No UFOs Here

Unless you’ve been buried under a blanket of clouds the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed some bright lights in the western sky just after sunset.  Aside from the Moon (and you know what that looks like, don’t you?), you might be wondering what they are.  Well, if they’re not moving rapidly (like changing position over the space of a few minutes, as aircraft would do), then what you’re seeing are the planets Venus and Jupiter.  Here’s tonight’s view of the pair, well after sunset. You won’t see Mercury (too close to the Sun), but you can’t fail to notice how dazzling the two planets appear these early springish nights.

If you have binoculars or a small telescope, check out Jupiter. You might be able to see its four largest moons. They’ll look like little pinpoints of light on either side of Jupiter.

 

The next couple of nights, these two planets snuggle up really close together in the western sky.   Once you’ve found them, and turn toward the east and look for Mars snuggled up underneath the constellation, Leo the Lion.  An hour or two later, you should be able to find Saturn just rising in the East. It’s a planet spectacular!

Of course, there are a lot of other things to look at in the sky this month, so don’t run back inside after you’ve seen the planet.  Dress warmly (if it’s cold where you are), and explore that sky!  There’s a lot to be found.

By the way, check out “Our Night Sky” at Astrocast.TV for a short program I did on what’s up this month.  It’s free to embed on observatory and planetarium Web sites (with proper credit, of course), so check it out!