The Lingering Show

7/10 – 7/16

by C. Zaitz

The last resounding blasts of fireworks have subsided, but the sky is still putting on a show. Like a slow-motion, distant display, the planets, Moon and Sun will be performing all week.

Michigan summer sunsets come late, but they will come pretty this July. Venus is lingering in the twilight, like a diamond pin on the Sun’s multicolored robes as he sinks below the horizon. She’s not alone, though she does try to outshine her companions. She will not be able to outshine the Moon, but she will tell you it’s because of her distance, not her brilliancy. The waxing crescent Moon will glide silently by her and even pass by Jupiter on Wednesday, reaching first quarter phase by Thursday. You can actually see the Moon grow night after night like a widening smile as she shows us more of her sunlit side.

Planet Mercury was never one to put himself forward, always lurking in the Sun’s glow. He prefers the game of tag, and having come as close to Venus as he dared on the 9th, he’ll race back to hide in the Sun’s glow. He still can be seen close to Venus as the Sun's light drains from the sky. You’ll need a nice flat horizon to see the pair best, and of course, a fairly clear sky.

Saturn has taken his final bows as he hurtles toward conjunction with the Sun. This means that soon (July 23rd) Saturn will be directly behind the Sun from our point of view, completely out of sight. Saturn has been a faithful sky object all winter and spring, but now he leaves the stage to Jupiter and the Venus-Mercury pair at sunset. If you miss Saturn, I highly recommend a visit to the Cassini-Huygens website: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. You’ll get the best view possible of Saturn and its moons from the incredible Cassini probe.

Speaking of fireworks and probes, in a departure from usual NASA policy we have sent a probe out in space for the express purpose of crashing into something! The mission is Deep Impact, its destination was a comet, and the crash date was July 4th! Imagine the “fireworks” when the 800 pound impactor space probe hurtled into Comet Tempel 1 at a speed of 22 mph! It’s not an easy feat - imagine trying to hit a tumbling potato with a grain of salt from a mile away. That was the job of the impactor as it left the rest of the probe and headed toward the comet. The remaining part of the probe watched the display from a safe distance, making calculations, taking pictures and emailing them to Earth. Surprisingly, there is a lot of information to be gained from smashing things into comets, and scientists will be interpreting data for quite a while. You can learn all about the Deep Impact mission at NASA’s website: http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html.
Until next week, my friends, enjoy the view!