[ad_1]
Enjoy the parade of the planet the next clear night!
An incredible array of five solar planets from the Earth can take care of you and I dare to say that it beats anything on TV, your computer or your phone.
Add to that, the crescent moon passes by the brilliant planet Venus Sunday evening, July 15th. Twinning will be a spectacular show, if the sky is clear, and no telescope will be needed.
Start your tour of the solar system about 45 minutes after sunset, looking down to the west for the planet Mercury. The crescent moon of the film will be just above, Saturday night 14.
Venus is higher and left. By 2200 eastern daylight time, the moon will be only about two degrees lower right. Two degrees are about twice the width of your finger held at arm's length; the moon is only about half a degree wide!
The further west you are in the United States, the more Moon will appear in Venus.
Binoculars will add to the beauty of the scene; you will more easily see the faint brilliance of the earth filling in the rest of the Moon (light reflected by the Earth). The effect gives a three-dimensional impression of the spherical Moon, placed near Venus and any background star
Bottom left of Venus, finds the bright star Regulus (Venus is much brighter) [19659002] In the south, during the evening, catch the marvelous white planet Jupiter. As the sky darkens, you will see the bright red star Antares at the bottom left. Jupiter is an amazing sight even in a small telescope, with its squat record and its four largest moons.
During the evening twilight, the planet Saturn rises in the southeast, but it is better seen. A small telescope will easily show its wide ring system, tilted like an ellipse with the planet's ball hidden inside. You see a "star" nearby, with a telescope? It's probably the largest moon of Saturn, Titan.
Then comes the marvelous red planet Mars, which rises at the end of twilight. Mars is higher in the south in mid-July about two hours before dawn.
On July 31, Mars will be at its closest approach to the Earth since 2004. A small telescope may give you a glimpse of dark areas on the red ocher surface, but currently there is a dust storm at the site. The planet's scale making observations a challenge!
Much smaller but within reach of the binoculars are the planets Uranus and Neptune, and the asteroid Vesta. In fact, a dark, rural sky will allow you to catch Uranus and Vesta with your eyes alone, if you know where to find them.
More information is available in Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines, and other sources. [19659002] The Moon reaches the first quarter on July 19th.
Keep looking!
– Peter Becker is the editor of The News Eagle in Hawley, PA. Notes are welcome to [email protected]. Please indicate in which newspaper or website you read this column.
Source link
