THE SKY THIS JULY: TAKING A LOOK AT THE SUMMER MILKY WAY

As the month of July unfolds the Milky Way regains its dominance in the sky. Around midnight this month the Milky Way stretches from the southern horizon to the northeast.

While the ancient Greeks thought the Milky Way was cosmic milk or smoke, we know that we are living in a flattened disk of a galaxy and we are seeing it edge on from our location. As we look in this direction we see an enhancement of stars, gas, and dust which makes up the Milky Way.

The bright star Vega, of the movie Contact, will be directly overhead around midnight.

Because the direction of the Earth's rotation axis wobbles around a circle every 26,000 years, the star Vega will become our North Star in about 12,00 years. Then it will be easy to find the North Star as Vega is one of the brightest stars in the sky.

The constellation Scorpius is standing on its tail on the southern horizon this month. Because Scorpius is such a southern constellation, it pops up over the horizon for just a few weeks during the summer evenings.

The bright red star is Antares and is the "heart" of the scorpion. The star Antares is where the aliens in the movie Cocoon were from.

If you are an area teacher and would like to use the University's inflatable planetarium in your school, the Godwin Center for Science and Mathematics Education, still has openings for their summer workshop on how to setup and use the planetarium. There is no cost to teachers. Call 651-2516 for more information.

~Dr. Michael Cobb is an astronomer and chairman of the physics department at Southeast Missouri State University.