbital anomalies September 26th has the closest to 12
hours of sunlight and 12 hours of dark. The sun sets at the North Pole on the Autumnal
Equinox and doesn’t rise above the horizon until next spring.
Jupiter rises in the late evening at the beginning of September and mid-evening by the
end of the month. It is hard to miss the largest of all the planets. Our planet is orbiting
toward Jupiter and we will be at our closest to Jupiter at the end of October. Venus,
Mercury and Saturn are too close to the sun for viewing during September. Mars is in
the sky during the night and it appears to move westward through the stars, eventually
to be in the evening sky in mid-winter. The Big Dipper has moved off to the western
sky, and the major stars in the mid-evening sky are the three bright stars of the Summer
Triangle - Deneb, Altair and Vega. High in the northeastern sky is the “W” that makes
up the constellation of Cassiopeia. Below and slightly to the west of Cassiopeia is the
Andromeda Galaxy, the closest galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy. If you are in really
dark skies, you can see the Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye, but in this area you
have to search for it with binoculars. The galaxy will appear as an elongated fuzz
patch. The Milky Way is directly overheard during the mid-evening in September. Just
look straight up with your binoculars and you should be able to see some of the billions
of stars that are the sun’s neighbors.
Welcome to Mr. Andrew Morrison, a new Associate Professor of Physics and
Astronomy at Joliet Junior College. Professor Morrison comes to JJC from DePaul.
The Chicken Little people are predicting another disaster for the world with the close
approach of Comet Elenin on October 16th. Like all comets, Elenin is a small body of
ice and rock - Elenin being about 3 miles wide. As a comet approaches the sun, it
begins to melt and grow a tail of water, gas and small rocks. At its closest approach to
Earth, Elenin will be over 21 million miles away and will present no danger.
Unfortunately, at this time it is predicted that the comet will only be visible with a
telescope.
The full moon is on September 12th. The Native Americans called the September full
moon the “Full Corn Moon”. In Asian countries, the September full moon is the time
for the Moon Cake Festival, celebrated at the September (harvest) full moon. The Moon
Cake Festival is for the young children, but everyone celebrates by eating the delicious
pastries called Moon Cakes.
The sun starts the month in Leo and on the 17th it moves into Virgo where it remains
for the rest of the month. The reason those dates don’t correspond with the Astrology
dates you see in the newspaper is because the Astrology dates haven’t been updated in
several hundred years. Meanwhile, because of a wobble in the Earth’s axis, the sun has
changed position in relation to the stars. This circular movement of the north pole is
known as precession and it is a 26,000 year cycle. As an example of how far off
astrological charts can be, the sun is in Leo from August 11th until September 17th. But
according to the astrologers, the sun is in Leo from July 23rd until August 22nd.
The 2011-2012 Season at the Trackman Planetarium begins with a show on the seasonal
skies on September 13th at 7:30 pm. Seasonal skies for younger people will be at 6:30
pm on September 22nd. Weather permitting, we will do an outdoor show on
September 27th at 7:30 pm. We will be at the far south end of the parking lot, near the
baseball field. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we will have a show on the Solar
System in the planetarium. All shows at the planetarium are provided at no charge by
Joliet Junior College.
School is back in session and Christine McKittrick is taking reservations for field trips to
the Trackman Planetarium for the coming school year. Christine can be reached
between 7 am and noon at (815) 280-6682.
Art Maurer
Director -Trackman Planetarium at Joliet Junior College
(amaurer@jjc.edu)