This is the Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, June 30th and July First.
by Joe Slomka

The Sun sets at 8:36 PM; night falls at 10:53. Dawn breaks at 3:04 AM and ends with sunrise at 5:20.

As the sky darkens, Saturn, Regulus and Mars remain in southwestern skies. Mars lies a half-degree above the star Regulus, while Saturn lingers four and a half degrees from Mars. The whole scene can be captured within most binocular views. Venus blazes low in the West; its minus fourth magnitude punctures the sky glow. If you are blessed with clear eastern and western horizons, it is possible to observe Venus setting while Jupiter rises.

Just before sunrise, Jupiter prepares to set, while Mercury rises. Tuesday morning, Mercury lies seven and a half degrees below a very thin Moon. Wednesday morning finds Mercury above an exceedingly thin Moon. The Moon turns "New" eighteen hours later.

About 7:15 AM, on June 30, 1908, a bright object roared out of the sky and exploded over a Siberian forest. The resulting blast knocked people off their feet 70 kilometers away. Night skies were so bright the one could read a newspaper at midnight. Barometers around the world monitored the blast wave. Monday is the one hundredth anniversary of the Tunguska Event.

The region, near the Tunguska River, was so remote that it took years for word to arrive at Moscow. Twenty years later, scientist Leonid Kulik led an expedition. He found the forest devastated for miles, with trees felled in a radial pattern from a central area. Suspecting a meteor, the expedition dredged the swamp to no avail.

Thanks to microscopic traces, we now know that the object was an asteroid that entered the Earth's atmosphere. It exploded several miles above the surface with a force between three and five times the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb. Recent research also revealed that the object was smaller than first thought. In 1947, a large asteroid broke apart and impacted the Kamchatka Peninsula, also in Russia. Pictures exist showing Soviet trucks pulling thousand kilo meteorites from the ground. Today, meteor collectors buy pieces of the Sikote-Alin meteorite, as it is now called.

Clear Skies
Joe Slomka  

 

This is Dudley Observatory's Skywatch Line for Friday, June 27, through Sunday, June 29, written by Alan French.

    The Moon was at last quarter early Thursday so a waning crescent Moon rises late in the evening.  Moonrise on Friday night is at 1:11 AM Saturday morning.  By Sunday night the Moon will not rise until 2:22 AM Monday morning.

    If you look toward the northeast around 4:00 AM Monday morning you'll find a crescent Moon amongst the stars of the Pleiades.  This beautiful star cluster is also known as the Seven Sisters.  The Moon and the cluster will be a lovely sight in binoculars.  From here in the northeast the Moon will move in front of or occult stars in the Pleiades.

    This weekend Mars moves rapidly toward Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, the Lion, nicely demonstrating its current rapid eastward motion amonst the stars.  Look for the pair just north of due west around 10:30 PM.  You'll see a trio of bright stars about 10 degrees above the horizon (recall that a fist held at arm's length spans 10 degrees across the knuckles).  The lower pair, bright Regulus to the left and reddish Mars to the right, will be quite close together.  Saturn will be to their upper left.

    On Friday night Mars will be 2.2 degrees away from Regulus.  By Saturday night the distance will be 1.6 degrees, and on Sunday night it will be only 1.1 degrees – a little over twice the apparent diameter of the Moon.  If you look again on Monday night, they will be a mere ¾ degree apart.

    Weather permitting, the Albany Area Amateur Astronomers will host two public star parties this weekend.  The star parties will be held at 10:00 PM on Friday, June 27, and Saturday, June 28, at the George Landis Arboretum in Esperance.  A variety of telescopes will be set up to provide guests with views of nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, and other celestial showpieces.

    Esperance is west of Duanesburg on Route 20.  After you cross Route 30 heading west you will cross a bridge over the Schoharie Creek.  Take the first right after the bridge.  There is a large green “George Landis Arboretum” sign there.  Then follow the signs for about 1.5 miles to the arboretum.  Once you reach the arboretum farmhouse on your right and parking on your left, continue past them and up the short hill.  At the end of the steep portion of the hill, turn right into the Meeting House driveway.  Telescopes are set up in the Meeting House field.

    The star parties are open to all and there is no admission charge.  A star party is canceled if the skies are mostly cloudy.  Because of the capricious nature of the weather, we recommend calling 374-8460 around 8:00 PM to verify that a star party is being held.

