Eye On The Night Sky For Friday, September 11

0:00I'm Mark Briehn. Welcome to Night Sky for Friday, September 11. Our look this week along the southern horizon at the constellation Sagittarius hopefully triggered some name recognition as one of the twelve horoscope or zodiac signs. While the horoscope, part of astrology, a belief system using the positions of the stars, planets and the moon to predict the future, is not a scientific venture, it offers a gateway into science, the study of space and all it contains, the names are often familiar and they're associated with time. Specifically, Sagittarius, seen as a teapot-shaped pattern above the southern horizon during September evenings, covers the period from late November until December 20. It seems curious then that Sagittarius is in our skies now. The reason, thousands of years ago, the stars of Sagittarius hosted the sun in late November and December. Cyclical variations in the axis of the Earth have shifted that time period to late December

1:02and January. Next week exploring more details relating astronomy and astrology on Night Sky. Night Sky is a production of Vermont Public and the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium.