The Great Ocean Road offers an excellent viewing platform for celestial curiosities—rivalling the dark sky classics like Southwestern Tasmania and our Outback—on a dark, cloudless night when the Old Man in the Moon has ‘turned out the lights’.

With so much joy and wonderment floating above us, it is surprising how little most of us now know about the planets, stars and galaxies. In times past, everyman’s daily decisions depended on an intimate knowledge of the cosmos. At the same time, those who could interpret its meanings—or concoct a plausible porky—held the box seat of power.

Travellers were guided at sea or on land by the slow wheeling of celestial patterns. In ancient times, a pantheon of gods fought battles in the heavens over sex, prominence and power. Whether Egyptian, Greek, Mesopotamian, Roman, Aztec, Mayan, Chinese, Norse, or Australian Aboriginal … all built their mythologies, gods, religions, and civilisations, ordered their lives, planted and harvested their crops, lauded their successes or bemoaned their failures, and made war or sued for peace to the mystical script of the cycling heavens.

Whenever a celestial curiosity was observed, oracles, shamans, vestal virgins, wiccans, druids, or tribal witchdoctors quickly stepped forward to interpret its portent. Pharaohs, Caesars, Kings and Emperors deferred to these representatives of their god[s] on Earth. Even the foundational story of Christianity was guided by ‘that special star’—though Haley’s Comet is believed not to have been a likely candidate … [https://tinyurl.com/2s3s8t93]

It was all heady, powerful stuff.

Just this year, we have witnessed both a super and blue moon; several awesome displays of Aurora Australis; an eclipse; a STEVE event [more later]; a comet; the annual Leonid meteor shower; and a rare line-up [conjunction] of Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn. Even a ‘train’ of SpaceX Starlink satellites has pottered past us in an extraordinary straight line!

These events [and many others … like the late season revival of Hawthorn] would have given the ancient druids portent apoplexy, caused the vestal virgins to divest their chastity vests, or prompted the oracles to succumb to the hiccups. Yet they are only a few of the incredible wonders occurring above us. So, what are some of these events?

A ‘Blue Moon’ occurs when two full moons occur within a single calendar month. The infrequency of a Blue Moon gives rise to the saying ‘… once in a Blue Moon’.

In contrast, a ‘Supermoon’ occurs when the elliptical orbit of our lunar companion brings it closest to Earth, making it appear larger and brighter. For the wiccans and druids among us, the ‘potent energy’ of this proximity resonates with deep emotional and spiritual significance.

An even rarer celestial spectacle occurred on August 30th, 2023, when a Blue Moon coincided with a Supermoon. Pagan devotees worldwide devolved into paroxysms of fervour as they engaged in rituals that resonated with each Moon’s unique significance. Mt Franklin, a flat 50-acre volcanic and mystical caldera in central Victoria, must have been tumultuous!

Auroras [see p18, SCT: 17.05.24] are increasing in frequency and intensity as the 11-year solar cycle maximum in June 2025 approaches … download the Aurora Forecast App for reasonably accurate predictions of likely displays … https://tinyurl.com/muvv8nsh

Eclipses are common. Partial eclipses happen more often than total eclipses, and the eclipse[r] and eclipse[e] may vary. The two most frequent eclipses are [1]a solar eclipse—when the Moon’s shadow crosses the Earth’s surface, and [2] a lunar eclipse—when the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow.

However, eclipses regularly occur throughout the solar system [and beyond]. A planet may move into the shadow cast by one of its moons, a moon may pass into the shadow of its host planet, or a moon may pass into the shadow of another moon. Further afield, the light from planets of distant stars can suddenly seem to ‘disappear’ into the shadow of some closer celestial body. The ancient seers gained great mileage out of eclipses—especially when able to predict them—using them to confirm past events or warn of future ones … https://tinyurl.com/yeypszde

A recent Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Event [dubbed a ‘Steve’] was recently seen from southeastern South Australia and western Victoria. This very rare and poorly understood phenomenon lights the sky with vivid vertical streaks of purple and white light and occurs [like auroras] during periods of intense solar activity … https://tinyurl.com/4ta898s4

Most will be familiar with comets—those balls of dusty ice that leave a plume [or tail] behind them as they slowly cross the heavens. The most famous is Haley’s Comet, which visits Earth roughly every 72 years. Other comets do regular ‘fly-bys’ too, with the most recent [the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet] visible to Lorne’s early morning risers in September, low in the early morning eastern sky.

