Before we relegate Oltion and Ling to the ranks of Elvis fanatics who swear aliens abducted the king (maybe they did — how else could he have gotten on the Moon?), let’s examine the photograph on this page that Ling sent me. The shadowy region within the Lunar V certainly seems to outline the figure of a rock ’n’ roller in wide open stance, guitar in hand. Just to be sure, though, let’s view Elvis and the Lunar V for ourselves. Upcoming windows of opportunity for spotting the V (and X) occur August 13 at 2:57 p.m. EDT, September 12 at 2:53 a.m. EDT, October 11 at 3:57 p.m. EDT, November 10 at 5:06 a.m. EST, and December 9 at 7:59 p.m. EST (the best window for U.S. observers). Remember, the V and X are visible only for an hour or two before and after these times. Do you see the king in the shadowy region of the Lunar V?
All of these lunar letter responses got me thinking. When I was a science teacher at a local middle school, I used to marvel at a poster one of my colleagues taped to his classroom wall. It showed the entire alphabet plus the numbers 0 to 9 in patterns that appear on the wings of moths and butterflies. The “Butterfly Alphabet” was compiled by Norwegian photographer Kjell B. Sandved, who worked at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. If you’ve never seen this remarkable poster, look it up at
http://butterflyalphabet.com.
If we can assemble an alphabet from butterfly wings, why not piece together a cosmic version? We’ve found a few letters on the Moon. Perhaps more exist on the moons of other planets. And how about the planets themselves? Is an A or B hiding in the Valles Marineris region of Mars? Have the turbulent cloud patterns of Jupiter or Saturn ever shaped a C or D? We might find letters on the Sun in the form of dark filaments, sunspot groups, or prominences. Think of the letters we might spot within constellations, asterisms, or star clusters. If we search through photographs of nebulae and galaxies, we might even encounter the most colorful and beautiful letters of all. (For inspiration, check out
http://mygalaxies.co.uk.)
I found the idea so intriguing that I began searching the Internet for astroimages that contain letters. I even contacted some of the staff and contributors of
Astronomy for suggestions. The alphabet we assembled is sparse indeed, but it’s a start.
Perhaps you can help. I’d appreciate any cosmic letters (or numbers) you can locate — either from astroimages you’ve taken or from items gleaned off the Internet. Be sure your image sources are in the public domain — we don’t want any copyright infringements! Email them to me (include the source — yourself or a website). I’ll assemble your submissions, and we’ll consider publishing the final result.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Email me at
gchaple@hotmail.com. Next month: a Sagittarius cluster-hop. Clear skies!