A Darker View

Postcard from Hawai’i – View From Above

Big Island from ISS — The Big Island of Hawai'i photographed from the International Space Station, Dec 29, 2011, image credit: ISS expedition 30, NASA

Postcard from the Reef – Snaggletooth

The books says these guys grow to 3½ feet in length. Uh, right. This guy was at least six feet long, with a mouth big enough to slide my whole hand into. His scarred head and ragged fangs spoke of a lifetime of life and death struggle on the reef. The book also says that undulated morays are one of the meanest morays, cautioning not to feed or play with these eels. I had not read the book before the encounter, but I needed no warnings to give this fellow a good deal of respect.

Postcard from the Universe – Rising Milky Way

MIlky Way over A'a — The rising Milky Way silhouetting and old a'a lava flow on Mauna Kea, Canon 60D @ ISO12800, 17mm f/4, eight 10 second frames aligned and averaged

Jupiter Exits the Evening Sky

This week sees Jupiter disappear into the sunset. The planet will pass through superior conjunction on May 13th, to reappear in the dawn during the last days of May.

Guard Crab

The Moon and Venus

A pretty crescent Moon will join Venus in the evening sky tonight. The pair will be a little less than 6° apart with a 13% illuminated Moon. It should make a lovely pairing high in the dusk.

Adhara

The morning routine was predictable… Moments after the first notes from the alarm clock there would be a familiar thump at the foot of the bed. That would be followed by whiskers in the face. Time to get up and start the day, which included feeding the cat.

Not this morning, nor tomorrow, nor anytime soon…

Today I buried a cat that had been part of my life for 16 years.

No more expectant eyes standing on the corner of the bed, demanding a skritch while I was attempting to dress for the day. Inevitably sitting atop of whatever clean shirt I had put there moments before. Gone is the purr from beside me while I attempt to get to sleep. I remember an escape artist that defeated my ever more elaborate barriers to keep a litter of kittens safely in a linoleum floored kitchen. I remember hot days of Tucson sun, lying in the shade of the old tangerine tree. I remember hours of yowling as we drove to San Diego, the first leg of the move to Hawai’i.

I picked her from the litter, the little grey furball. Named for the star Epsilon Canis Majoris, Adhara, sometimes spelled Adara. This star was once the brightest star in the Earth’s sky, though it has faded as it has drifted away from Earth over the eons.

Now, all we have in an empty house and freshly turned earth beneath an adenium in the front yard.

The Moon and Jupiter

This evening will see a razor thin Moon just above the planet Jupiter, low in the sunset. The planet will be about 5° below a 3% illuminated Moon. The Moon itself will be only 19° from the Sun at sunset, about 18:42HST. It should be a dramatic scene with the pair immersed in the colors of sunset.

Celebrating Dark Skies

Earth at Night — A view of the Earth compiled from nighttime shots from the DMSP satellites, image credit NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Here on the Big Island we are fortunate to have very dark skies. Skies from which the stars shine brightly. This is not the case for so many, people who live where city lights have drowned out the glory of the universe in a haze of artificial light.

So often I talk to visitors who come from places where they might see a mere handful of stars. To live in or worse, to grow up in a major metropolitan area, is to lose the beauty that is our night sky. To lose the view of our universe is to reduce that vast universe to just our everyday world. You lose the imagination and sense of wonder that can change everything.

Maybe I am weird, I make a point to get out and spend nights under a dark sky. With a telescope I pass the night looking into the vastness of space. With that experience comes a broader understanding of the scale of our universe and our place within it. To see the galaxies, to know what they are, to gain a glimmer of understanding, it changes your view of who and what we are.

To me this is precious.

Light pollution may be an issue few understand. It has many consequences… Vast amounts of wasted energy and money, impacts on our health and the health of our natural environment. There are many reasons to minimize the impact of artificial lighting. Of these reasons, it is the loss of the starry night sky that can sever our connection to the universe.

This week is International Dark Skies Week. Take a moment to look up at the night sky and understand what you may have have lost.

The Magnificent Night Sky: How to Protect It from Keck Observatory on Vimeo.

Mercury and Uranus

Mercury and Uranus will meet up in the dawn over the next few days. The pair is separated by about 3° this morning. Tomorrow morning the separation will have diminished to about 2°19′. Close approach will be on the morning of April 22nd at almost exactly 2&deg. On the 23rd the separation will have increased to 2°14′. Both planets will be well up, about 17° elevation at sunrise.

While Mercury is easy to pick out with the unaided eye. Uranus will require at least a pair of binoculars to see at 5.9 magnitude. The close approach will aid in finding the outer planet. Check your charts, there are a couple 6th magnitude stars just as close to Mercury to confuse for the dimmer planet.