On Tuesday morning, August 3, the waning Moon will have come down into the company of the bright stars of the Orion region. At the other end of the same day and at the opposite horizon, Venus and Mars are about to set.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
August 3 and 4 are two of the ten “best” days in this month for sky scenes. That is, I’ve worked out a formula for giving them points for the presence and brightness of celestial bodies (planets, stars, Moon) within convenient distance of the Sun and of the horizon.
But that picture is for observers in a northern latitude on Earth. For a different location, such as Australia, the scenes will be different and the “best” days different.
I expect to use this new kind of diagram for all the months of 2022 in the revived Astronomical Calendar that I’m striving to put together.
Mixed metaphor of the week
“Merkel’s Political and Scientific Sides Slug it out in Swan Song Presser” – a headline in the Guardian. I hadn’t known the word presser (“press conference”).
Furthermore, Merkel “balances the Bundestage with a bunsen burner.”
I wish Ian Dicks would draw us a cartoon of a panel of singing swans watching Angela Merkel’s two sides slapping each other with slugs.
The next day’s “spearheading a sweeping crackdown” (on dissenters in Hong Kong) was a chain of clichés almost too weary to be worth mentioning.
No one’s perfect. In our discussion about a previous post, I meant to say that a literary critic stupidly compared the poets Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) and T.S. Eliot (1888-1965). But I dropped one of the 8’s, so that the computer system turned 188-1965 into a live telephone number. I hope no one (before I corrected the error) called the number and reached a mystified ghost Eliot. That would be worse than a mixed metaphor.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it. If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
I’m looking forward to the period towards the end of August when all five naked-eye planets will be visible in the sky at the same time, just after sunset.
The differences between the angles of the ecliptic to the horizon at sunset and sunrise in the northern and southern hemispheres are dramatic. Here at 38 degrees north latitude, Venus has been visible around sunset for a couple of months now, scooting south above the horizon but not gaining much elevation. It looks like in the southern hemisphere she is vaulting up from the horizon! Which would make sense, because as she moves eastward along the ecliptic she is moving south in declination. The illustrations make it much easier to hold all these movements and appearances in mind.
I imagine the 2022 astronomical calendar will once again be online. Not as sensually satisfying as a paper folio, but still much appreciated!
I’m metaphorically challenged today, unless Venus scooting along the northern hemisphere horizon and vaulting up from the southern hemisphere horizon counts.
Almost any bodily motion is welcomed as a metaphor for the antics of the planets in our sky!
Anthony, I live in central Virginia at 38 degrees north, same as you, but I just returned from a week in Big Bend National Park, Texas, where the skies are *dark* and the latitude is 29N (I am currently doing the Herschel 400ii observing list and needed an uninterrupted string of nights with clear, dark skies to grab over a hundred of the fainter galaxies and nebulas), and Venus is noticeably higher even with only 9 degrees of latitude difference. I tried to find it with binoculars just after sunset and wondered why I was struggling so much until I finally saw it and realized I was looking far too low in the sky LOL.
Presser might be German slang for a press conference and borrowed from English as I’ve never heard it used by English speakers?A shame about Venus this time around as it’s dogging the setting Sun, setting only one hour after sunset on average but Jupiter and Saturn have put on a fine show far better than last year when they where really low.
Yes, “presser’ is being used more often in the US.
Guy, does your comment about putting together a “revived” Astronomical Calendar for 2022 mean that you are going to publish a paper version like you did until 2016? If so I will definitely order one! I like the colorized diagrams showing the twilight hues.
It will be an online purchasable book of more but smaller pages, letter-size, to keep open the possibility that it can also become a print-on-demand book, or be printed out by purchasers themselves. Because it won’t have to be printed, its price will be lower. This is the plan; I just have to live to complete it!
By the way, Eric, I loved your earlier comment about the “hitherto unknown system of punctuation”; I tried to send you an email saying so, but must have used a wrong address.
Guy, thank you for the information about the book; I have always loved your astronomical publications! I join all of your loyal readers in sincerely hoping that you live to complete this and many more yearly calendars ~ in our new world of lockdowns and profit-driven health care industry, maintaining sanity and good health is increasingly challenging, so best wishes to you and Tilly for continued well-being and generation of educational and delightful insights into our world of astronomy.
Hope you live to complete it. If not, enjoy the next universe!
Actually, I’m hoping you’re around for a long while cuz I want to go backpacking with you and your son in 2.7 years in Maine for the next solar eclipse. Start getting in shape if not in shape already.
Beautiful sunset/rise!