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Week of February 12-18, 2012: As the World Turns …
Most people know that Earth's rotation causes the sun to rise in the east and set in the west. Of course, the same is true for the moon, planets and stars.
To understand what's happening, try this experiment. Stand in the middle of a room and, …Read more.
Week of February 5-11, 2012: The ‘Linking' Star
Constellations are like states.
Just as the continental U.S. is divided into 48 such states — some large and some small — the heavens are also divided into 88 constellations. And just as every city in the U.S. (except for the District of …Read more.
Week of January 29-February 4, 2012: The Great Celestial Hunter
One of my favorite constellations in all the heavens has made its grand return to our evening sky, much as Robert Frost described in the opening lines of his famous poem "Star-Splitter":
You know Orion always comes up sideways.
Throwing a …Read more.
Week of January 22-28, 2012: The Moon and Venus at Dusk
Last week, I wrote about a rather faint group of stars known as Camelopardalis, the giraffe. I don't know how many of my readers took my challenge to get out and find this constellation, but I thought it wise to come back this week with something a …Read more.
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Week of June 14-20, 2009A celestial sign that summer has arrived now appears in the eastern sky after dark. We know it as the Summer Triangle, created by three bright stars: Vega, Altair and Deneb. In an ancient Chinese love story, Deneb represents the magpie bridge over the Milky Way, which allows the separated lovers Altair and Vega to be reunited on only one summer night each year. The brightest of the stellar trio — and highest in the sky — is Vega, the most prominent star in the tiny constellation Lyra, the Harp. Movie buffs might recall this star as the one from which scientists detected intelligent radio signals in the fictional motion picture "Contact." I guess that would make Vega — heh, heh — a movie star! The lowest of the three stars is Altair, the brightest in the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle. Finally, farthest to the north, lies Deneb, located in the tail of the great swan Cygnus. These three stars are interesting because, even though they appear roughly the same brightness, they aren't at all the same distance from us. In fact, they're remarkably far apart. Altair lies about 96 trillion miles (17 light years) from us.
Vega, on the other hand, lies 50 percent closer than Altair — at a distance of about 150 trillion miles, or 25 light years. And Deneb lies some 9,000 trillion miles from us, so far that we see it as it appeared in the sixth century. The light that leaves that star tonight won't arrive until the year 3509. Just as the light of these stars takes time to reach Earth, light from our world takes time to reach them. Imagine, for example, astronomers living on a world orbiting Vega. If they had telescopes powerful enough to see activity on our planet, they could watch us as we were in 1984. They might right now be watching as we marvel at the stunning power and blazing speed of the newly introduced Apple Macintosh computer, or sharing our excitement as we enjoy the Los Angeles Summer Olympics. And they would undoubtedly be amused and befuddled by our fascination with "Ghostbusters", Boy George and J.R. Ewing! To find out more about Dennis Mammana and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC. 
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