People run at different speeds for various reasons. The physically fit usually beat the out-of-shape, adult paces usually lay waste to small children’s strides. Entering the unknown can play a major role.

Just last summer I sat in my car with my two kids under an overpass in the middle of Illinois farmland waiting for a severe downpour to pass. The dozen or so cars that were packed on the shoulder were mainly due to the tremendous hail that was accompanying the rain. Hearing the hail, my daughter started to worry about a tornado as I had once assured her that most thunderstorms do not lead to them. Only the severe ones, usually indicated by hail, lead to the Big T. She was worried as to what we would do because the fail-safe shelter for a tornado — a basement — was nowhere near. Thinking I could calm her fears with a plan, I said that it would not be a problem as we could run for the nearest low ground such as a creek or a ditch. This made it worse as she then wanted me to assure her that I would not leave her and her brother behind as I would be able to outrun the two of them and get to safely first. When she said it, the first two things that flashed through my mind were:

1. We need to have more group hugs in our family
2. Saturn in October

The reason for the latter is that if there are any freshmen or sophomores out there who need a goal, then beating Saturn should fit the bill.

Saturn gets its name from Roman mythology (as all planets are named from). Saturn was one of the Titans and the father of Jupiter (the roman equivalent to Zeus). He rose up against his father, who was mistreating one of his children. A hero in that aspect, he had one small fault which disqualified him from Dad of the Year honors. It seems that it was prophesized that he would be overthrown by one of his offspring. So, instead of just deciding not to get married, his solution was to simply eat his children as soon as they were born. His wife had issues with this, and when little baby Jupiter was born, she did a quick switcheroo by hiding the baby and wrapping a stone in a blanket in his place. Saturn ate the stone and Jupiter was able to grow up safely under a different name (Sounds like the plot in Star Wars). Not only did Jupiter return and fulfill the prophecy, he also managed to get the old man to regurgitate his older siblings who, because they were immortal, were able to survive in dear old Dad’s intestines. The Titans were vanquished and era of the Olympian Gods began.

As a planet, Saturn is the sixth planet in the solar system and was the official edge of our planetary community until Uranus was discovered in the 1781. At almost 10 times farther from the sun than Earth, the ringed planet traverses a nearly circular orbit that is also about 10 times longer than what earth completes in a year. At its distance, the gravitational grip of the sun isn’t as strong as on our world. So while we zip around our orbit at about 19 miles per second, Saturn takes a more leisurely 6 miles-per-second pace. The short of the matter, it takes Saturn a long time to complete one trip around the sun: just shy of 30 years.

From our vantage point on earth, this means Saturn very slowly seems to move with relation to the distant, seemingly fixed, background stars. In October 2009, Saturn will enter the area of sky that we call Virgo. It will not fully exit Virgo until August 2013 and not return for another couple decades or so.

The question becomes for this year’s incoming freshmen (or last year’s double-majoring sophomores or the current juniors who switched majors or those students having to juggle a reduced load because of family and work) is: can you get out of Pitt-Greensburg before Saturn leaves the House of Virgo?

What else is out there

• Saturn is in Virgo but cannot be seen as the sun lies in front of this constellation currently.
• Venus starts the month in Cancer, enters Leo and will be in Virgo by next month.
• Pluto is in Sagittarius, as it has been since January 2007 and will be until January 2024.
• Oct 4: The full moon, termed the Harvest Moon, occurs at 2:10 a.m. (and the 25th anniversary of the day I broke my collarbone during a game of flag football).