Mario Carr, Hamilton Amateur Astronomers

The night sky has inspired cultures throughout history to come up with many versions of creation. The Maya went one step further and predicted the end of the world this December. They believed in cycles of creation and destruction. According to the Maya calendar, a cycle is 394 years and every 13th cycle the world will end. The last time this happened was 3114 BC. The next time will be December 23, 2012.

At the February 10 meeting of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers, Ian McGregor from the Royal Ontario Museum will talk about Maya Cosmology and 2012. The event will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the  Spectator building, 44 Frid St., Hamilton. Admission is free and there will be door prizes. An optional donation of non-perishable food will be collected for local food banks.

If you miss his talk you can see the museum’s newest exhibit, Maya: Secrets of the Ancient World, which is on display until April 9. For more information: www.rom.on.ca/maya.

Here are February stargazer events. Most are listed in the more optimistic Hamilton Amateur Astronomers’ calendar.

• Mercury can be seen at the end of the month low in the western evening sky. Venus is in the southwest and sets early evening. Mars rises in the east mid-evening and is high in the south by 3 a.m.

• Jupiter is high in the south west after dark and sets in the northwest before midnight. Saturn rises in the east after 11 p.m. Uranus is in the southwest during early evening and sets in the west around 9 p.m.

• Feb. 7 – The full moon this month is called the snow moon.

• Feb. 9 – Uranus and Venus are extremely close in the evening sky. You can see Uranus as a blue dot in a telescope. The moon is also below Mars in the late evening.

• Feb. 10 – For the next two weeks you can see the zodiacal light in the western evening sky. This is caused by sunlight reflecting off debris in the solar system.

• Feb. 12 – There is a spectacular grouping of the moon, Spica and Saturn in the morning sky.

• Feb. 25 – The crescent moon is above Venus in the evening sky.

• Feb. 26 – The crescent moon is above Jupiter during the evening.

• Feb. 28 – The moon is just below the Pleiades star cluster in the evening sky.

• Feb. 27 – The moon is at apogee or furthest from the Earth for the month at 404,862 km.

For more information, please see the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers’ web site at www.amateurastronomy.org.

Mario Carr is the club’s director of public education and can be reached at mariocarr@cogeco.ca.