Week of February 19-25, 2012: Summer Sky Sneak Peek by Dennis Mammana on Creators.com

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Week of February 19-25, 2012: Summer Sky Sneak Peek

If you're like me, you long for summertime — and not only for its warm weather and abundant growth, but also for its nighttime sky, which is among the richest of the year. So it's usually around mid-February that I begin wandering outdoors before dawn to sneak a peek at what awaits us in the evening sky just a few months down the road.

There's no great mystery about why the early morning sky appears differently than that of the evening. Our planet rotates on its axis once every day, and as we spin with it, we face outward in different directions at different times.

Tonight we face those stars associated with the Northern Hemisphere winter, toward constellations such as Orion and Taurus, shining brightly in the southern sky after dark. They're followed closely behind by those of early spring: Cancer, Leo and even the Big Dipper. By dawn, however, the Earth will have turned us far enough around that those star groupings will be replaced by others — those that make up what we know as the summertime sky.

The true splendor of this part of the heavens can be truly enjoyed only by viewing it from dark, non-light-polluted rural areas. That's because its main feature is the wispy band of the Milky Way that you'll see arching low across the sky from northeast to southeast.

Beginning in the northeastern sky, you'll find the faintest part of the Milky Way passing through the "W" shape of the constellation Cassiopeia, the queen. As you follow it toward the right, you'll soon encounter three bright stars — Vega, Deneb and Altair — that outline the shape of what Northern Hemisphere stargazers know as the Summer Triangle.

This geometrical shape offers a convenient milepost, since the Milky Way passes directly through its center.

Farther to the southeast you'll see the Milky Way flow past the celestial arachnid known as Scorpius, the scorpion. Scorpius is one of the few constellations that actually resembles its namesake, with its claws at the top, its bright reddish-orange star Antares representing its heart, and its long, curving tail and stinger that now, unfortunately, lie just below the horizon.

The first thing you'll notice about the Milky Way is that it's not uniform in brightness. It is, instead, mottled with dark rifts along its entire length. These are known to astronomers as giant molecular clouds, or GMCs, massive globs of interstellar material that stand in stark silhouette against the Milky Way's brighter stellar band. It is within these GMCs that massive star- and planet-forming regions exist, hidden from eyes not privileged enough to be peering with infrared telescopes.

While you're gazing at the Milky Way, don't limit yourself to viewing with your eyes alone. Binoculars reveal countless stars, star clusters and gaseous nebulae invisible to the eye — "deep sky" objects that beg to be studied further with a small telescope.

Now, if you just can't tear yourself from a warm bed to check out this early-morning celestial tapestry, I certainly understand. Simply mark your calendar because in only a few months, all this will grace our evening sky where everyone can enjoy it at a less ungodly hour!

Visit Dennis Mammana at www.dennismammana.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.