6 days ago
Sky Matters: a good time to spot Venus in the evening sky — and we've a 'strawberry moon' coming up on June 11
Last week I visited the Skinakas Astronomical Observatory on Mount Ida on the island of Crete. It's a small observatory perched 1,750 metres above sea level, beyond the reach of the cloud layer that would make the site otherwise unusable for astronomical observations. The atmosphere here is unusually 'stable', evidenced by the lack of twinkling of the stars and the remarkable detail that can be captured in images from the Observatory's two telescopes.
About 60 kilometres west of Skinakas is the city of Heraklion. Unlike the steady stars above, the lights of Heraklion far below appear to dance about and change colour — a kind of terrestrial twinkling on steroids. As I watched this entrancing spectacle I was reminded of the impact that Greek (and Cretan) culture has had on our world from great minds such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Archimedes and Hippocrates. Their ideas spread across the globe, sometimes taking years to cross country boundaries, sometimes much longer.
1.0m Telescope. Picture: Vangelis Pantoulas / Skinakas Observatory
So what has this got to do with Skinakas, the observatory?
More than you might think, because Mount Ida is one of the sites around Europe that is taking part in experiments to move ideas around the globe employing technologies that would have seemed magical to those great minds.
Using a small telescope with a mirror that is one metre in diameter — and that's small by current day standards — the site will use a laser beam to connect to a satellite above, which will then itself transfer that beam (and the ideas contained in it) to receiving stations across Europe and beyond. In a fraction of a second. And in huge volumes. Indeed volumes which are much greater than we can move with current satellite technologies.
Sending a beam from a small telescope to a moving satellite some 500km – 2000km above your head is no mean technological feat, and the state-of-the-art technology is still somewhat in its infancy.
But give it a few more years and it's likely that this mode of communication will mature and be widely used. In the future, when you send an email or ask ChatGPT to summarise the differences between a South American Parakeet and a Common Irish Tern there will be a new information superhighway that ticks along unnoticed involving remote mountain tops and orbiting satellites.
People watching a the rising strawberry moon — so called because it is the full moon at strawberry harvest time. Picture: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Meanwhile, June is a curious month for the casual sky observer. The nights start late, they're short, and the sky never gets truly dark, but at least it's (relatively) warm. Despite the astronomy drawbacks, there's still much to see:
The planet Venus shines brightly to the west of the setting sun and is an easy spot in the evening sky throughout the month
There's a full moon on June 11, called the Strawberry Moon — a North American term which refers to the time of year when berries, including strawberries, started to ripen and become edible.
And on June 29, Mars is very close to the top-left of the moon.
On June 21 we have the longest day of the year, marking the peak of the summer season for Earth's northern hemisphere.
We are familiar with a season lasting three months, but on Saturn a season lasts 7.5 years; on Uranus it's 21 years; and on Neptune it's about 40 years. By contrast, there are no seasons on Mercury, Venus or Jupiter. This is because only planets that have a tilted axis — ours is 23.5° — can experience seasons.
For sure the ancient inhabitants of Heraklion were aware of seasons on earth. They had no knowledge of seasons on other planets. Despite their immense achievements in architecture and construction, they had to rely on the slow spread of ideas beyond their immediate locality. I wonder what they would think if they came back today to witness how their ancestors are once again at the leading edge of a transformation in our world.
Dr Niall Smith is head of research/ head of Blackrock Castle Observatory, Munster Technological University, Cork