Meteorites and meteors [aka ‘shooting stars’] are familiar to most. Meteorites are big enough to make it through our atmosphere and impact. Meteors burn up before they hit. Every 33 years, Earth passes through the debris left behind by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle during its 33-year elliptical orbit around the sun. This creates a stunning celestial ‘fireworks display’—the Leonid meteor shower. It will occur again throughout this November and peak on the 18th. The 1833 Leonid shower was described as a storm and produced more than 100,000 meteors each hour … https://tinyurl.com/3kksba2j

Rainbows are familiar to all who live in Lorne. They occur when droplets of misty rain act like a myriad of tiny prisms and refract sunlight coming from behind the viewer. Rainbows always appear in the sky directly opposite the sun … https://tinyurl.com/zppm3ans

Of all celestial events, my favourite must be ‘the sun dog’, though sadly I have never seen one. A ‘sun dog’ [the correct name is a parhelion] is the name given to a phenomenon where ‘three suns’ can be seen together in the sky, with one such event truly changing the course of English history. It occurs when tiny ice crystals suspended in the air during a frost bend the early morning light and create an illusion of three concurrent bright spots in the sky … the sun in the centre and an illusory sun to either side. History’s most famous parhelion occurred in 1461, just before the Battle of Mortimers Cross. Edward of York used it to urge on his men — ‘behold the Holy Trinity’, said Edward, ‘God fights on our side’… https://tinyurl.com/38trw63j

While natural phenomena are no longer deemed signs, omens, portents, and prophecies from the gods … astronomy and physics have replaced most shaman suspicions with astronomical astonishment … the pure magic of mythology and the question ‘… are we alone?’ will likely long remain deeply embedded in our human psyche—and perhaps that’s not such a bad thing.

John Agar
Feature Writer

 

A word from the chairman

Hello.

Two of my favourite things about Lorne are the ever-changing sea and the night sky.  This week I want to focus on the latter.

The absence of street lights (not a criticism!) enhances the viewing experience, bringing into view millions of stars that remain hidden to city-dwellers.

Sitting under a night sky, you cannot help but be overawed by the sheer majesty of our Universe and our relative insignificance.  Our problems (largely created by we humans) seem less when we embrace our Universe.

To put it in perspective, we are fascinated by the history of Australia, both pre and post-European settlement, and beyond that the rise and fall of empires and the evolution of man over thousands of years.  Try and get your head around the fact that the Universe began with the “Big Bang” 13.75 billion years ago!

Then think about the size of the Universe, 93 billion light years across (one light year is 9.5 trillion kilometres) and filled with over 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of billions of stars.  Our sun is but one of 200 billion stars that make up our Milky Way galaxy and we are but one planet of that sun.  Now do you understand what I mean by insignificance!

The other question that comes to mind when I gaze at the night sky is, “Why would we be the only, or most, intelligent life in the Universe?”  When you consider the sheer enormity of the Universe, is it not inconceivable that there is not some superior life form out there, or were we blessed with some form of “divine intervention”!

So next time there is a cloudless, moonless night in Lorne, find yourself a quiet, dark spot and connect with your Universe.

*****

This week our VCE and VCAL students are completing their secondary education.  This time is important for them as they say goodbye to their school days and embark on a transition to work or further studies.  We can all look back on our school days, hopefully with fond memories of good times and enduring friendships.  Yes, exams are important and we encourage our students to give their best efforts, but the result (the score) does not define you.  It lasts for a day, a week, or a month.  Many young people go on to enjoy success and happiness on very different paths to what they thought when they were leaving school.  Best wishes to all our graduating students and thank you to our dedicated principal and staff for preparing them for their life ahead.

*****

On Saturday 26th our cricketers take on Stoneyford at Stribling Reserve from 12 noon.  After a washout last week, the boys are keen to get some runs on the board. It’s looking like a good weather day, so come along for a while and support them.

Cheers

Lorne Ward Events Calendar

October

29 Run the Marsh, 3km walk, 2km & 5km fun run at 9am Frogwood Arboretum, Deans Marsh. Register at https://www.active.com/orgs/deans-marsh-community-cottage

November

2 – Lorne Market, 9-3pm https://www.lornemarkets.com/