    

Skywatch line for Wed. and Thurs., June 25, and 26, 2008:
by Ray Bogucki

Albany lies at about 43 degrees north latitude on the surface of the Earth, about halfway from the equator to the North Pole. As a result, roughly half of the stars in the southern celestial hemisphere lie permanently out of view below our horizon. Constellations lying in a band between about 20 and 40 degrees south of the celestial equator will rise above our southern horizon for evening viewing for a short period each year. One such constellation is the bright and endlessly interesting Scorpius, the Scorpion, one of the few constellations that bears a recognizable resemblance to the creature it is supposed to represent. From mid-June to mid-August, we can find this dangerous arachnid creeping low along the southern horizon.

Three bright stars in a slightly bent line form the head. Just to the east, or left, shines the brilliant reddish supergiant Antares, known as the "Heart of the Scorpion", which begins a line of bright stars that drop southward toward the horizon. The line then sweeps back up northward to end with two bright stars forming the stinger, held in the familiar menacing manner above the scorpion's back.

First magnitude Antares, a Greek name which means "Rival of Mars", is an amazing star. One of the largest stars known, Antares, if placed at the location of the Sun, would extend out close to the orbit of Jupiter, while the Earth would be orbiting deep inside the star. Because Antares is positioned close to the ecliptic, it is frequently visited by other Solar System objects, including Mars and the Moon. The rivalry between Mars and Antares has been observed for many millennia. If, when it is near Antares in the sky, Mars is near opposition, its closest approach to the Earth, it can outshine Antares by a factor of forty. If, on the other hand, Mars is on the far side of its orbit, as it is now, it will appear noticeably fainter than Antares.

The Moon frequently occults, or passes in front of, Antares. In 1819 an observer in Vienna, Austria was watching an occultation of Antares by a waning Moon, and waiting for the reappearance of the occulted red star from behind the dark limb of the Moon. To his surprise, a faint greenish-tinted star appeared at the expected time and position, followed a few seconds later by the brilliant Antares itself. This was the first indication that Antares was actually a double star, whose faint companion had always been obscured by the brilliance of the red giant. Since then, many other stars have been found to be close doubles by this clever technique of measuring a slight time delay in the reappearance of the two stars in a binary pair during a lunar occultation. Next week's Skywatch line will cover other fascinating aspects of the Scorpion.

 

This is the Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, June 23rd and 24th.
by Joe Slomka

The Sun sets at 8:36 PM, with night falling at 10:55. Dawn breaks at 3 AM, ending with sunrise at 5:17.

After sunset, Saturn is the first planet to pop into view, in the southwest. Saturn is drifting slowly from the bright star Regulus, about five degrees to its West. Mars appears a bit later and eight and-a-half degrees West of Saturn. Mars continues a westward dash; by month's end, it catches up with Regulus and continues on to Saturn. In ordinary binoculars, Saturn is obviously oval; high power binoculars show Saturn's ring system. An average telescope shows not only rings, but also at least one of its 61 moons. Mars displays only a tiny orange colored dot. Both planets set by midnight.

Jupiter rises, between the constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius, about 9:30 PM. By nightfall, it is easily spotted. Midnight is an ideal time to study this amazing world. Jupiter slowly drifts westward toward Sagittarius. Binoculars exhibit the four famous moons, while telescopes display its complicated weather systems. Midnight finds a waning Moon rising between Aquarius and Sagittarius on Tuesday; Wednesday locates a thinner Moon in Aquarius.

An hour before Sunrise, Jupiter prepares to set, low in the West, while Mercury rises in the East. Mercury is just escaping from the Sun's glare, and may require binoculars, provided you enjoy a clear northeastern horizon.

About Midnight, the constellation Scorpius lies due South and high enough for it to rise above the tree line. Its brightest star, the Lucida, is Antares. The Greek name means "Rival of Ares," the Greek version of the Roman god Mars. Antares is one of the brightest stars in the northern sky. It is one of only two bright supergiant stars; the other is Betelgeuse. Antares is truly a giant star. Its diameter is 600 million miles - beyond Jupiter's orbit. Antares lies about 600 light-years away. This star is nearing the end of its life. It is slightly variable, and will, one day, blow itself up as a supernova. In 1970, Antares was the first star, proven to emit radio waves.

Clear Skies
Joe Slomka 

 

This is Dudley Observatory's Skywatch Line for Friday, June 20, through Sunday, June 22, written by Alan French.

