Starwatch Newsletter Minnesota Starwatch is a tape-recorded message describing the night sky in the Midwest, which can be called by telelphone number (612) 624-2001 It is updated montly, and is produced by the Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

The new moon this month is on Oct. 6 and 7, and will be clearly visible very low on the southwestern horizon just after sunset on the 9th. Full moon -- the Lakota "moon of falling leaves" -- will be seen on Oct 20th and 21st.In the early evening sky, Venus is visible low in the west after sunset for just the first week of October, before it slips behind the Sun. Late in the evening, patient watchers can see bright Saturn rise in the east just before midnight, with Jupiter following later. But the real show, for those wanting a viewing challenge, is in the early morning sky. Jupiter is easy to see high in the southeast before sunset. But a rarer glimpse of Mercury and a fainter Mars can be caught very low in the eastern sky just before sunrise. Since you're already up before the Sun, find Sirius, the brightest star in our sky other than the Sun, almost 30 degrees directly above the southern horizon. If you note its location carefully, you may be able to actually follow it into the daylight hours, a feat likely to impress friends and family.

Sirius called the "Dog Star" by the ancient Egyptians, features in the stories of many cultures. It is also of great interest to astronomers, who know it as a double star. Sirius A is the more massive of the pair. It is twice the diameter, and emits twenty times as much light as our Sun. Sirius A is also twice as hot as our Sun, giving it an intense blue color. The hidden star of the show, however, is the so-called "white dwarf" star Sirius B, visible only through a telescope. It is about 10,000 times dimmer than Sirius A in what we call "visible light", but greatly outshines it when viewed through an X-ray telescope. It is so dense, that the gravity on its surface would make a candy bar weigh 10 tons. Sirius A and B engage in a graceful ballet, circling each other every 10 years, enabling astronomers to deduce the masses and other properties of this fascinating pair.

After 41 years of operation, the Planetarium closed last month to make way for the new Minneapolis Central Library. With the support of all who treasured its glorious views of the night sky, we may yet again sit beneath a starry dome. Stay tuned, and keep your eyes on the stars.

Friday night telescope viewing begins at 9:00 p.m. Please call 612/626-0034 for more information. For those interested in the Minnesota Astronomical Society, call 651/649-4861 for information on their upcoming events.

Minnesota Starwatch is available on-line at http://www.astro.umn.edu/Outreach/pub_out.html

This has been Minnesota Starwatch, produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department in cooperation with WCCO Weather Center.

Last Updated: Thu Sep 19 16:15:59 2002