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From: dipper@utastro.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: StarDate: December 18 Saturn and the Moon on Saturnalia
Message-ID: <933@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Dec-84 02:00:19 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.933
Posted: Tue Dec 18 02:00:19 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Dec-84 00:32:15 EST
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 39

You can look for the planet Saturn, now near the waning moon in the
predawn sky.  More on Saturn and the moon -- right after this.

December 18  Saturn and the Moon on Saturnalia

The moon is now waning -- visible in the sky only after midnight -- and
appearing as a slimmer crescent with each new dawn.  The planet Saturn
now is also in the east before dawn -- a normally inconspicuous object
-- like a medium-bright golden "star" to the naked-eye.  It's usually
hard to identify Saturn without a star chart -- but the planet becomes
more noticeable Wednesday and Thursday morning because it's near the
moon in the east before sunrise.

The moon actually passes Saturn on the dome of the sky when our part of
the Earth is turned away from these two worlds.  So on Wednesday, we
see the moon above Saturn in the east before dawn -- and on Thursday,
we see the moon below Saturn.  Saturn is of course moving in orbit
around the sun -- but its motion across the dome of our sky is very
slow compared to the moon.  The moon's eastward motion in orbit around
Earth carries it past Saturn in our eastern sky -- and finally will
take it so far eastward that the moon will disappear in the glow of
dawn.  Then it'll be new moon -- due this coming Saturday.

Saturn and the moon rendezvous in the east tomorrow just in time to
observe an ancient Roman festival, called Saturnalia.  This midwinter
festival was originally on December 19 -- but gradually was extended to
last seven days.  It's possible that we celebrate Christmas on December
25 because of the Roman Saturnalia.



Script by Deborah Byrd.






(c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin