Friday, August 3, 1984/The Battaiion/Page 5
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Tips for summer star-gazing ° n,he|:rin 9 e
by physics student
by Fred Leong
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By PAM BARNES
Reporter
When was the last time you went
star-gazing? Well it’s summer. The
nights are warm, the skies are clear
and there are many stars, constella
tions and planets that are visible at
this time ol' year. So, as soon as it’s
dark, grab a blanket and a buddy
and head for a park, or someplace
the lights aren’t too bright, and look
up.
1 he easiest and most familiar con
stellation to find is the Big Dipper,
or Ursa Major. To find it, face north
and look for four stars that form the
bowl of the dipper and three stars
that form the handle.
The second star from the end of
the handle is called Mizar. If you
look closely to the right of Mizar,
there’s a dim star. It’s Alcor. If your
[eyes are good, you should be able to
find Alcor. If not, you may need
glassy.
John Burciaga, a physics graduate
student who teaches the lab for
physics 307, says these two stars were
once used as an eye test for the Ro
man Legions. He says that they be
lieved that if you could see Alcor, the
dimmer of the two stars, then your
eyes were good.
The two stars at the bottom of the
bowl of the big dipper are often
called pointers because they point to
Forty-five degrees above
the southern horizon is a
bright reddish colored
star. This is actually the
planet Mars,
the north star, Polaris. To find Po
laris, follow a line through these two
stars to the right. Continue this line
to five times the distance between
these two stars, and you find the dim
star Polaris. It marks the true direc
tion of north. If you are facing Po
laris, south is directly behind you,
west is to your left and east is to your
right.
Burciaga says the altitude of Po
laris is equal to the latitude of your
location. For example, he says the
latitude of College Station is 30.6 de
grees north, so Polaris can be seen
30.6 degrees above the northern ho
rizon.
More interesting things lie in the
southern sky, just opposite Polaris.
Forty-five degrees above the south
ern horizon is a bright reddish col
ored star. This is actually the planet
Mars.
Burciaga points out that the star
gazer’s hands can be used as mea
surements. One hand’s width is
about 20 degrees, he says, and three
fingers held together are about 10.
So, two hands (40 degrees) above the
southern horizon is Mars. To the
right of Mars and up 10 degrees
(three fingers) is another planet, Sa
turn. It isn’t quite as bright as Mars,
nor is it colored, but it’s just as easy
to find.
On a line between Jupiter and
Mars, there is a bright orange-red
star. This is Antares. Antares is a
bright star in the zodiacal constella
tion Scorpius, the Scorpion.
After you find Antares, Scorpius,
or commonly known as Scorpio, is
easy to find. The two stars above An
tares make a slanting line to the right
to form the head of the scorpion,
and two stars branch to each side of
these two stars to form the claws. Be
low Antares, a line of stars slant to
ward the horizon to make the body.
As the line curls to the left the tail
takes shape and two stars together at
the end make a stinger.
Burciaga says books can be of
some help to star-gazers, but he says
that just going out and looking is the
best way to learn. The Pysics Depart
ment at Texas A&M offers two
classes that teach astronomy. They
are Physics 306 and 307.
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Israeli opposition leader
wins party endorsement
United Press International
JERUSALEM — Opposition La
bor leader Shimon Peres Thursday
won a key endorsement to head a
national unity government with the
ruling Likud bloc and. began a sec
ond round of talks witn Prime Min
ister Yitzhak Shamir on the issue.
Ezer Weizman, leader of the small
but pivotal Yahad “Together” Party,
declared his support for Peres as the
leader of a unity government during
a meeting with Israeli President
Chaim Herzog.
“We said we are definately for na
tional unity government and we rec
ommended he call Mr. Peres as the
head of the largest party to try to at
tempt and form a national unity gov
ernment,” Weizman said afterward.
Weizman refused to say whom his
party would support if the unity talk
failed.
Weizman’s party won a pivotal
three seats in deadlocked July 23
general elections that left neither
Sharmir’s ruling Likud bloc nor the
Labor party with a clear mandate to
form a new government.