The Moon was Full early this past Wednesday afternoon, so a waning gibbous Moon will dominate the night sky over the weekend. The Sun now sets at 8:37 PM and the last remnants of evening twilight will not have left the western sky until just before 11:00 PM. However, unless you live well away from city lights where the skies are dark and free of light pollution, the twilight glow will not seem to linger as late into the evening. Amateur astronomers trying to take advantage of dark, moonless skies will be quickly disappointed by moonrise. The Moon will rise at 10:25 PM on Friday night, 10:54 on Saturday night, and 11:19 on Sunday.

The Moon will reach last quarter on Thursday, and by next weekend we'll have many hours of dark moonless skies. The Albany Area Amateur Astronomers will take advantage of the dark skies next weekend and host public star parties on Friday, June 27, and Saturday, June 28, at George Landis Arboretum in Esperance. Call the Skywatch Line on Friday, June 27, for more information, or call 374-8460.

The Summer Solstice, marking the official start of summer, occurs at 7:59 PM EDT on Friday night. This is the time when the Sun is farthest north and highest in our sky, and the North Pole of the Earth has its maximum tilt – 23.4 degrees – toward the Sun. Although the Sun is now starting its journey southward and will begin moving lower in our sky, the days will generally continue growing warmer for some time.

If you look toward the south-southwest around 10:00 PM you'll see a bright yellowish-orange star high in the sky. This is Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, the “The Herdsman.” It shouldn't be hard to pick out the rest of the constellation, which looks like a kite or ice cream cone extending upward from Arcturus. To the left of the fatter part of the kite you'll see the incomplete circle of stars marking Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.

Arcturus is the fourth brightest star in the sky and the brightest star in the northern half of the celestial sphere. It is often known as the “Bear Watcher” since it follows Ursa Major, the Great Bear, across the sky. Most people are familiar with the Big Dipper, an asterism or star pattern created from the brighter stars of the Great Bear. Arcturus is an orange giant star only 37 light years away. It is about 25 times the size of our Sun, and more than 200 times as bright. It is probably now burning helium, fusing it into carbon and oxygen. When the helium runs out, it will expand, losing an outer shell of gas and creating a planetary nebula, and then enter a long retirement as a white dwarf star.

Skywatch line for Wed. and Thurs., June 18 and 19, 2008:
by Ray Bogucki

Tonight, Wednesday, the Moon will be at Full phase. Tomorrow night, about 10 p.m., the just past Full Moon will rise in the southeast, side by side with Jupiter. Throughout the night, the Moon will drift eastward so that when twilight begins to brighten the sky on Friday morning, the Moon will be directly below Jupiter, preparing to set in the southwest.

The other two planets visible in the evening are Mars and Saturn. Mars continues to approach Saturn, and over this weekend, the bright star Regulus, in Leo, will lie about halfway between them. On June 30, Mars will pass close to Regulus, and finally, in early July, Mars will catch up to Saturn and pass very close to the ringed planet over a 3-night period. Look for these planets fairly low in the west as soon as the sky darkens.

Jupiter has been the scene for three different double shadow transits earlier in June, but they all occurred in the afternoon before Jupiter had risen here in the Albany area, and were visible to observers in Europe. On Sunday night, June 22, we finally get our chance to witness this interesting telescopic event. Shadow transits occur when the larger moons of Jupiter pass between the Sun and the surface of Jupiter, each moon casting its round shadow which appears as a dark spot on the face of Jupiter. For this event, the shadow of the moon Europa will begin to cross Jupiter's disk at about 9:00 p.m. Since Jupiter does not rise until about 9:30 or 10 p.m., depending on your location, the giant planet will rise with Europa's shadow already halfway across its face. Then, about 10:40, the larger shadow of the moon Ganymede will enter Jupiter's disk and the two dark spots will travel together across the face of Jupiter for about an hour, until Europa's shadow leaves the edge of Jupiter at 11:44 p.m. Ganymede's shadow will continue alone until 1:52 a.m. when it also exits. You will need to use a telescope with a usable power of about 100X. Remember that the image of Jupiter will be in the turbulent air just above the horizon, and the image will generally be blurred. If you watch patiently, you should catch occasional moments when the image sharpens for a few seconds and the shadows will then be very obvious.

 

This is the Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, June 16th and 17th.
by Joe Slomka

The Sun sets at 8:33 PM, with night falling at 10:53. Dawn breaks at 3 AM and ends with sunrise at 5:16.

A nearly full Moon is risen. At Sunset, it is low in the southeast; by nightfall it appears about one and a half degrees below the bright red star Antares in Scorpius. Tuesday night finds the Moon midway between Scorpius and Sagittarius.

