PROJECT 10073 1. DATI I. LOCATION I. DATITIMI a Wet Alrereft ~0...,..4-Yieu.. a Oroun4R .. r a p,.-..w, Alrcreft 111' AI rcreft 7. LINOTH Ofl .OIIIRVATION L NUMIIR Ofl OBJICTI a. .. Pre~t.W, Aat,.noffticel a , ....... , AltiOROffticel a IRaufflctertt o ... ,., Eoluetfoft a U .. nown 1 1. COMMINTI IRIIP SUMMARY Ofl IIOHTINO Cigar-sha~ed, fluorescent lar~a fountain W.Hx: Wi!lo"D 8CALE t\i v-.J, Scoa 11odooooo i~ISba:~ ~ l"NI'i'ED STATES WRC 4-4A (SP~IAL) .f, ''/IA-'qlt t:'c~r:oi ... Lr. Nawa Lanu /or AfiUI 2J, l9JI The three planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, in addi- tion to many first-magnitude stan, will be evident in the Sep- tember evening ly JAMES STOKLEY STEADILY cluscr tu the= rhu5, the serpent- Of m;~gnitudc= . 0.7, it is a as t as Mars i5, 'at the bqinning of September. Turning to the s that are .seen these C\cninp, the bri in Lyra, the lyre, high in t c west. A little to the cast of this JI'OUP you will sec Cygnus, the swan. in which the star J>encb shines. Toward the south is A!Wr, in Aquila, the eagle. These ~ree brijlitltan, .-11 of the firH magnjwdc:, fOrm what is sometimes called the summer triangle, because it is so conspicuous on summer e\enanp Three other 6rst-ma~rnitude !it<~rs re aJ5e., shown. All of them :trc now quite luw in sky, where the incrc~t5Cd hsorption of their light by the atmosphere causes them to iiJ,pear rather fainter than they !ihould. in the oocrhc;au, to the left of Mars, you will find C.1pclla. in Auri~ra, the char- ioteer. In the northwcsr is in Hoota, the bear-driver. And in the ~uth, there stands Fomt~lhayr, in Pisds Austrinus, the southern fiSh. lwly lltln Planet will then be furth the .am. Hy the time it appears, ~wn will h;eve sttrtell, .md the sky will no longer be completely On the evenin~r of ~tember 4, when neither will be visible In this part of the world, Mercury will pass to the south of Venus; the following morning they will still be close tDJCther. On the 18th, as Mercury draws back toward the sun, it will again Pss Venns, about I :00 a.m., but by then Mer- cury will be hard to see. The moon, then a narrow waning crescent, will pass both of the planets early in the morning of Sept. 12. And on the morning of the tenth Mercury can be seen passing very close to the star Regulus, which is in Leo, the lion, and is of the fint magnitude. The approach will appear so close that the pair will look like one star to the naked eye, but a pair of binoculars will show them to be separate. Autumn Arrives Another important event on the astro- nomical program for September will occur at 8:10 a.m., E.S.T., on the 23rd. This is the equinox, the time when the sun, which been moving southward since last June, tcachc!l the h:tlfway puint. It will then he standin)t directly over the C.'l1ll<ttur, :~hove a a dwus:md mile~ linuth of l>ak;tr, in \Vest Africa. In the Northern Hemi- ~,here thi~ will he the nfficial llC~rinning of ;mtunm, while spring will thc.n commcm:c in countrit.'l of the Southern Hc.misphcre. A few davs after thi!