Sky Watch

The Sky at Night

The Story So Far | Visualizing Our Galaxy

I'm a naked eye astronomer, as were all astronomers before the invention of the telescope, four centuries ago. I love to watch the sky at night, observing the slow dance of the planets amongst the stars.

Today we get only a dim glimpse of what earlier peoples must have seen in skies unfettered by dust pollution and, in urban areas, the light pollution that bleaches out all but the moon and brightest stars. (See: How Astronomy Begat Astrology)

Here are some things you can see in the night sky as the never-repeating, never-ending, cosmic dance continues.

The Dance So Far A journal of the planets' dance together over the last 25 years.

The Ongoing Dance

This year sees a second spectacular dance of Jupiter and Venus. Throughout the summer, Jupiter is in the East at sunset, while Venus appears low in the West. They rise together towards each throughout the fall, the two brightest objects in the sky, finally meeting again in late November. "Again", because the two had another spectacular conjunction in the morning sky at the beginning of the year. The first was 32 days into the year, the second 32 days before end of year.

At the same time, Mars and Saturn have shared their own little dance. Closing in together on Regulus, the bright star in Leo through June and July. Then descending together towards the sun, meeting both Venus and Mercury rising up in the sunset.

Planet Positions

Mercury is usually hard to see because its stays close to the sun. Its orbits the sun once every 88 days, and so alternates between evening sky and morning sky approximately every 6 weeks. Its next good evening appearance is late-August when it both grazes Venus and meets Saturn and Mars in their dance toward the sunset. Look for a silver dot just above and to south of sunset.

Venus Venus is once again set for one of her magnificent appearances in the evening sky. She appears above the sunset in August, and climbs up through the evening sky through the rest of the year. On Aug 13, she meets the descending Saturn, and in early September forms a triple conjunction with Mars and Mercury, but still low in the sky. On Nov 30 she passes Jupiter who has been approaching her from the opposite horizon.

Mars is ending its pass across the sky, sinking down with the sun after mid-summer.

Jupiter, in the head of Scorpio, is high in the SE evening sky after sunset in August. Through the rest of the year it marches across the evening sky, on its way for another spectacular meeting with Venus on Nov 30.

Saturn is close to Regulus, the front paw of Leo. It is low in the West after sunset, moving closer to the sun as the summer progresses, having passed Mars, it now leads the pair towards the sunset.

More Info: Sky at a glance for current week.

NASA Solar System Simulator for a view of the planets and their moons at any time, and almost any angle.

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Meteor Showers

Quadrantids. Maximum at January 3-4
Lyrids. Maximum at April 21/22
Eta Aquirids. Maximum at May 5/6
Delta Aquarids. Maximums at July 29 (S hemisphere) and August 13 (N hemisphere)
Perseids. One of best meteor showers of the year. Maximums nights of 11-12 August.
Orionids. Maximum 21 October.
Leonids. Maximum 17-18 November.
Geminids. Maximum 13-14 December.

The Ecliptic
For spotting planets, and following their motion, it is helpful to know where the ecliptic is. The ecliptic is the imaginary line stretching across the sky, along which the sun, moon and planets all appear to move. If, for example, the sun has just set, and the moon is up high, then the ecliptic is the line from the sun (somewhere just over the horizon) through the moon and beyond to the opposite horizon. The planets will also be not far from that line. Or, if you can see two planets, but no moon, the line through the two planets defines the ecliptic. It doesn't take long to get to know where the ecliptic lies, and roughly where to look for planets.

The twelve Zodiacal constellations (Taurus, Pisces, Gemini, etc.) also lie on the ecliptic -- they are the constellations the planets pass through.

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