Saturn, next to the bright star Regulus, pops into view after sunset. Mars appears later yet. Mars continues its headlong dash eastward towards Saturn and Regulus; by month's end they will form an interesting trio in Leo.

Jupiter rises before nightfall; it is best observed after midnight, when it is higher in the sky. Jupiter can be observed with binoculars, where one can track the four moons that Galileo discovered. Telescopes show horizontal bands that delineate weather systems. Recently, a third spot has joined the Great Red Spot and a smaller version. Moderate to high powers show off this trio of hurricanes. Monthly magazines and web sites provide charts to track these Jovian weather features. Midnight provides an opportunity to see Saturn preparing to set and Jupiter to the left of teapot-shaped Sagittarius.

By Dawn, the constellation Andromeda has risen, along with the Great Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M-31. This galaxy lies about 2.4 million light years away; yet it is so bright it can be seen by the naked eye in dark skies. But it is not the nearest. Two galaxies are much nearer, about 200,000 light years away. However, one must travel below the Equator to see them. These galaxies are called the Large, and Small, Magellanic Clouds, and are satellites of our own galaxy. Our Milky Way joins these, and other, galaxies to form the Local Group of galaxies.

The Albany Area Amateur Astronomers hold their monthly meeting at the Schenectady Museum and Planetarium at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, June 17. The guest speaker, Dr. Mary Crone Okedon of Skidmore College, discusses how studies of these Magellanic galaxies provided several scientific breakthroughs. All club events are free and open to the public.

Clear Skies
Joe Slomka

This is Dudley Observatory's Skywatch Line for Friday, June 13, through Sunday, June 15, written by Alan French.

The Moon will be full early this coming Wednesday afternoon so a bright waxing gibbous Moon will dominate most of the night over the weekend. On Friday night the Moon will not set until almost two hours after midnight, and it will set about 20 minutes later each following weekend night.

One week from Friday night, on June 20, Pluto will be at opposition, meaning it will be directly opposite the position of the Sun and due south at midnight, which is actually 1:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time. Pluto shines at magnitude 14, meaning it is about 1600 times fainter than the faintest star visible to the unaided eye and is only visible through a telescope. Pluto is now in the constellation Sagittarius. With a proper finder chart Pluto can be located in a ten or twelve in inch telescope. Pluto looks just like any other faint star, and it usually requires a couple of nights to verify that the suspected Pluto has moved relative to the fixed stars. It moves very slowly against the background stars because of its large distance from our Sun.

Neptune also requires optical aid to be seen, although it is bright enough to be located with binoculars. Under extremely dark skies, away from city lights, Uranus can be spotted by eye, and it is an easy target through binoculars.

Unfortunately, neither the returning space shuttle Discovery nor the International Space Station are visible from the Capital District this weekend.

On Sunday night there is a nice pass of the Genesis 1 spacecraft over our area. The Genesis 1 is an inflatable spacecraft developed by Bigelow Aerospace based in Las Vegas. It was launched from a Russian military base almost two years ago and is a prototype for a possible private sector space station, and perhaps eventually a space hotel. It was designed to inflate from a four foot diameter to eight foot diameter once it reached orbit.

The Genesis 1 will first appear on Sunday night at 11:13:43 PM rising up from the northwestern horizon. It will be highest at 11:18:04 when it will appear 85 degrees above the west-southwestern horizon, and will move into the Earth's shadow and fade from view less than a minute later. It will appear about as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper's bowl, and its path will bring it along the top of the dipper's bowl and then along and slightly above the bowl's handle, so it should be easy to spot.

The Albany Area Amateur Astronomers will meet at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, June 17, at the Schenectady Museum on Nott Terrace Heights. We are very pleased to have Mary Crone Odekon, an astrophysicist from Skidmore College, as our speaker.  She studies the formation of galaxies and the large scale structure of the universe.

Dr. Crone Odekon's  talk will be "Out of the Mist: The Magellanic Clouds and Modern Astronomy."  Here is her description of the talk - "The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, once called the 'Upper and Lower Clouds of Mist,' appear in the southern sky as smudges of light detached from the Milky Way.  Over the past century, these two objects have provided the key to breakthroughs as diverse as the existence of galaxies, the age of the Universe, and the behavior of supernovae.  In this talk, I will describe several of these discoveries, including some of my own recent results on the large-scale patterns displayed by young stars as they form out of interstellar gas."

We hope you will join us for this exciting program! All club meetings are free and open to all.