-i the. moon will he full, on Sept. 27. This will he the "harvcl!t moon." The peculiarity of this moun is tlwt is onlv a small ditfcrl'll(C in time in moonri!CC for SC\'Cral niJ{hts in succession. In September, this rettru~J risin)t is only half an hour, compared to ahout <~n hour and a quarter in ~arch. Bri~rht moonlight for a number of nights in su(Cession is sup- posed to help the farmer to bring in his Destlnatlon1 Lyra Lyra, which shines l)jgu !!Jln:jtcl these. even in s has a number of points of interest. te enure solar system, the ~un and all the is moving through space toward Lyra at a, speed of about 1~ miles per second. The earth's distance to \e~a, in Lyra, is about 23 light years; that is, 13 times the six trillion miles that a ray of light, traveling 186,000 miles each scconc.l. will cover in a year. This distance is lessening at the rate of more than 20 miles per sc::conu. Not only is the earth approaching Lyra, but Vega it- self is mo\'ing towards our part of the sky at about 8.5 miles per seconu; fortunately, S FOR STARS IN ORDER OF BRIGHTNESS It Is ICJt ., r cur"tclv nim~'t' dlilt th~rc is ant..c-ibili uf it ~ver hittin U!l. hri~htnt Ktnr in l.yra, Shdink, or betl Lync, is tM une !thnwn on the ~tuuth *' map just ahnvc the R in the name "L,a." As diiCOvcrcd in 17H4 hy fuhn Ooodricke, a 20-year-ult.l c.lc~f mute e~nd :una- leUr astronomer in EnRiand, Sheliak is n variable star. Ordinarily uf maRnitudc 3.4, or slipdy fainter than J(:tmmn Lyme, the .. r just to the left, every 12.9 c.lay~t it drop5 to about 4.5, about 2.7~ timC!4 :11 (;tint . Actually there arc twu st;trs, very dose tc~ther. One i rcl<~ti\'cly hriJ(ht, ;tnd larJ(C, about 20 or more times the dimneter uf the sun. The other is smotllcr ;tnd faint~r. Once in each 12.9-day cycle, the d~trker star pots~s directly in front of the brighter one, and the partial eclipse causes the reduction in briJ(ht- Half way betwccl) these eclipses there is a lesKr eclipse, as the bright star hides the faint one. This causes a smaller reduc- tion in litht Surroundint the pair there is a hu~ shell of ps, mainly hydrogen. This seems to oriainate in two streams that squirt out from each star, toward the other. The streams do not hit the other st1rs, however, because of their movement around the center of gravity of the system . There is a marked difference in color of the two stan. The large bright one is bluish, while the other is yellow-white. It would be most interestinJ( to obser\'e the system closer position. Actually, what is known about beta Lyrae has been learned from studies of its spec- trum, the band of color, crossed by dark lines, which is produced when its liJ(ht is analyzed by a spectroscope. attached to a larJie telescope. The spectrum undergoes and curious chan~. Astronomers have worked out the hypothetical structure dacribed i100\"e as an exphtnation. There :ue still some very puzzlinJ( fe;ttures, liak continues to be the subject uf much 011tronomial research. Celestial Time Table for 2 6:ooa.m. Moon farthest, di1tance 251, 900 miles Moon passes Mars. 9:00p.m. Mercury Jla~Sn Venus. 6 5:24 a.m. Moon in last quarter. f:OO a.m. farthest west nf ~un: u 4:0J a.m. pasieS Mercury. 7:36a.m. Moon passes Venus. 13 7:02 a.m. New anoon. 14 DOOft Moon nearest, distance l2j,400 :n a.m. Moon pa55eS Jupiter. 18 1 :oo a.m. Mercury passes Venus. 19 t:JJ a.m. Moon paua Saturn. 10:17 p.m. Moon in first qu;arter . 2.1 8:ro a.m. Sun over equator, autumn commences in Nurthc:rn Ht'mi 27 4:43p.m. Full moon-Harv~t Muon. 29 s:oo p.m. Moon farthest, diataft(e 25.1.- 400 miles. Subuact one hour for C..ST, two hours fur MST. and thrn-for PST. lclen NIWI Letter, Aug111t 23, 1f51 HEADQUARTERS AIR W.Jo;ATJIE R SERVICE U. S. AIR FOUCJ:o.: WEATHJ:R PI.OTfiXG ( :H .t\HT corr1c ~CfrG-. SCAU lrtt.C AlCMIG Sl~ ,.._,liS JOO ,..... JS ASSUf~ED TRACK TO FOkt:.": FORECASTER ..