Look up and see galaxies far, far away (and long ago, actually)

Published 9:00 pm Friday, May 18, 2007

I’m probably showing my age here, but I just love the old song “Far Away Places” recorded by Bing Crosby in 1949. From time to time when I’m scanning the night skies with my telescope that old tune pops into my head, and for good reason. You and I are truly looking at really far away places. Even I have a hard time getting my mind wrapped around the distances to neighboring planets in our solar system.

The planet Saturn, for example, is more than 865 million miles away, so far away that the light we see from it takes well over an hour just to reach our eyes. By the way, do whatever you can to catch a view of Saturn through a telescope. It’s one of the best celestial jewels in the sky.

I know I mention Saturn a lot in this column, but it’s something you just have to see, and right now you can see it early in the evening in the southwest sky, just to the lower left of the constellation Leo. Leo looks just like a backward question mark leaning to the right.

At the bottom of the backward query mark is the moderately bright star Regulus. You had better have a full tank if you’re headed to that star, as it’s more than 446 trillion miles away. Believe me though, that’s chump change compared with the distance of many other stars, even ones we can clearly see with our naked eye.

When it comes to stellar distance you really need to express the distances in light-years or your head is bound to explode. One light year equals just under six trillion miles, which is the distance a beam of light travels in one year’s time. Regulus is about 77 light years away, so the light we see tonight from the brightest star in Leo left that star in 1930, almost 20 years before Bing Crosby recorded “Far Away Places.”

Mission impossible for me is trying to honestly comprehend the distance to other galaxies. All of the stars we see in our sky tonight are part of our Milky Way galaxy, home to possibly a trillion stars including our home star, the sun. This time of year in the high southern skies it’s possible to see other galaxies with a telescope. Just to the lower left of the distinct triangle that makes up the hind quarters and tail of Leo is the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, part of the local group of galaxies that includes our own Milky Way galaxy.

Without a doubt you’ll need something a little beyond a starter telescope. Even if that’s all you have, slowly scan that part of the sky with a low magnification eyepiece. See if you can spot fuzzy patches of light. There are well over a dozen relatively bright galaxies, and if you manage to capture a glimpse of one or more of them, I don’t think you’ll be doing back flips over the view.

Keep in mind, though, that these less than impressive looking fuzz balls are other galaxies, some of which are much, much larger than our Milky Way and 60 million light-years away. The galaxies that make up the Virgo cluster are truly, truly far away places.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores and on his Web site, www.lynchand thestars.com.