#well technically waxing gibbous tonight

[endcant]

i went outside tonight and happened to see this beautiful girl

[savannah-lim]

Two For One Sacrifice Special || Dave & Savannah

Dave didn’t really know what he had signed up for. An ad in the local newspaper that he’d answered, asking for a local human sacrifice. “Find your peace today.” It had said, and the image with it had been a terrifying tangle of tentacles. This was some White Crest nonsense, alright, and Dave had wanted to understand what the hell was going on, that people felt so comfortable putting ads like that right in the paper. So he’d signed up, told them he was old and tired of living, which were both only partially true. He’d been sent some co-ordinates and a time - 7pm, under the waxing gibbous. Only problem was, those co-ordinates? Near something called the Devil’s Gullet. Dave didn’t like that one bit, as he waited. His coat oversized and loose, hiding his weapons. 

Cults, missing people, human freaking sacrifice. Those were the joys of White Crest. Savannah had retraced as many of Javier’s steps as she could. He’d made a pretty big deal about reading the paper every day, even if it did read like the tabloids that wrote about Alligators in the Sewers. That was where she had seen the ad. Human Sacrifice Wanted. Well… that couldn’t be good. But the spot had been filled, and so instead she had been calling the people who printed the newspaper trying to find as much information as possible. That didn’t lead anywhere either, so she tried something else. ‘Can I watch?’ It had taken a while before the answer came back. ‘Fine, we might need a backup.’ So now, here she was, unknowingly at the place where Javier had jumped to his death, armed with her government issued weapon. “Are you the…” she asked, approaching the other man on the scene.

“Sure am,” Dave replied, his eyes narrowed. She didn’t smell like anything too suspicious. She wasn’t a shifter, that was for damn sure, and if he could get closer, he might be able to feel if her heart was hammering. Still left him with a whole range of options. He breathed in deeply, catching the thick scent of coffee, and paper like she spent most of her time in the office. Printer ink, and alcohol still clinging to her clothes. More’n that too, but he wasn’t about to dig deeper into that particular spell. No weird herbs, or magic burning, no blood. Nothing. Weird as hell. “It just you, or are we waiting for a party?”

The evening light was enough for Savannah to make out the man’s features. He had a gruffness about him, a weathered kind of look. He struck her as someone who was very hands-on, who didn’t beat around the bush. She hadn’t finished her sentence. Was he the person who posted the ad or the one who answered it? “Party? Oh, no. This isn’t my idea of a party. My idea of a party is in a warm bar, music playing, maybe some dancing. Not a giant--” She gestured to the huge hole in the ground. “What exactly is this? Why did you answer the ad?” 

That wasn’t promising in the slightest. “That’s usually my idea of a party too,” Dave agreed, tilting his head to try to get a better read on her too. “Aren’t you the one who should know?”  Dave asked, his eyes narrowing even more deeply. “Hell if I know what this place is. I was sent the GPS coordinates and came right here.” He sighed, deeply. This could be a real problem. If she wasn’t part of them, then she might scare them away. Which’d defeat the whole point of putting himself in danger now, wouldn’t it. “If you weren’t the one who texted, why’re you here? D’you know who did text?”

Well, her guess had been right. “Me?” Savannah questioned, scoffing. “Oh, you think I’m the--” she laughed humorlessly, shaking her head. “Oh, no, I’m the back-up. The person who goes in the hole if you can’t make it or--” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Don’t worry. It’s not going to happen.” She felt her badge from the inside of her jacket, but she wasn’t ready to show it yet. “Don’t know yet, but I’m going to find out.” She spoke normally again, in case they were being overheard. “I’m so excited. I’ve never seen an actual human sacrifice before.” She leaned as close to the hole as she dared, taking a look. “How deep do you think it goes?”

