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This is the first of what I hope to be many more informative installments covering what happening in the evening skies.

In the evenings, from sunset to about 45 minutes afterwords, we have been enjoying a heavenly pearl necklace of the crescent moon, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter.

Venus, resting below the moon, is the brightest object. Venus is slightly smaller than earth and is the planet that is closest to us now. If you were to look at Venus with a pair of binoculars, you would see that it resembles a half-full moon.

Closer to the horizon where the sun just disappeared are two "stars" that are actually planets. The brightest of them is Jupiter and the dimmer one is Mercury. Although Jupiter appears closer to the sun than Mercury from our angle, it is actually thousands of times farther away on the far side of the sun. Jupiter is the biggest of all the planets and is considered a "failed star" and is large enough to accommodate 1400 earths inside its sphere.

Mercury is the dimmer planet closest to the horizon. It is about the same size as Earth's moon. Like Venus, it would appear as a half-full moon if you were to view it through binoculars.

If you are out in the morning, before sunrise, take a look to the southeast sky at about a 45 degree angle. You should see two very bright stars. One of those has a reddish tint and is actually Saturn. To the right of Saturn - at about the same brightness - is a real star called Regulus.

Whenever you are looking for planets, keep in mind that they always follow the exact same path across the sky as the sun. So if you see a bright "star" in the northern sky or southern, it most certainly is not a planet and probably is, in fact, a star.

(edited for egregious spelling errors)

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Skeptic, thanks for posting this. Like Greenhillmom, I live in some pretty big trees and sometimes have a difficult time seeing the horizon, but I really enjoy knowing this stuff.
Please continue to bring this topic up as things change.
I like that little fat guy on PBS that does the thing about the "Keep Looking UP" , but it seems he dosn't come on at any regular time, so I miss out a lot on what's going on in the night skys.
quote:
Skeptic, thanks for posting this. Like Greenhillmom, I live in some pretty big trees and sometimes have a difficult time seeing the horizon, but I really enjoy knowing this stuff.


Same here. However, I travel to and from Huntsville a lot and have a good view of the western sky most of the way home.

Funny you mentioned that weird looking "Keep looking up" fella. I though of him when I was posting this. I haven't seen him years!

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