Herzog met with Weizman as part
of his consultations with leaders of
smaller parties aimed at reaching a
decision on whom to ask to try to
form a new government.
With Weizman’s backing, Peres
began a second day of talks with Sha
mir to explore the possibility of
forming a national unity goverment
to end the political uncertainty and
deal quickly with an economic crisis
marked by 400 percent inflation.
Thursday’s talks were to focus on
“economic and social matters,”
according to the party leaders.
They agreed in a four-hour initial
session Wednesday to defer the
touchy question of who would head a
jp^p^^overnment, officials said.
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Police Beat
The following incidents were re
ported to the University Police
Department through Thursday.
MISDEMEANOR THEFT:
A light-blue Dawes ten-
speed bicycle was stolen from the
Architecture Building bike rack.
BURGLARY OF A MOTOR
VEHICLE:
A Craig stereo, an equalizer,
and two stereo speakers were sto
len from a 1973 Datsun 240Z in
Parking Annex 24.
CRIMINAL MISCHIEF:
The left side of the hood
and the left door of a 1982 Chev
rolet Suburban were damaged.
The car was parked on Fish Tank
Road next to the Firemen’s
Training School.
Gay Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf canceled
United Press International
ARLINGTON — A community
theater Thursday canceled the last
performances of its all-male “Who’s
Afraid of Virginia WoolP’ at the re
quest of playwright Edward Albee,
who denied he ever intended the
play be cast that way.
The homosexual-oriented stag
ing, which was to have had its final
performances this Friday, Saturday
and Sunday already had drawn the
ire of three conservative city coun-
cilmen in this city of 100,000 people
located midway between Dallas and
Fort Worth.
Director Dov Fahrer said he cast
the production for the experimental
arm of Theatre Arlington with four
men, instead of two heterosexual
couples as Albee wrote it in 1962, be
cause he had heard the homosexual
angle was Albee’s original intent.
Fahrer said he understood Albee
changed the characters’ genders un
der pressure from advisers who said
homosexuality spelled commercial
suicide.
But Albee, reached by telephone
in New York, where he is working
on new plays and casting two revivals
he will direct this fall in Vienna, said
the two quarrelsome couples in “Vir
ginia Woolf’ were never meant to be
homosexual men.
“No, certainly not,” Albee said.
“Whenever I hear about a produc
tion of that sort I have it closed. If
I’d wanted to (write a homosexual
play) I would have.
“All the copies of my plays have a
The two quarrelsome cou
ples in “Virginia WooW’
were never meant to be
homosexual men.
number of clauses which say they
miist be performed without any
changes or deletions or additions
and must be performed by actors of
the sex as written,” he said.
Tate Kelly, chairman of the board
of Theatre Arlington, said the play
had been canceled at Albee’s request.
“As a responsible theater group
we want to follow his wishes, espe
cially now that he has finally gone on
record as not having intended it that
way,” Kelly said. “We are not, double
underlined, closing this play at the
request of (the) councilmen.
“What my regret is ... is that this
whole thing has gotten wrapped up
in the censorship issue,” he said.
“This is going to in a way vindicate
the councilmen. We just want it to
blow over.”
Albee, who won the Pulitzer Prize
twice but ironically not for “Virginia
Woolf,” said there have been three
or four other all-male versions of the
play.
He believes the homosexuality ru
mor began with a review of the 1966
movie version that starred Elizabeth
Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Den
nis and George Segal.
“It all came about because when
the film came out a movie critic
wrote in his review that while he
liked it very much he was uncom
fortable accepting it as a portrayal of
a heterosexual marriage and there
fore it wasn’t,” Albee said.
“There’s a certain amount of di
rectorial creativity but it doesn’t give
permission to distort. If they don’t
like it as written they should do
something else,” he said.
He said several aspects of the plot,
such as the revelation of an hysteri
cal pregnancy by one character,
make a homosexual version ludi
crous.