American Museum of Natural History 



BEYOND THE 

 NORTH CAPE 



Spitsbergen to 



Bergen, Noru/aq 



August 6-21, 1994 



The Norwegian Arctic is a 

 spectacular area renowned for 

 its breathtaking landscapes. This 

 summer, a team of American 

 Museum experts, sailing aboard 

 the comfortable Polaris, will 

 explore a region characterized 

 by fjords, glaciers, mountains, 

 icebergs and ice floes 



We will begin at Spitsbergen, a spectacular group of ice-covered 

 islands just 625 miles from the North Pole. From there we will 

 sail south along the coast of Norway, visiting mist-shrouded 

 Bear Island, the mountainous Lofoten Islands and spectacular 

 Geirangerfjord. Join us as we search for polar bear, walrus, seal, 

 reindeer, arctic fox, orca, sperm whale and numerous species of 

 birds beyond the North Cape. 



American 

 Museum of 

 Natural 

 History 



Discovery Cruises 



Central Park West at 79th Street 



New York, NY 10024-5192 



Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or 



in NYS (212) 769-5700 



Rediscover Your World 



98 Natural History 4/94 



from the eastern seaboard, with Venus ap- 

 pearing only about a moon's width below 

 and to the left of the crescent within a few 

 minutes of 8:30 p.m., local daylight time. 

 By the time darkness falls on the West 

 Coast, the configuration will have 

 changed noticeably with the moon stand- 

 ing about three moon diameters directly 

 above Venus. The Magellan spacecraft, 

 meanwhile, is exploring Venus, making its 

 nearly circular orbit around the planet to 

 give us a better understanding of Venus's 

 gravity and interior. 



Mars may be visible by the end of the 

 month, though even then it rises barely an 

 hour before sunrise, very low in the 

 east-southeast. 



Jupiter rises about two and a half hours 

 after sunset at the start of the month, our 

 only night-sky planet this month. It 

 reaches opposition (opposite the sun in our 

 360° sky) on the 30th, which means it is 

 up all night — rising as the sun sets, setting 

 as the sun rises. On the 24th, watch as the 

 nearly full moon passes the bright star 

 Spica in Virgo, and then heads toward 

 Jupiter, creating a wonderfiil spectacle on 

 the nights of April 25 and 26 in the con- 

 stellation Libra. Jupiter at opposition pre- 

 sents a face to us that is "ornate with dark 

 belts, light zones, and a possible assort- 

 ment of spots and ovals, festoons and gar- 

 lands, knots and rifts in its clouds," ac- 

 cording to astronomer Fred Schaaf. Find a 

 telescope and enjoy the show. Meanwhile, 

 Jupiter awaits the arrival of the Galileo 

 spacecraft, due to arrive at the planet in 

 1995. Recently, Galileo, in its race toward 

 Jupiter, successfully detected the experi- 

 mental laser beams sent to it simultane- 

 ously from Table Mountain Observatory 

 in California and the Air Force's Starfire 

 Optical Range in New Mexico — a dis- 

 tance of 1.3 million miles. The success of 

 this experiment shows that future deep- 

 space missions can use laser beams to 

 send larger volumes of data back to the 

 earth than is currently possible with radio 

 signals. 



Saturn rises just an hour before sunrise 

 on the 1st and can be seen very low in 

 Aquarius in the southeast before dawn this 

 month. The ringed planet is a difficult ob- 

 ject to spot, especially since it also dims in 

 brightness as its rings slowly tighten the 

 angle they present toward us (they will 

 present an edge-on appearance next year). 

 On the moming of the 7th, use the thin, 

 waning crescent moon to guide you to Sat- 

 um, which is well below and to the right of 

 the moon. As the month progresses, Sat- 

 urn becomes increasingly visible as it 



