The full moon put on a show last, but it took a while longer than expected for the moon to rise high enough to see. "We knew when the moon was going to come up," says Bob King. "But it never showed. It was like 'is the moon gone?'" The low hanging wildfire smoke postponed the moonrise by several minutes.
Tonight, the focus stays on the moon. Saturn and the moon will pass closely. The planet will be visually situated directly above the moon. Additionally, the star Vega is worth taking look at. "It's almost directly above us," says King. Vega is a bright star in the Lyra constellation.
Looking way into the future, in the year 13,500, Vega will be Earth's north star. Our planet wobbles as it spins, so the axis is always changing - however slowly. "When the early pyramids were built in Egypt, they had an entirely different pole star in the constellation of Draco the Dragon."
You can hear Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy every other Tuesday at 8:20am on Northland Morning.
