Wednesday, February 07, 2007

want to see the planets venus and mercury just after sunset?





















from sky & telescope magazine:

Catch the solar system's two inner planets at once; this week elusive Mercury is lower right of Venus in twilight. They're much more different in brightness than indicated here. Look too early and Mercury will be invisible; look too late and it will have set!

(The blue 10° scale is about the size of your fist at arm's length.)
Sky & Telescope diagram.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wheres the Dog star?

nutty said...

the ancient Egyptians called Sirius the 'dog star', after their god Osirus.

that's the 'official' answer.

sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, and suitably enough, can be found in the constellation canis major - the great dog.

right now, sirius can be found in the SE sky below the constellation orion.

hope that helps, mutley. but why only one t?