web
trick-or-treating with us sevens
sinister sisters
hey there stargazers I'm demery guess
astronomer for the Cincinnati
Observatory
and I'm James all very director the key
cassava pop planetarium in Gainesville
Florida
we're here to help you find your way
around the sky tonight because Halloween
greeting cards often depict a witch
riding a broom in front of a full moon
many people have the mistaken notion
that there's a full moon
every year at Halloween when in fact we
won't have a full moon on Halloween
again
until 2020 this Halloween the gibbous
moon
will be trick-or-treating in the sky
with mars Jupiter and Mercury
but they're is something you can see in
the night sky
every Halloween that is even if tear and
definitely spookier
because every Halloween the plea
eighties the Seven Sisters
fly high across the sky that night let's
show you
okay we're facing East before dawn
and Jupiter and Mercury will be visible
Jupiter will be very bright
and you can use the Big Dipper to are
tart terrace and then march
onto mercury then look south west about
an hour after sunset Monday night the 27
four days before Halloween
first thing you'll notice is a young
crescent moon
there's not enough time for the moon to
reach the four-phase before Halloween
so no full moon for the which to fly
across this year
just Simmons left you'll see the bright
reddish orange planet Mars
marceau remain low in the southwest
evening sky for the rest of the year
as earth leaves mars farther and farther
behind as we both
orbit the Sun let's advance one day and
the moonwalk fatten up a bit
and move above Mars on Tuesday evening
let's go one more day to wednesday
evening
the moon's a bit fatter and a bit
farther from mars
Thursday night the moon is waxing more
and has moved farther
East notice how much the moon moves from
one night to the next
Friday night Halloween the moon is still
a long way from fall
but they're is a hollow weenie object in
this evening sky
let's turn and look northeast and a plea
eighties are just rising but wire the
plea eighties and Halloween LinkedIn so
many people's minds
let's quote Jack Horkheimer on this one
too many people long ago when the please
reach their highest point at midnight
it was a signal that this was the time
of the year two honor the debt
many people's belief that a great inch
in Cataclysm occurred when the pleadings
were overhead at midnight such as the
great biblical flood
or the thinking about lantus the belief
was so widespread that in mexico
the Pyramid of the Sun tayo t work was
built to align with the setting up the
plea eighties
as we're all the city's West running
streets an ancient Greece
several temples were lined up with the
rising and setting up the Seven Sisters
the Aztec and Mayan not only believe
that the world would come to an and on
one of these plea eighties overhead at
midnight nights
but we're convinced that the world had
already been destroyed
and recreated four times on just such a
night
should we rename them the seven sinister
sisters
although the plate is no longer reach
their highest point
that is calm in a exactly at midnight on
Halloween
as they did in 1000 BC nevertheless
they're still very high in the southeast
every Halloween at midnight
as a modern reminder that ancestors were
deeply moved
and affected by the cosmos and use many
cosmic coincidence is to determine
important religious
in ceremonial events in their life and
for what we can see this year
get outside and look up after sunset at
the young Mounir mars next week
and get outside this Halloween or any
Halloween at midnight
look high and East for the beautiful
cluster stars
known as the pleats and the Seven
Sisters or
as Jack like to call my Halloween the
seventh sinister sisters
and as you look at them remind yourself
that these same stars
have been seen by thousands and
generations we've gone before us
use all them as very important in
determining their own special days of
the year
when the honor their day and although it
might be a bit creepy
don't you agree that seven sisters at
midnight or even better than
performing Halloween I mean seven which
is before midnight
keep looking up
way
ok