Hey Galileo.... (house, live, move)

[gabygirl]

or any astronomers out there....what is that planet that you can see very clearly in our skies almost nightly?? My kids are guessing either Mars or Venus...? Anyone know for sure?

[TKO]

Mars has a very definite red tinge to it. Aside from Venus, the other big one sometimes is Jupiter. It can be huge depending. I'm not sure what it is you might be seeing right now, have to look into it.

Edit: Looked into it and it's Jupiter. If you have a telescope or a good pair of binoculars you can see the rings. Here's a good link for what's in the sky

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights

[mortimer]

Originally Posted by TKO

... it's Jupiter. If you have a telescope or a good pair of binoculars you can see the rings.

Jupiter, has rings, but only Saturn's are visible.

You can see Jupiter's moons with a good pair of binoculars, but it takes
40x to see the rings of Saturn as rings. Galileo saw them as "handles"
with his 20x scope.

Saturn can be just about as bright as the two brightest stars, but from
New Mexico, the second brightest start visible from Earth is so low in
the Southern sky that there is only one star that appears brighter here.
However, Saturn can be only as bright as the brightest 20 or so stars.

Saturn has so much variation in brighness because the rings add so much
reflective area that when they are edge-on, they are invisible from Earth
( except for a really huge scope ). When the planet is tilted so the rings
appear "fully opened" it reflects a lot more sunlight.

On September 4, 2009, the rings appeared edge-on, so this thread is timely.
In a little over seven years, the rings will be "fully opened" again.

Just before the sun comes up - even brighter than Jupiter,
is Venus in the morning sky.

Venus shines pure white. -- from 10 to 100 times brighter than Jupiter
Jupiter is yellow-ish white. -- Jupiter is brighter than any actual star

Also, Mars can be as bright as Jupiter, but with a reddish color, but
it varies a lot in brightness from that maximum brightness to barely
visible during a full moon.

Unlike Saturn, Mars' variation in brightness comes from large variations
in distance - from 30 M miles to 200+ M miles.

[TKO]

That's a nice concise explanation, thanks!

[gabygirl]

[GregW]

Jupiter is the tan "star" just east of the constellation Orion this time of year. The early morning sky was very clear this morning about 4 AM.

[mortimer]

Originally Posted by GregW

Jupiter is the tan "star" just east of the constellation Orion this time of year....

Sorry, that planet is Mars in the constellation Gemini ( just NE ( upper left ) of Orion ).

If you look close in a dark sky, it is more red than tan.
Compare Mars with Betelgeuse, in the upper-left corner of Orion which is a red star. There is also Aldebaran in Taurus to the upper right of Orion which is also a red star. ( Look for the 'V'-shaped formation and Aldabaron is the bright one on the top left of the 'V.' )

Jupiter can be found about 120 degrees to the West in the constellation Capricorn ( Capricornus ). It is found in the Southern sky after the sun goes down, but has set by the time Orion rises in the East.

Mars is 145 million miles from Earth right now. In January, 2010, it will be 62 million miles away at opposition. This is a relatively "unfavorable" opposition and thus won't be very bright, but will still outshine all but one star. Try to stay alive till July 27, 2018 when it will be ten times brighter than the brightest star and noticeably brighter than Jupiter, even. It will be so bright because it will only be about 30 million miles away at that time.

See this chart for a comparison and note how the oppositions move around the circle.
http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2...mats/print.jpg
Mars is in opposition approximately every two years, unlike the big planets which manage it every year.

This morning as I left the house in complete darkness, Venus had just cleared the Sandias. The crescent moon was just a bit further to the West and Orion was a little more further. ( More further? )

This "sky" ( the "Winter sky" ) contains the brighest collection of stars in a small space. Orion's lower-right bright blue star forms one of the six stars in the Winter Hexagon. Betelgeuse, mentioned above, forms the center of the hexagon. When you get planets and moons in the hexagon it is really stunning. In a really dark sky, the Milky Way is also splashed across the hexagon.