All Through the Night

12/04/05 – 1210/05

By C. Zaitz

This is a great month for finding planets in the night sky. Through the light polluted skies of Dearborn Heights, planets are one of the easiest things to find, since they boldly shine through the haze of the sodium vapor street lights. From the moment the sun sets to moments before it rises the next morning, the sky will have planets to delight and entertain us.

Sunset brings the bright shine of Venus, still hovering in the southwest at twilight, outshining even some of the frequent planes flying overhead into Metro Airport. I sometimes wonder if folks in those planes ever look out their windows and catch a glimpse of her. The pilots must surely see her during their southwestern descent into Metro. In fact Venus has often been mistaken for UFO sightings, even by pilots.

From the ground, it’s easy to spot fiery Mars rising higher in the southeast, though he grows slightly dimmer with each passing day. Recently a group of girl scouts braved the cold winds as they looked through the 6 inch telescope at the Ensign Planetarium and beheld its peachy disk of light. Sometimes on calm nights Mars’ storms and ice caps are visible through the telescope.

Later on, after midnight, the great planet Saturn will be in the middle of the southern sky, shining down with his rings at a good angle for earthlings to see, ready to be spotted by any telescope aimed at them. Saturn rises at 9pm, but is best seen when he has had time to loft into the sky higher and less obscured by the atmosphere and earthly obstructions. Saturn will be up the rest of the night for you late owls, and even early risers can see Saturn as the sunrise begins to soften the glow of his reflected light.

Three hours before sunrise, look to the east and you will see the king of the planets rising; the mighty Jupiter. Binoculars will reveal some of his progeny - four of his largest moons circling him, noticeably moving from morning to morning. He will be low in the east, but you can see him naked-eye, especially just before twilight overtakes his glow. But the show is not over yet. Little Mercury will put in a brief appearance hovering near the eastern horizon, tucked below Jupiter, but still visible if you have a decent view of the horizon. Always hugging the sun, Mercury is the most difficult planet to spot, but after seeing the other four planets, it will be a feather in your cap to get a glimpse of the last of the naked-eye planets. Unless you have super powers, you’ll need a telescope to see the other planets.

December nights are the longest of the year, so there will be plenty of opportunity for us to see our planetary neighbors hanging silently above us as we hustle and bustle our way through the month.

Until next week, my friends, enjoy the view!