“Ah,” The actual fool in this situation, then, Dave thought a little unkindly. If she was here wanting to die, then he’d have to drag her out of here with him the moment shit went sideways. “Yeah, no need to throw you down there. Why’d you volunteer, if they already had someone?” He’d never even answered her question, but that was his prerogative. I wonder how you’d feel about salt. Dave groaned. That Dane kid was still stuck in his head too. Don’t send anyone out here, he tried to think loudly back at them, no idea if that would work. “Suspect I look the way most other humans look, not much exciting about me.” He didn’t quite hear what she said when she looked down the hole, but it didn’t matter ether way. “Think we got company.” He said, looking behind her, where two figures approached in deep red hoods, although to Dave they looked dark brown. It woulda looked impressive, if the hoods hadn’t come right from the costume store, literally. The price tags still hung on the hoods. 

"Why wouldn't I volunteer for something so exciting? I wanted to see what this was all about." It was only partly a lie. Savannah was probably a little more excited about the prospect of busting up a potential cult than she should have been. Of course, unlike Javier, she had the sense to send all the information back at HQ so she wouldn't just disappear without a trace if anything happened. She lifted her eyes to examine the figures as they made their way towards them. "More than one?" she huffed. She'd hoped it would be one person. It made things easier. But they didn't exactly look professional. "Oh, come on. No need for all that secrecy. Go back to Party City and get your money back. Take those things off."

“Right,” Dave said, because she was beginning to look more foolish by the minute. He didn’t have time to say more, as the two approached in their cloaks. They looked young, from what he could see of their jaunt and their long, bony profiles. “You’re not in a position to make demands, ma’am. He is the guy. David, right?” One of them said, and while his eyes were hidden, Dave could see a bad batch of angry acne on his chin. Dave didn’t even blink as they walked over to him, clasping his hands behind his back. He looked back over to the woman, hoping she wouldn’t do anything rash. He almost missed what Acne-Chin had to say. “Shit. He’s not human!”

Savannah’s disapproval was evident as they came close enough for her to get a better look at them in spite of the hoods. “Not in a position to-- Oh, come on. I’m not going to be ordered around by Zac Efron in High School Musical.” She furrowed her brow. Technically, she could have arrested them right now, but she wanted to see what they would do. Advertising for a human sacrifice, though very suspect, wasn’t actually against the law. Not unless she could prove they were going to actually kill someone. “Uh, excuse me? What do you mean not human?” 

Dave couldn’t help it, he snorted, trying not to take a liking to her when she’d volunteered herself to die. Still, the kid in the red hood wasn’t done talking, and Dave’d keep himself mild either way, trying not to curse as it revealed him. How the fuck did Acne-Chin know?“I can always tell. Her. We can use her. Can you get the circle going? I’ve got Dungeons and Dragons tonight and we gotta get this thing summoned before then or my grades’ll got to shit,” Acne-Chin said to his friend. A flap of wind caught his hood, briefly exposing the rest of his long, narrow face before tugging it back down. “Don’t worry old man, we’ll make sure you die either way.”

“Oh, no, you have to be able to legally drink to touch me.” Savannah stiffened, her features stern. Now that was enough. He���d made direct threats. Now was as good a time as any. There wasn’t going to be much more probably cause than that unless she actually let them throw this poor bastard into the hole. She reached for her badge, holding it up with one hand, brandishing her gun with the other. “FBI! Hands up, hoods down. You’re both under arrest for attempted murder.” 

The acne riddled kid was reaching into his pocket as he was speaking. Dave opted to watch him do it rather than understanding the threats, so when he aimed to stab Dave caught his wrist before he could even do anything. The woman was yelling something, and the two turned to look at her simultaneously, giving Dave the chance to twist the kid’s wrist hard enough for him to drop the tackily decorated knife he was holding. Acne-Chin wilted, and Dave stepped away from him as Acne-Chin raised his hands. He hadn’t understood her yelling, but he could read the badge alright. Thank god she hadn’t really wanted to be sacrificed then. Acne-Chin started panting, his eyes wild as he made a break for the… giant hole in the ground. Before he could get much of anywhere, Dave grabbed him and shoved him to the ground. “No use in running, kid. No sacrifice for you today.”