This is the Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, June Ninth and Tenth.
by Joe Slomka

The Sun sets at 8:30 PM, with night falling at 10:47. Dawn breaks at 3:00 AM and ends with sunrise at 5:16.

Before sunset, the Moon is readily seen high in the South. A few minutes after sunset, Saturn and the bright star Regulus appear. Mars also appears but lower in the southwest. Monday night the Moon lies under Leo's belly, while Tuesday finds the First Quarter Moon under its tail-star, Denebola. This trio sets shortly after midnight.

Saturn remains within three degrees of Regulus, as it has for the past month. Mars races to catch up with Saturn, and is now fifteen degrees away; by the end of the month, this gap will be much smaller. The Phoenix lander on Mars apparently hit a hole-in-one. Scientists, reviewing photos, see what appears ice, uncovered by Phoenix's retro-rockets, directly underneath. Hopefully, the scoop will confirm this hopes sometime next week.

At nightfall, Jupiter rises in the East while Saturn and Mars prepare to set.

Shortly before Dawn, Jupiter lies due South, while Neptune is found about two degrees above the tail of Capricornus. Uranus is solitary amid the voids of Aquarius.

Last week, we compared Jupiter and Saturn; tonight, we continue this comparison. Both planets have weather. A moderately powered amateur telescope shows bands of weather and the Great Red Spot, a three hundred year-old hurricane, on Jupiter. A second red spot appeared a while ago; and, now, a third has appeared. Jovian weather specialists closely study these storms for clues to Jupiter's system. Saturn also displays weather. The Hubble and Cassini telescopes show similar weather bands and storms; alas, they are too faint to be seen by amateurs. Occasionally, Uranus and Neptune have also displayed storms - again seen by large research telescopes. Along with daily reports from probes on Mars, planetary weather observers look for clues which may help understand weather patterns on our planet, Earth. Solar specialists study the Sun and generate Space Weather reports. These are vital to communications satellite and power line operators, Space Shuttle astronauts, and planners for Mars missions, since powerful solar emissions could endanger these operations.

Clear Skies
Joe Slomka

This is Dudley Observatory's Skywatch Line for Friday, June 6, through Sunday, June 8, written by Alan French.

The Moon was new this past Tuesday, so a waxing crescent Moon will be visible in the early evening skies over the weekend as the lunar orb moves toward First Quarter next Tuesday. On Friday night look for the slender crescent a little north of due west after sunset. As the sky darkens, notice you can actually see the entire Moon, with the fainter portion nestled inside the bright crescent. If you were up on the Moon Friday night, you would see a nearly full Earth in the sky. It is the sunlight reflected off the Earth that illuminates the portion of the Moon not in direct sunlight. This earthshine is most obvious when the Moon is a slender crescent and Earth is near full in the lunar sky. As the Moon moves toward first quarter, the Earth will also be moving toward first quarter in the Moon's sky and the earthshine will become less obvious. Look and compare the views on Saturday and Sunday nights.

If you look at the somewhat fatter crescent Moon around 10:00 PM on Saturday night toward the west, you will notice a reddish star just above the Moon. This is the planet Mars, where the Phoenix lander is now busily investigating properties of the Martian soil.

At 10:00 PM on Sunday night a larger crescent will be toward the west-southwest with two stars above it. The closest star – just to the upper right – is Regulus, which marks the heart of Leo, the Lion. The yellowish star to the upper left is the planet Saturn. Even a modest telescope magnifying 30 times or more will clearly show Saturn's lovely rings. To the upper left of Saturn, at a distance about five times the width of Saturn's rings, you'll find Saturn's brightest moon, Titan, looking just like a star. (Note that some telescopes will invert or reverse the view.) Even steadily supported binoculars should show Titan as a faint star close to and to the upper left of the planet.

On Saturday night we'll have a nice chance to see the International Space Station or ISS pass over our area. With the space shuttle Discovery docked to the station, the ISS is even brighter than usual – shining more brightly than any star in the sky as it glides across the sky. Look for the ISS moving upward from the west-northwestern sky just before 9:09 PM on Saturday night. It will be highest just after 9:11 when it will be 61 degrees above the southwestern horizon, and will vanish in the southeast just after 9:14. Its path will bring it up through Gemini, the Twins, above Leo, the Lion, and midway between Spica and Arcturus, and then down into Scorpius, just above the horizon.

