Sky WatchSee also:
The Dance So Far — the last 25 years Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 Venus Shadow. Looking into the Heart of Our Galaxy How Astronomy Begat Astrology 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. Here are some things you can see in the night sky as the never-repeating, never-ending, cosmic dance continues.
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. Next evening appearance, mid December, brightest just before low in SW, Christmas. Venus Venus is bright in the morning sky. But steadily falling back towards the sun each day. She passes behind Sun at end of the year and reappears in early February for one of her illustrious dances as the evening star. As she rises higher in he evening sky, Mars and Saturn approach from the East, all three meeting in August. Mars Mars rises just after sunset (November) and will be a dominant feature of the winter sky, with Saturn and venus closing on from both sides, the three meeting in early August. Jupiter, is in the West, approaching the sun in the closing months of the year. As it slips into the sun's glare in late January, Venus rises to take its place. Saturn has reappeared in the morning sky and will be in the late evening sky by summer, drawing closer to Mars, and meeting Venus for a beautiful triple conjunction around Aug 7. Bishop Museum. A delightful and more detailed description of this month's night sky. 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. --> Meteor Showers Quadrantids. Maximum at January 3-4
The Ecliptic The twelve Zodiacal constellations (Taurus, Pisces, Gemini, etc.) also lie on the ecliptic -- they are the constellations the planets pass through. |