Savannah couldn’t help but be a little impressed as Dave wrestled the knife out of the adolescent hand of the young man. The other was still brandishing one though, and she had her weapon trained on him. “Uh-uh, don’t do it, Riverdale.” He turned his head to look over his shoulder at his friend, the one who had since been wrestled to the ground, and he sighed, dropping the knife. “Damnit, Tucker, you couldn’t check if you were inviting law enforcement here?” Savannah rolled her eyes and moved in to cuff them. “Save it for the police station.” She tossed a pair of handcuffs to the other man. “Not human, huh? So they’re crazy as well as murderers?” 

“Yeah, must be.” Dave lied, because like hell was he giving secrets to the FBI “Figured they were doing something weird ‘n’ creepy from the ad. Figured I was better at stopping them than some random hapless teen, you know.” Dave looked her over. “Turns out, the hapless person ain’t so hapless after all.” He wrestled the kid to the ground proper, yanking his hands behind his back, but the handcuffs were a little trickier to operate than Dave’d realised - he usually killed shit, he didn’t help cops with civilian arrests or whatever. All the while, it felt like the Devil’s Gullet was watching him, which made no sense, and made him want to get the hell outta here. He almost had the kid in the cuffs when the kid squirmed and yanked his arm free and reached into his pocket. Dave saw a round flask full of pink liquid, before it was thrown between him and the FBI lady, and exploded with a loud fizz. 

“Oh, so you didn’t actually intend to let them throw you into a bottomless pit with your hands tied behind your back?” Savannah challenged. Well, that was a damn relief. She’d had enough crazy for tonight. But it seemed that crazy hadn’t had enough of her. “Watch it! He’s--” but she never got to finish her sentence. She didn’t manage to get the frat boy cultist into the back of her car by the time the other had thrown the flask. The pink liquid turned to pink smoke, engulfing the space between them. Savannah spluttered and coughed, her vision blurred, her surroundings becoming fuzzy at the edges. She saw Javier in the smoke, surrounded by faces she didn’t know. They were blurred and dream-like, but Javier was clear as day. She saw him jump into the pit, and her scream to him fell on nothingness. He couldn’t hear her. 

Her head spun with an unspeakable language, like what she’d heard on Javier’s tapes, and out of the smoke, she saw squid-like tentacles reaching for her like desperate hands. She saw them mixing with Javier’s features, she saw him turn violent, and then her vision snapped back to normal. One teen had vanished in the smoke, and the other was still struggling on the ground having fallen there in the scuffle. “What the hell did you do to me, you little shit?” she snapped, and the boy gave the best shrug he could manage with handcuffed arms.

“Just showed you a little piece of the truth. What you do with it is up to you.” 

“Wasn’t on my plan for the day,” Dave snorted wryly, but he should have been acting so glibly as the potion began to fizz. He coughed and spluttered, but didn’t let go of Acne-Chin once. The smoke filled his eyes and nose, suffocating out the rest of his vision. He didn’t see what she did, didn’t see anything more than the deep fog surrounding them. Maybe it was some damn part of the spell the college students hadn’t expected him to show up for, but he didn’t comment on it. Acne-Chin struggled in his grasp right up until the second the fog faded into the air. Dave was left holding the cheap red hood, and nothing else. He looked up at the agent as she snapped, visibly rattled. “Shit. You alright?”

“Ugh, yeah, I’m fine,” Savannah grumbled, rubbing the back of her head and pulling herself up off the ground, wiping off his jeans. She was having a hell of a day. “Just made my head spin for a second.” She planned on grilling this obnoxious little shit about exactly what his friend had poisoned her with. She opened up her car door, placing her captive in the back seat and locking him in. “I’m going to take him to the station and Miranda him. I trust I’ll be seeing you there to take a statement.” Her tone indicated that wasn’t merely a polite request. “Freaking kids and their freaking death cults…” she mumbled to herself, gritting her teeth as she climbed into the front seat. This town was going to be the death of her. 

[astrogeoguy]

The Waxing Moon Passes Planets, Peering at Pegasus, and the Orionids Open Meteor Shower Season!

(Above: The pretty globular star cluster designated Messier 15 is located near the naked-eye star Enif, which marks the muzzle of Pegasus. This image was taken by Ian Wheelband near Collingwood, Ontario.)

