STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
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Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers. All throughout June if you go outside just after it gets dark out and look almost overhead you will see a very bright star which was very famous in the early 20th century because its light was used to open the world's fair in Chicago in 1933. Let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for the first two weeks of June just after it gets dark out facing north where just to the west of the North Star you will see the seven stars which make up the Big Dipper. Four stars mark its cup and three stars mark its handle. And as all you regular viewers know you can use the handle to find a very bright star. Simply draw a line through the handle and continue that line in the same curve or arc and you'll "arc to Arcturus", which is the brightest star of the constellation Bootes the Herdsman, but whose other stars are less bright than the Big Dipper's and if we draw lines between them would look something like a kite.
Now although astronomers usually call Bootes the Herdsman he is also called the bear driver because some legends say that he chases two celestial bears around the North Star. You see the Big Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Major the big bear and the Little Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Minor the little bear. Bootes is also called the plowman because some European cultures see the Big Dipper as a plow and Bootes as the plowman endlessly turning up celestial turf as he steers his plow endlessly circling the north star.
At any rate it's his brightest star Arcturus which was super famous three quarters of a century ago when it was used to open the World's Fair in Chicago. The reasoning behind this was that 40 years earlier in 1893, Chicago had also hosted a world's fair. And astronomers believed that Arcturus was 40 light years away. So someone came up with the bright idea that wouldn't it be nifty if the light of Arcturus, which left it in 1893, could be used to open the world's fair when its light arrived 40 years later in 1933. So a device was set up whereby the rays from Arcturus were passed through a telescope which focused this light onto a photo electric cell which then generated a small electrical current which was then used to turn on the lights of the fair. And it really worked!
Only one problem however, since then we have discovered that Arcturus is a bit closer, 37 light years away. So early 20th century astronomers got it wrong, but only by 3 years, which is pretty good. Arcturus is the 4th brightest star we can see and is 23 times wider than our Sun, a whopping 20 million miles wide. Plus it is 115 times brighter. It is actually speeding toward us and will do so for another couple thousand years. After which however it will speed away from us and fade from sight in only half a million years! So see it now before it disappears out of sight. Keep looking up!
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Horkheimer: Want to know what the 4th brightest star had to do with the 1933 world's fair? Look north just after dark, find the Big Dipper then shoot an arrow through its handle and you'll arc to Arcturus the brightest star of Bootes. It is 20 million miles wide which makes it 23 times wider than our Sun, plus it's 115 times brighter. And in 1933 its light was focused through a telescope onto a photo electric cell which actually turned on the lights and opened the 1933 Chicago World's Fair! It is speeding toward us for the next 2,000 years, after which however it will speed away from us and fade from sight in only half a million years. So see it now, while you can! Keep looking up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance
and Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
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