CWU graduation is this weekend. Your favorite graduate deserves a gift. Why not get her, him, or them a star? I don’t mean from one of those organizations that offer to “register the name of YOUR star with the U.S. Patent Office”. No company owns the right to name stars after people. Besides, the stars that those companies “name” are so dim you can’t find them. In this column, I’ll pick a constellation and representative star for each of the four colleges at CWU. Then, I’ll briefly tell the story of the constellation and relate that story to the aspect of public service CWU graduates from that college are highly qualified to engage in based on my version of sky interpretation. If different couples can have “their” song, then your favorite college graduate can have their star. If you can’t make it to campus, celebrate with your favorite CWU 2026 graduate at the Livestreamed ceremony shown here: http://www.cwu.edu/commencement/.
Saturday: College of Arts and Humanities: You are the people
who interpret the world in unique ways. Then, you share those ways with others.
According to Greek mythology, Orpheus charmed everyone he met when he played
the lyre or harp. After his wife died tragically, he journeyed to the
underworld to charm its inhabitants in an effort to win his wife back to the
living world. Your service reminder: use your talent to bring joy to others.
The constellation Lyra and its bright star Vega should remind you of the power
of the arts. Vega is five and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length
above the eastern horizon at 11:00 p.m.
Sunday: "Do I have to wake up yet? It's so early!"
The next few days have the earliest sunrises for the northern part of the
United States, including Ellensburg. "Wait, I thought this happened on the
longest day of the year, which hasn't occurred yet." Because the Earth's
orbit is not a perfect circle, the sunrise and sunset time is not symmetric.
The earliest sunrise occurs before the longest day, and the latest sunset
occurs after the longest day. Go to http://earthsky.org/?p=4027
to read more about this phenomenon. While you are up early, look for the
planets Venus and Saturn. Venus is one fist above the eastern horizon and
Saturn is two and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon at 4:15 a.m.
Monday: College of Business. You are the future movers and
shakers. The future CEOs. The future big donors to Central. Auriga represented
a king of Athens who happened to be mobility impaired. Instead of sitting
around waiting for others to transport him, he took the initiative to invent
the four-wheeled chariot. He solved a problem for a special need. Your service
reminder: address the problems of those in the most need. To remind you of
that, look to the constellation Auriga. Its bright star Capella is about a half
a fist above the north-northwestern horizon at 11:00 p.m.
Tuesday: Mars’ two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, are not
visible in typical backyard telescopes. But they are an interesting study. The
former view among astronomers was that both moons are captured asteroids. That
makes sense given Mars’ proximity to the asteroid belt. But recent findings by
European astronomers indicate that Phobos is very porous and made of material
similar to the surface of Mars. This implies that Phobos may consist of chunks
of Martian debris that was blasted off by numerous impacts and gravitationally
bound together. Unfortunately, the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe launched late
2011 to collect material from Phobos crashed to Earth after malfunctioning. For
more information about this recent model of Phobos’ formation, go to https://sci.esa.int/web/mars-express/-/31031-phobos.
For more information about Mars, look one fist above the east-northeastern
horizon at 4:15 a.m. Saturn is two fists above the east-southeastern horizon at
this time.
Wednesday: “Three planets and a crescent moon line up in the
western sky.” This is not the opening line of a bad joke. It is a description
of the evening sky. At 10:00 p.m., the crescent moon is one and a half fists
above the western horizon. A little to the lower right is the planet Venus, the
brightest point of light in the sky. To the lower right of Venus is Jupiter,
the second brightest point of light in the sky tonight. Continuing along that
line is Mercury, a half a fist above the west-northwestern horizon.
Thursday: College of Education and Professional Studies. You
are the teachers. The craftspeople. The technical experts. Boötes, the
herdsman, was such a person. Boötes’ job was to guide the northern
constellations to the feeding place and the watering hole. He and his dogs were
especially in charge of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the greater and lesser
bears. Your service reminder: guide others to a better place in life. Look to
the constellation Boötes and its bright star Arcturus to remind you of this.
Arcturus is five and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 11:00 p.m.
Friday: College of the Sciences. You are the people who will
systematically study how the world works. Agriculture is an important
scientific application. Each year, farmers must use the findings of science to
be successful. Who better to represent the College of the Sciences than Virgo,
the goddess of the harvest? Virgo looms large in the sky holding an ear of
wheat in her hand. Your service reminder: study the practical aspects of the
scientific world. The ear of wheat, and your service reminder, is represented
by the bright star Spica. Spica is two and a half fists above the southwestern
horizon at 11:00 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and
planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up-to-date information
about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
All times are Pacific Time unless noted.
No comments:
Post a Comment