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. Its next evening appearance is last two weeks of July. Look for a silver dot just between Saturn and sunset. Venus Venus is bright in the morning sky through till end of July. Mars Mars is in dawn sky a little ahead of Jupiter. Close to Venus from May through July Jupiter, is bright in dawn sky. Rising earlier each month. By late July it is rising in evening sky a couple of hours after sunset. Saturn up all night in early 2009. At brightest in March. Look for it just below tail of Leo. By August it is setting a couple of hours after the sun. 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. 
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