Late October 2005

Greetings, Digital Skyline subscribers.

I hope your summer has gone well -- I have spent some time away from the Skyline, and this edition is certainly a brief one. I had wondered for a while if the Skyline was even read, but over the past few weeks I have received many e-mails and calls from folks missing the updates which I have previously sent out.

Here is a small taste of what many of you have missed, and expect the Skyline to be back in its usual glory soon. Thanks to you all for your letters of support.

Weekend of Mars! (and Venus!)

This weekend (and for a couple weeks to come), our two next-door neighbor planets will be brilliant in the night sky!

Here's in a view of the inner Solar System from 'above'. Notice the Sun in the center, with the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars in that order radiating away from it.

Image taken from Solar System Live

You can see that Venus, Earth, and Mars are fairly close together in their orbits. Venus is about 65 million miles from the Earth, while Mars is at a paltry 43 million miles away! Sure 43 million miles sounds like a bunch, but, as distance in space goes, it's really a slight distance.

If the clouds will go away, we will have a nice view of each of these planets.

First, let's discuss Venus. Look to the west as the Sun sets. As the sky darkens, a bright, glittering dot will appear right over the area where the sun goes down. It is the brightest thing in that area of the sky -- the unmistakably bright dot -- is Venus. You simply can not miss it.

If you have a backyard telescope, and point it at Venus, you will notice that it is at a half phase. With a 4 to 8 inch reflecting telescope, you'll see something that looks like this:

Amateur photo of Venus in the evening

Venus gives us a great show in the west, in the evening, over the next couple of weeks.

But the real star of this weekend is Mars!

Honestly, Mars will not be nearly as bright as Venus. Mars was actually closer to the Earth in August 2003 (you may remember all the Mars buzz back then -- "This won't happen again in our lifetime!"). These are both true, but Mars will be the planet to check out this weekend, as it gets nearly as close to us this weekend and into next week.

You see, even though Venus is brighter, it's dense blanket of clouds make it impossible to see its surface features. Mars, however, has a thin atmosphere, allowing surface features like surface color variations, and even polar ice caps, to be visible. Here is an example of what Mars will look like through a 4 to 8 inch reflecting telescope...

Amateur photo of Mars

I also mentioned that Mars was closer two summers ago. But this year, Mars is almost as close, AND it is close during October - which has a much crisper, clearer night sky than hot, hazy, humid August. Also, it's happening around a new moon, making it a perfect night sky for viewing Mars! (Again, as long as the clouds go away.)

Mars will be at its closest on October 30th and 31st, but you can go look for it, in all of its orange glory, any time from now through the end of November.

The question now is: How do we find Mars?

It's very easy - after you're done looking at Venus, and it has drifted down to the horizon, simply turn around. As Venus sets in the west, Mars rises in the East - coming up about an hour/hour-and-a-half after sunset. It's orangey-red color, and exceptional brightness compared to the stars around it, makes it stand out.

A couple hours after sunset, it drifts a bit higher in the sky, and is hanging out right over the constellation of Taurus the Bull:

Mars floating above the constellation Taurus

Mars will be in the sky throughout the night - rising around sunset, and drifting through the sky, setting as the sun is rising in the morning. This is a perfect time to view Mars - close to us, clear, dark skies, and you can go out at any time during the night to see it.

The end of this October throughout November is the perfect time to spy on your neighbors! I'm referring to our planetary neighbors, Mars and Venus, of course...

The Moon

The phases for this month:

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