Astronomy Skylights for this week (from October 14th, 2018) by Chris Vaughan. (Feel free to pass this along to friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics.) I post these with photos at http://astrogeoguy.tumblr.com/ where the old editions are archived. You can also follow me on Twitter as @astrogeoguy! Unless otherwise noted, all times are Eastern Time. Please click this MailChimp link to subscribe to these emails. If you are a teacher or group leader interested joining me on a guided field trip to York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory or the David Dunlap Observatory, visit www.astrogeo.ca.

I can bring my Digital Starlab inflatable planetarium to your school or other daytime or evening event, visit DiscoveryPlanetarium.com and request me. We’ll tour the Universe together! 

Public Events

Taking advantage of the moon, Saturn, Mars, and other bright objects in the sky this week, the RASC Toronto Centre astronomers will hold their free monthly public City Sky Star Party in Bayview Village Park (steps from the Bayview subway station), around 8 pm on the first clear weeknight this week (Mon to Thu). You don’t need to be an RASC member, or own any equipment, to join them. Check here for details, and check the banner on their website home page or Facebook page for the GO or NO-GO decision around 5 pm each day. 

Every Monday evening, York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory runs an online star party - broadcasting views from four telescopes/cameras, answering viewer questions, and taking requests! Details are here. On Wednesday nights they offer free public viewing through their rooftop telescopes. If it’s cloudy, the astronomers give tours and presentations. Details are here. 

The Allan I. Carswell Observatory at York University will also be open for free public Orionid Meteor Shower viewing on the first clear weeknight this week. Details are here. 

On Saturday, October 20, starting at 7 pm, U of T’s AstroTour will present their planetarium show entitled Grand Tour of the Cosmos. Tickets and details are here. 

The next RASC Public Event at the David Dunlap Observatory will be a Speaker Night on Saturday, October 20 – and it’s all about the Moon! There will be a lecture by an astronomer, a tour of the giant 74” telescope, and viewing through lawn telescopes (weather permitting). The doors will open at 6:30 pm for a 7 pm start. Attendance is by tickets only, available here. If you are a RASC member and wish to help us at DDO in the future, please fill out the volunteer questionnaire here. And to join RASC, visit this page. 

Orionids Meteor Shower

We’ve now entered meteor shower season! Over the next few months, we’ll experience a wave of several showers. The excellent Orionid Meteor Shower, which is derived from material dropped by repeated past passages of Comet Halley, is underway this week, and observable world-wide. It will peak in the hours after midnight (in your local time zone) on Sunday, October 21 (i.e., Monday morning). At that time, the sky overhead will be ploughing through the densest region of the particle field, generating up to 25 meteors per hour. 

The meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, but true Orionids will be travelling in a direction away from a location (the radiant) a fist’s diameter to the upper left of the bright red star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. Although not too numerous, Orionids are known for being bright and fast-moving. You can watch for meteors in the evening, too – but many of them will be hidden behind the Earth’s horizon.

(Above: The orbit of Halley’s Comet crosses the inner solar system. Over many centuries, the comet has deposited particles along its orbit. When Earth passes through the debris every October, the particles burn up to become the Orionids meteor shower.)

This shower has a broad period of activity because the debris field is very spread out and the comet’s orbit does not cross Earth’s at a sharp angle. So, technically, the Orionids will linger until late November – weakening as time passes. Unfortunately, the moon will be close to full around the peak evenings this year, somewhat spoiling the shower. 

To see the most meteors, find a wide-open dark location, preferably away from light polluted skies, and just look up with your unaided eyes. Binoculars and telescopes are not useful for meteors – their field of view are too narrow. If the peak night is cloudy, several nights on either side will be almost as good. Happy hunting!

(Above: During the Orionids meteor shower, Earth’s orbit is carrying us directly towards the part of the sky that contains the constellation of Orion. The meteors will appear to radiate from a location near the bright star Betelgeuse, but that’s not the best place to look for the meteors - they’ll be highly shortened.) 

