Backyard Universe: Planet poor evening sky slowly improves

I had a group of kids over to look through my telescope this winter and after eyeballing the moon through the scope one little guy asked, “What about planets?”

Most prominent planets, I had to tell them, were all morning objects right now and were visible only in the predawn hours. Though planets Uranus and Neptune were indeed in the evening sky, their great distance makes them appear as little more than blue-green dots in the telescope eyepiece.

The solar system’s main attractions for telescope users — planets Jupiter, Mars and Saturn — were all in the morning sky.

But the solar system is a dynamic, changing place and those more interesting predawn worlds are slowly making their way back to more convenient evening observing hours between now and summer. This summer also features a very close approach by the red planet Mars.

Venus in the west

The first of the bright planets to return to our evening skies, Venus is starting to become visible very low in the west soon after sunset. Venus has been on the far side of the sun from us recently and is just now swinging out from the sun to allow it to be seen again.

If skies are clear on March 18 you’ll see Venus close to the upper right of a very slim crescent moon in the west just after sunset. Dimmer Mercury will hang to the upper right of Venus that same evening.

Venus will gain altitude each night heading into spring and will become more prominent in the western sky. This second planet from the sun will be with us in the western evening sky until fall.

Jupiter late on spring nights

The next brightest planet after Venus, Jupiter, now rides high in the south as dawn breaks, but by the third week in March, Jupiter can be seen rising around midnight over in the southeastern sky. Its rise time comes an hour earlier by the end of March and in early May, Jupiter will rise at sunset and be visible all night.

Regardless of when you see Jupiter rising this spring, it will glow brightly with a steady light over in the southeast. If you’re up before the sun and the sky is clear on the morning of March 7, that will be Jupiter hanging close below the moon.

Ringed Saturn on summer nights

By mid-May, the telescopic showpiece of the night sky starts making an appearance in the southeast around midnight. Saturn will appear low in the southeast around that date, appearing as a bright yellowish “star” with a steady glow. Saturn reaches “opposition” on June 27 when it will rise at sunset and remain visible until dawn. That means that mid-summer we will have Saturn in a good position at a convenient evening time slot for telescopic observations. Most any scope magnifying at least 30 times will show the planet’s signature ring system, but there is no hint of the rings with our unaided eyes.

Between now and then, however, we’ll have to rise early to catch Saturn. If you’re up before dawn on a clear March 11 morning, Saturn will glow close to the upper right of the moon.

A Martian summer visit

Planets Jupiter and Saturn are great targets anytime for small telescopes, but the big planetary news of 2018 is about Mars. Specifically how close the red planet will come this summer.

Being the most earthlike planet we know of, aside from the one we’re living on, Mars is a tough telescopic target.

It’s only half the size of Earth and spends most of its orbit far from us … so it makes for a tiny target in a telescope eyepiece. But that distance shrinks about every two years, and we can then glimpse surface detail on the red planet using small telescopes. Such a close passage of Mars happens this summer when Mars comes to opposition. Opposition means it’s opposite the sun in our sky and is then rather close.

The upcoming opposition of Mars comes on July 27, and the red planet is a close 35.8 million miles away. Back in May 2016 the red planet was also at opposition but its distance was much greater at 46.78 million miles.

The upcoming close opposition is very favorable and is just slightly more distant than one of the all-time close Mars oppositions of 34.65 million miles back in August 2003.

Right now Mars is an unspectacular reddish looking object in our southeastern dawn sky, but it will grow in brightness as it closes in on us in late July. You’ll see Mars close to the lower left of the moon at dawn on March 9.

If you have a question about astronomy, send it to Backyard Universe, P.O. Box 297, Stedman, NC 28391 or email jhorne@fayobserver.com.

Let's block ads! (Why?)