Clouds are gone, but not mosquitoes

Woo-Hoo! Finally got some glass on those elusive planets. The clouds were gone, the sky was clear, and the temperature was great for sky watching. The only drawback was the pesky mosquitoes -- still in full force even at 4:30 in the morning.

Jupiter, high in the south, shining brilliantly, gave a good display in the telescope. Three of the Galilean moons, (Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede) were showing as small pin-pricks of light. Io was too close to the planet to be seen.

Above and slightly right of the King of the Planets, a very dim Neptune beckoned to be spotted. There was a bright dot of light there, but it was Mu Capticorni trying to look like Neptune. It took some looking to find the bluish planet.

I wasn't even going to try for Uranus because it is too dim and there is no guide to help like the moon was last week. I can be patient -- if the clouds and mosquitoes stay out of the way -- and wait until July 12 and 13 when a fading moon will once again point the way. It will be closer to Uranus on the 13th.

Over in the east, Venus was holding forth in all her glory. Blindingly brilliant, she was not hard to find. Even Mars was evident without any kind of optical aid placed directly over its bright sister planet.

In the telescope, Venus looked like the first quarter phase of the moon, only half of the disk was lit with the reflected light of the sun. Mars was in the same field of view but was too far away (it is just coming from being around on the far side of the sun) to see any detail. That will have to wait until the next time Mars is opposite the sun (opposition) in our sky on Jan. 29, of 2010.

In fact, on that night, the moon will make a nice conjunction with Mars at opposition in the early evening sky.

Speaking of Mars, as I have said before, don't believe the bogus e-mails that say Mars will be closest to the Earth than it ever has been before in August of this year. It won't.

When Galileo turned his new telescope to the sky in 1609 and discovered Venus did show phases just like Earth's moon, that four strange "stars" orbited Jupiter, that the moon had craters and mountains and and Saturn seemed to have a set of "ears," it set him off on a journey of discovery that changed science and scientific thinking. That is why we are celebrating the International Year of Astronomy, the 400th anniversary of those events.

Get outside, go look to see what is there--even if you don't have a pair of binoculars or a telescope. For millennia humankind just looked and beheld the wonders of the night sky.

SKY WATCH: If you are out watching the pyrotechnic stars of another kind on Saturday, July 4, look for an almost full moon in the southeast just after 9 p.m. MDT. It will be just below and left of Antares, the brightest star in Scorpius, the Scorpion. Looking, east the Summer Triangle will be above the horizon with Hercules and Bootes above them. To the north, the Big and Little Dippers are always there while majestic Leo the Lion along with bright Saturn are diving toward the horizon in the west.

NEXT TIME: More astronomical blathering.