The Moon and Planets

The moon will spend this week in the southern evening sky, well-placed for after-dinner observing. And, since its orbit is close to the ecliptic, it will pass by the evening planets. 

On Sunday evening (tonight) the waxing crescent moon will land two finger widths to the right of yellowish Saturn. The moon will slide closer to Saturn by the time they set in the west at around 10:30 pm local time. In the southern sky on Wednesday evening, the slightly gibbous moon will be positioned about a palm’s width to the right (west) of Mars. From dusk, until they set at around 1 am local time, the moon’s eastward orbital motion will carry it towards the Red Planet. The following evening, the moon will appear a similar distance from Mars, but now on the left (east) side of the planet. Finally, next Saturday night, the very bright moon will pass a few finger widths below distant, dim Neptune. 

On Tuesday evening, the moon will reach its First Quarter phase. That’s when it has completed the first quarter of its trip around Earth (as measured from the previous New Moon). First quarter moons are always half illuminated because the sun is shining on them from the side. At this phase the moon will rise around local noon and set at around midnight. At sunset, the moon will be due south. You can point to the sun with one arm and at the moon with the other and see that the objects make a 90° angle with Earth. 

As we watch the lit portion of the waxing moon grow larger every evening, we are witnessing the sun slowly rise over its eastern horizon. The slanting sunlight will be illuminating topographic high points and casting deep black shadows from them, especially along the terminator – the imaginary line that runs pole-to-pole between the light and dark hemispheres of the moon. That’s the best area to look at with your binoculars or backyard telescopes.

(Above: Mercury and Jupiter shown on October 19 at 7 pm local time.)

Mercury will be visible this week, but it will be tough to see it because it will be barely above the west-southwestern horizon after sunset. Later in the week will offer better odds. The planet will set at about 7 pm local time – soon after the sun. Because Mercury is on the far side of the sun right now, its appearance in a telescope will be a nearly fully illuminated disk. (For eye safety, be sure to wait until the sun has vanished completely before using binoculars or a telescope on Mercury.) 

While you are out, take a look for Jupiter. When the sky is getting dark, the mighty planet will sit about a palm’s width above the southwestern horizon. It will set in the west-southwest shortly before 8 pm local time. Binoculars will let you see Jupiter’s four Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede) forming a line to either side of the planet. 

You can use the moon to positively identify brighter, reddish Mars and dimmer, yellow-tinted Saturn on the evenings I noted above. For the rest of the week, those two bright planets will remain in the southern sky all evening. As soon as the sky becomes dark enough to reveal them, both planets will be located about two fist diameters above the horizon, with Mars located 35° (three and a half fist diameters) east (to the left) of Saturn. Mars will set in the west before 1:30 am local time. It’s still well worth looking at, even in a small telescope. Try to see a small white oval near the top of its disk. That’s the southern polar cap (but inverted by your telescope’s optics)!

(Above: Mars and Saturn will appear all week in the southern evening sky, as shown here at 7:30 pm local time.) 

Saturn will set at about 10:15 pm local time. Once the sky darkens, even a small telescope should be able to show you some of Saturn’s larger moons, especially its largest satellite, Titan. Using a clock’s dial analogy, Titan will move counter-clockwise over the course of this week – starting from a position at 2 o’clock (to the upper right of Saturn) and ending at 9 o’clock (to the left of Saturn). (Remember that your telescope might flip and/or invert the view. Use the moon to find out how your telescope changes things and keep a note of it, since that will always be the case.) 

This autumn is an ideal time to peruse the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune because they will be conveniently placed for evening observing and also bigger and brighter than normal because Earth is roughly between them and the sun right now, minimizing our distance from those planets.

(Above: A detailed star chart for Neptune this week. The labelled stars will be visible to unaided eyes and binoculars.)

Distant Neptune will be visible nearly all night. Using a decent quality telescope you can see the very blue, magnitude 7.8 planet among the dim stars of Aquarius (the Water-bearer) - sitting roughly midway between the modestly bright star Phi (φ) Aquarii and the brighter star Hydor (Lambda Aquarii). Neptune will highest in the sky (and best viewing conditions) at about 10:15 pm local time. The bright moonlight will hinder seeing the planet this week. 

