Dining & Nightlife | Astronomy

Many people may not realize that Canada has a rich and significant space history, especially in the realm of communications satellites. Canada became the third country to design and build its own satellite when Alouette 1 was launched into orbit way back in 1962. Just ten years later, Canada became the first country in the world to have its own geosynchronous communication satellite, the Anik A1. More recently, in 1991, Anik E1, another communications satellite, was launched into a geosynchronous orbit.

The idea of a using a geostationary orbit for a communications satellite was first proffered by the British science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey) in 1945, at least a decade before the dawn of the space age. A communications satellite in a geosynchronous orbit, because it orbits above the equator at the same angular rate as the Earth rotates on its axis, always appears at the same position in the sky, thus always remains visible (and useful) over its area of coverage. Another feature of a geosynchronous orbit is that the dish used to communicate with the satellite can be mounted in a fixed position—there is no need for tricky steering and tracking. The satellites used for Direct-TV and its brethren reside in geosynchronous orbits and are good examples of geosynchronous communications satellites.

On the 2nd of September, for about two hours, Jupiter will appear without its Galilean moons (they will all be on the side of the planet facing away from Earth). This is a very rare event.

There will be a full Moon on the 4th of September.

On the 17th of September, Uranus will be at opposition—the planet will be frontally illuminated by the Sun from the perspective of Earth. This is the best time to view this distant planet, which will appear as a small green dot in all but the largest telescopes. Why not come to Custer and see it on our large 25-inch reflector!

The Autumnal Equinox takes place at 21:18 U.T. (about 4pm) on the 22nd of September. This marks the first day of Fall and a time when the days grow rapidly shorter.

There are only weak meteor showers expected this September, most notably the a-Aurigids between August 25 and September 8 with about 5 to 7 meteors per hour.