Harrowsmith – June 2019

40 | harrowsmithmag.com

A

h, at last! The smell, the
sound, the feeling of spring,
the pending summer and the
glorious summer night sky. I don’t
know about you, but it’s great to
shed my parka. Trying to look high
into the sky during winter—with a
thick coat, scarf and hat—is not very
pleasant. All that clothing bothers
the neck and cramps my style. But
once it begins to warm up, we can
shed these encumbrances so we
can take in the true expanse of the
celestial sphere in relative comfort.
May is a great time to start.
Night falls later than in winter
but earlier than in summer. The
evenings are relatively warm and
there are few mosquitoes.
Where to start? The bright
luminaries of winter are settling
below the western horizon. Soon,
the Summer Triangle, which forms
a starry east-west bridge across the
faint band of the Milky Way, will

be clearing the eastern horizon.

But at this time (after washing the

dinner dishes), our view of the sky

“falls between the cracks”—there is

not much to see! So, we need to look

more carefully.

At 9 p.m. the twilight will

have darkened and Venus will be

shining brightly slightly north of

due west. Binoculars won’t help us

see much detail. Venus has a small

angular size (only 0.7 percent of

the apparent diameter of the full

moon) and it’s quite far away (about

200 million km/120 million miles),

but it’s near its brightest. If you are

under a dark sky, you may even see

shadows created by Venus. In the

absence of any artificial light and

with your back to Venus, can you see

the shadow of your head cast onto a

sheet of white paper?

While you are in the mood, put

down the paper and look to the

southeast. That bright object is

Jupiter. It’s only a quarter of the

brightness of Venus, but this is

because it’s over three times the

distance of Venus. Unlike Venus,

which has no accompanying moon,

Jupiter hosts many. The brightest

four range in size from 40 percent

down to 25 percent of the diameter

of Venus. You might be able to see

a few of them with binoculars—if

you hold the binoculars very steady.

They will appear as faint dots of

light very close to the planet.

Jupiter is 12 times larger than

Venus, so you will also see Jupiter’s

planetary disc, about four times

larger than Venus’s.

Apart from Venus and Jupiter,

this late spring sky may not hold

your visual attention for very long

without some deeper insights.

Consider where you are looking.

About halfway up the sky in the

south is the dominant constellation

of Leo the Lion. It looks a bit like a

The Ides of May Walkabout

Robert Dick walks us through the skies of summer.