| Subject: Check out the festival planets this month |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 10:25:27 03/07/04 Sun
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "Pair of comets set for spring sky show" on 21:54:44 03/01/04 Mon
Beginning on March 22, and for about 10 days afterward, elusive Mercury will join the four other planets, which already are visible to the naked eye. Mercury will hover above the western horizon, with dazzling Venus stealing the show just above.
This planetary duet will be followed by Mars, slightly dimmer in the southwest. Saturn will appear almost directly overhead and slightly to the south, while Jupiter trails brilliantly behind, high in the east at dusk.
While you'll be able to spot the planets without any equipment, if you have a telescope or a fine pair of binoculars, you'll be able to see much more -- four moons of Jupiter, Saturn's rings, the polar ice caps on Mars.
Although it's not unusual to see any two or three of these planets on any given night, this planetary spectacle, with all five visible at once, will not be duplicated for another 32 years. A similar congress of the five naked-eye planets will take place this year in late December and into early January, but it will be in the morning sky instead.
The configuration of the planets in the sky can be wildly different each time it occurs. Naturally, each planet has its own orbit around the sun, each traveling at a different speed as compared with the others. For example, Mercury, closest to the sun, dashes around it in only 88 Earth-days. Venus takes a tad longer, roughly 225 Earth-days.
From our perch here on Earth, Mercury changes position in the sky much more quickly than Venus. Mercury can go from invisible to its highest point in the sky within a week, while Venus can take months to rise to an apex in the east or west. Saturn, meanwhile, can take a year to move across the sky.
Any of these five naked-eye planets are easily spotted when their orbits put them in favorable viewing locales, which pretty much means anywhere far enough away from the sun's glare to be seen.
But all of the naked-eye planets dip into the sun's glare from time to time when they are on the opposite side of the solar system in relation to the Earth.
There's more to the sky show later this month. Not to be outdone, the moon will join the fray after sunset on March 22.
Here are the highlights of the celestial spectacular:
March 22 -- The thin crescent moon will hang low in the west, just to the upper left of dim Mercury.
March 24 -- The moon and Venus will grace the western sky in tandem after sunset.
March 25 -- The moon will sidle up to dim, rusty Mars, making this grand planet much easier to locate.
March 27 -- The best night to see all five planets from west to east. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, in that order. The moon may be seen nestled between Mars and Saturn on this night.
March 28 -- The moon will appear next to Saturn, making this golden orb easier to locate.
April 2 -- The waxing moon will be to the lower left of Jupiter.
SkyLights
The moonless evenings for the next couple of weeks are a fine time to look for the zodiacal light. It's in the west right at the end of dusk -- a huge, tall, narrow pyramid of dim, pearly light extending from the horizon high up at a tilt along the ecliptic (along the constellations of the zodiac).
You'll need a clear, clean sky to see it. The zodiacal light is sunlight scattered from meteoric dust near the plane of the inner solar system. This is the time of year when the pyramid stands most nearly upright for skywatchers.
• Thursday -- Sirius, the night's brightest star, shines highest due south in early evening this week. To its upper right look for the constellation Orion. To Sirius' upper left twinkles Procyon, and very high above it glows Saturn.
• Saturday: Last-quarter moon, exact at 4:01 p.m.
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