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So You Like Planets?
The Solar System >
Then you've come to the right place --- and time! This week has planets for everyone - early risers and night owls, the patient and the impatient. Let's start in the "early" evening.
Both
Jupiter and Saturn are performing their swan song for the year in the
western skies. We passed them by on our inside orbit months ago.
Saturn is now so far away it is nearly, but not quite, on the far side of the sun. A keen observer will notice Saturn as the golden yellowish "star" following the sun down in the western twilight skies about 8:30 PM.
Jupiter is still king of the heavens and though now over 525 million miles away can still be seen as a much brighter orb way above Saturn in the early evening skies. If you have a small telescope, you can still pick out its Big Four satellites --- Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
That's about it for those of us who hit the sack at reasonable hours. On the other side of the night, just before dawn, the early birds can catch their own planetary worm, so to speak.
If you are up at about 5 AM you can sneak a peak at our two inner neighbors, Mercury and Venus. Believe it or not, they are actually very close in the sky to Saturn (from our perspective on Earth). It's just that Saturn is on the sunset side of the sun. Mercury and Venus are on the sunrise side.
In
the northeast at that wee hour you'll easily see the Morning Star, Venus,
radiating brightly just above horizon. Regular readers here will recall
that Venus is so durn bright because she is relatively close both to us
and to the sun and, most importantly, Venus has an all-over cloud cover.
Those clouds reflect a lot of the light striking her. In fact she outshines
everything in the night sky except that planet-like ball in her neighborhood
for the next couple days --- the Moon.
If you have really really good eyes, or better, a pair of binoculars, you can spot Mercury. A tiny dot just to the lower right of Venus, this little guy is tough to see because, unlike Venus, Mercury is pretty small and has no highly reflective cloud cover.
Now for those readers who are up during the middle of the night, the planet party goes on!
Alas, one of the late night planets, poor Pluto in Ophiuchus, is a tough little critter to find, even with a good scope. Hardcore planet hunters can go to skyandtelescope.com and find there a star chart for their adventure.
Neptune and Uranus can both be found with a simple telescope, a star chart, and a little patience. They are now planetary bookends for the big star of the coming summer sky season.
That
big star is Mars, rising in the southeast just after 1 AM. You cannot
miss it. It is the brightest object in that part of the sky, its reddish
tint betraying it as the Red Planet. We are catching up to Mars now as
we orbit the sun. It is getting closer. And closer. And closer.
This summer it will be at its closest approach in over 50,000 years! It will be a wonderful Martian summer for us amateur astronomers!
Make a promise to yourself to see with your family at least one of the nine planets this week.
Oh, I forgot to mention one planet; the best and most beautiful, the one you're sitting on. You can and should enjoy that one everyday.
Mark Ritter teaches astronomy at Temecula Valley High School and can be reached at mritter@firstlightastro.com.
Posted by Administrator at 2003.05.26 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