Blue-green coloured Uranus will be visible all night long. You can see it without optical aid under very dark skies, but binoculars and telescopes are better. After mid-evening, Uranus will be high enough in the eastern sky to see clearly. It is located 3 finger widths to the left (east) of the modestly bright star Torcular (Omega Piscium). That star sits a generous palm’s width above the “V” where the two starry cords of Pisces (the Fishes) meet. The planet will climb higher until 1:30 am local time.

(Above: A detailed star chart for Uranus this week. The labelled stars will be visible to unaided eyes and binoculars.)

Peering at Pegasus

When the moon grows brighter in the evening sky, we can still enjoy objects that include bright stars – with unaided eyes, binoculars, and telescopes. 

The Great Square of Pegasus (the Winged Horse) sits in the eastern evening sky every October. This giant square is composed of four equally bright stars that form edges about 1.6 fist diameters long and measures 2 fists, corner to corner. This asterism might remind you of a baseball diamond when you see it because it’s usually tilted with one corner downwards. For the Lakota people, the square represented the great shell of Keya, the Turtle. In Greek mythology, the square represents the wings of Perseus’ flying horse. The steed is upside-down. His forelegs extend to the upper right (northwest), his neck descends to the lower right (southwest), and his head bends upwards to the northwest, ending near the lovely globular star cluster designated as Messier 15. You can see that object as a small fuzzy patch in binoculars.

(Above: The evening eastern sky hosts the upside-down constellation of Pegasus, as shown here for 7:45 pm local time. The globular cluster M15 sits above the star Enif. The modest star 51 Pegasi is located just below the label Pegasus.)

The star at the bottom-most (southeast) corner of the Great Square of Pegasus is Algenib, Arabic for “the Side”. This hot, blue-white star (magnitude 2.8) is located about 350 light-years away, and actually emits 4,000 times more light than our sun! The white star at the right-hand (southwestern) corner is Markab “the Saddle”. This magnitude 2.45 star appears slightly brighter than Algenib – it emits less light, but it is only 140 light-years away. The fairly bright magnitude 2.4 star at the upper right (northwest) corner is Scheat “the Foreleg”, the second brightest star in the constellation. It’s a cool, red giant star 200 light-years away. (Pegasus’ two forelegs start at Scheat and extend upwards to the right.) The star at the upper left (northeastern) corner is Alpheratz “The Horse’s Shoulder”. It’s another hot, blue-white supergiant star, but it’s located only 97 light-years away from us. The spectrum of this star’s light indicates that it is highly enriched in the metal Mercury. In actuality, Alpheratz does not belong to Pegasus – it’s the brightest star in Andromeda, and marks the princess’ head.

At first glance, the Great Square of Pegasus appears empty. You might be able to pick out one or two dim stars inside it – more if you are away from light-polluted skies. Draw an imaginary line joining Markab and Scheat and look 1.5 finger widths to the upper right (west) of the midpoint on that line for the magnitude 5.45 star designated 51 Pegasi, or Helvetios. In 1995, using the radial velocity technique, a large planet was discovered orbiting 51 Pegasi – the first exoplanet to be discovered around a sun-like star. The planet’s mass has been estimated to be half of Jupiter’s. With a “year” of 4.23 Earth-days, the planet orbits only 0.05 AU (that’s one-sixth the distance between the sun and Mercury!) from its star, making it the original “Hot Jupiter” type of exoplanet.

Zodiacal Light

During moonless periods in September and October, the steep morning ecliptic favors the appearance of the zodiacal light in the eastern sky for about half an hour before dawn. The glow is sunlight reflected from interplanetary particles drifting in the plane of our solar system. During this week, look east, below the stars of Leo (the Lion), for a broad wedge of faint light rising from the horizon and centered on the ecliptic. (The ecliptic passes directly through the bright star Regulus in Leo.) Don’t confuse the zodiacal light with distant light pollution, or the Milky Way, which is sitting further to the southeast. I posted a picture here.

Keep looking up to enjoy the sky! I love getting questions so, if you have any, send me a note.