The Albany Area Amateur Astronomers will hold a public Star Party in Glenville's Indian Meadows Park beginning at 10:00 PM on Saturday, June 7. The park is located off of the eastern side of Droms Road, not far south of the YMCA. The entrance is marked by a large wooden sign. After driving into the park, you will pass a building to your right. At the next fork in the road, look for a sign directing you right or left to the star party location. We usually set up off the the left, past the main gravel parking lot, but if the night baseball goes late and the lights are still on, we may move the location. Star parties are canceled if the skies are mostly cloudy. Call 374-8460 if in doubt or for more information.

 

Skywatch line for Wed. and Thurs., June 4 & 5, 2008:
by Ray Bogucki

Last night (Tuesday) the Moon was at its New phase, and because it occurred within a few hours of the closest monthly approach of the Moon to Earth, known as perigee, the ocean tides were expected to be unusually large.

Folks who live along the shore, specially in northeastern US, are well aware of the bimonthly cycle of larger and smaller tidal changes which are affected by the Moon and Sun. At Full Moon, the Sun and the Moon lie at opposite sides of the Earth, and their gravitational pull on the Earth's oceans reinforce each other to create larger tides than the average. About two weeks later, at New Moon, the Sun and Moon lie on the same side of the Earth and exert their gravitational pulls in the same direction, again reinforcing the effect. Between these two events, at First and Last Quarter Moon, the Sun and Moon lie roughly at right angles to each other in our sky and their gravitational pulls work at cross purposes to produce smaller tidal effects. If the Moon is at perigee near the time of Full or New Moon, the tidal effect is amplified further to produce unusually large tides.

Farther out in the Solar System, the recently landed Phoenix probe on Mars has been sending back hundreds of sharp images of the immediate neighborhood. When Phoenix made a soft landing, the blast from the retrorockets appears to have blown away the surface dust at the landing site, and a cleverly arranged image of the ground directly beneath the lander shows several smooth, flat, roughly one foot square areas that look remarkably like ordinary water ice in polar regions of the Earth. Phoenix's digging arm is preparing to dig samples and deliver them to its on board chemistry, microscopy and spectrometry instruments to identify the materials.

As it appears in our sky at nightfall, Mars is about one-third of the way up in the west. To confirm its identity, check on Saturday, when the waxing crescent Moon will be hanging just below Mars, about 18 degrees to the lower right of its planetary neighbor, Saturn. During the month of June, watch each night, as faster moving Mars closes in on Saturn. By the end of June, Mars will appear next to Regulus, the brightest star in Leo and Saturn's current close neighbor. On July 10, Mars will finally overtake and pass within about a Moon's width of Saturn itself, providing an elegant close pairing in binoculars or telescope.

This is the Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, June Second and Third.
by Joe Slomka

The Sun sets at 8:25 PM, with night falling at 10:40. Dawn breaks at 3:06 AM and ends with sunrise at 5:20.

Saturn catches our attention, as it had for most of the Spring. It is among the first objects visible in twilight skies. It now appears high in the southwest. Saturn is a favorite of star parties; first timers stare in awe of its beautiful ring systems. Saturn continues to lie within three degrees of the constellation Leo's brightest star, Regulus. Binoculars or small telescopes contain both within the same field of view.

Mars is attracting a lot of attention now. NASA's Phoenix probe landed in the Polar Regions. Its major mission is to dig for ice beneath the Martian soil. This spacecraft is in addition to two rovers and two orbiting artificial satellites. Mars is now racing eastward towards the Saturn-Regulus pair; later this summer Mars will form an interesting trio. Mars, being smaller and dimmer than Saturn, appears later; even in large telescopes it is a tiny red dot about nineteen degrees to Saturn's right.

The Milky Way and summer constellations rise after nightfall; so does Jupiter. Jupiter appears to the left of teapot-shaped Sagittarius. At midnight, if both eastern and western horizons are clear, one can see Mars preparing to set and Jupiter just rising.

Both Saturn and Jupiter are classified as "gas giants." This means that both are enormous balls of gas with no solid surface. Both have fleets of moons; Jupiter has 62, while Saturn has 60. Some of these satellites can be seen in binoculars and amateur telescopes. Both also have ring systems. Saturn's is visible in small telescopes, while Jupiter's can only be seen from the Hubble Telescope and other spacecraft.

Pre-dawn skies allow the observation of the outer planets Uranus and Neptune. Neptune is easier to find; it appears as a blue dot only two and a half degrees above the tail star of Capricornus. Uranus travels in the empty spaces of Aquarius. Astronomy websites and magazines provide charts to aid the observer.

Clear Skies
Joe Slomka