More people than usual contacted me a couple of weeks ago, telling me they had sighted the International Space Station after reading the letter I had published in the Wanganui papers. It was clearly visible on two of the three evenings — quite an achievement for astronomical events.
There are good sightings, three evenings, later this week. The long-term weather shows some optimism that clear skies will prevail for some of those nights.
Thursday, July 12, at 6.22, the space station will appear above the SW horizon. It will be in the southern sky between the Southern Cross and the horizon and will disappear from view just before it reaches the planet Saturn at 6.27.
Friday evening it will rise above the horizon WSW at 7.07. It will be bright but only visible for three minutes before fading from sight between Jupiter and Venus.
Saturday evening at 6.15 the space station will rise from SW and move almost directly overhead, past the Southern Cross, the south of Jupiter and reach the NE horizon at 6.21.
TV1 news last week presented an item regarding the star cluster Matariki and how to find it. It was too complicated. The simplest way is to look for the star Rigel, known also as Puanga. If you can see the constellation Orion that we recognise as The Pot, the intense blue star on the handle side of the pot is Rigel. The star cluster Matariki, if it can be seen, is low in the sky north of Puanga.
I have never seen Matariki in the morning sky. It is a great sight in the evening summer months.
What appears to the naked eye as a faint blue smudge about one third of the way up the northern sky, binoculars show as a cluster of bright stars. Worth looking at. New Moon on Friday means dark sky, good viewing. Questions, queries, info give me a call 281 3616.
JOHN CARSON
Springvale
Energy payment
We have a lady Prime Minister, evidently very popular and populist.
Does that explain why my wife received a letter from Work and Income advising that she would be receiving the winter energy payment (presumably for our household), while I have had no notice, will not receive any payment but will still be expected to pay the energy bill!
Figure that out.
DOUGLAS WILSON
Otamatea
Philosophical positions
If Ella Grant (letters, June 23) thinks no religion is true, she should not trust science that is clearly derived from secular humanism.
Neither should she naively assume that science is infallible. Even if observation produces accurate data, such is necessarily reviewable because no study can be exhaustive.
The philosophical positions of those who initiate, set up, and conduct studies necessarily affect their conclusions which is why one supposedly neutral scientific authority can can describe another as being "skewed".
Neutrality is a myth, and all sorts of people use science to back their own preferences.
Who is infallible and can know all things exhaustively? The living God. He says homosexuality is sin and that moral abandon affects body as well as soul. The genetic variations Ella hopes will ward off moral judgement may in fact result from moral choices, in which case I claim it as "evidence" that God's word is true.
JOHN HAAKMA
Whanganui
Send your letters to: The Editor, Wanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Wanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
