JULY 2007
LAKE COUNTY SKIES - JULY 2007 (1st Article Written)
By John Zimmerman
Lake County Skies on July 15, 2007 at 9 pm
Face south, and look directly overhead. To the west you will see the constellation Bootes. It looks a bit like a kite, with the bright star Arcturus at the base. Arcturus is the 4th brightest star in the sky, about 25 times the size of our sun! Bootes is a herdsman who shepherds the stars around the north pole.
To the left (east) of Bootes is a semi-circle of stars known as Corona Borealis (Northern Crown). This is the crown the maiden Ariadne, daughter of Minos, King of Crete, wore at her wedding.
To the left of Corona Borealis is Hercules, the Greek strongman who performed 12 labors. Within Hercules is a remarkable object you can see with a telescope – it’s called The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. It’s a tightly packed ball of hundreds of thousands of stars. In a telescope, it looks like the image at the right.
Look to the south, and peeking above the horizon you will see the constellation Scorpius, the scorpion This is the creature that killed the great hunter Orion in Greek mythology.
Within Scorpius you will see a star that is brighter than any other. It’s not a star – it’s the pla
net Jupiter. Jupiter is 12 times the size of the Earth, has 67 moons, and is a big ball of gas. Through a telescope, you can see bands on the planet’s surface and 4 of the 67 moons. To the left is an image of what Jupiter looks like through a telescope of moderate size.