IT'S SATURN SEASON

Right click on this and open in a new window and try to find the Earth!

The rings of Saturn are open for business.  As we head into May, the plane, its 170,000 mile-diameter ring system, and multitude of moons are back in prime-time for you to see this month.

You don’t need a telescope to find Saturn.  It shines like a steady, yellow “star” in the southeast near a blue star called Spica.  Here's how you find it:

First find the Big Dipper high in the northeastern sky.  Connect an arc through the handle stars of the Big Dipper and continue that arc to a really bright star called Arcturus ("Follow the Arc to Arcturus!").  Then keep going in a straighter line along the horizon and bingo you'll find Saturn and Spica ("Speed on to Saturn").

A Saturnian Storm

Now to see the rings, you’ll need to look through a good telescope.  Then you can witness the opening season of the solar system’s greatest wonder.  You can see the planet, the rings, the shadow of the rings, the gaps in the rings, the moons... Okay, I'm getting a little excited here, but this is the best planet ever.  When I first saw Saturn in a telescope it changed my life.  There it sat, a perfect cartoon-planet in a sea of blackness.  I knew then that I was destined to be an astronomer.  Check it out tonight!
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Venus and Jupiter Putting on a Show

We have had a great week of viewing for the planetary conjunction.  Venus and Jupiter have switched places and now Venus is the one higher in the sky as darkness falls.  This picture was taken on March 14 by a visitor to the Cincinnati Observatory, Bill Keel.  You can see the old Mitchel Telescope pointed through the dome with Venus on the right, Jupiter on the left (click on it for a bigger version).

For the rest of the month, the two planets will appear to spread out in the sky.  Jupiter will be the first to ride off into the sunset later in April.  But Venus will be blazing away in the western sky until mid-May.

After you've found Venus and Jupiter, turn 180 degrees.  In the opposite sky you'll find a pretty bright star that is decidedly "redder" than the others (hint hint).  That's the planet Mars.  And if you can stay up a little later, Saturn rises with a blue star next to it (called Spica) at about 11:30 in the southeast. So this weekend see if you can catch four planets in one night!
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STAR GAZER Programs for March

I’m back from Miami Florida where I filmed another eight episodes for the iconic astronomy program – STAR GAZER. This is the show you see late at night on PBS where a guy stands on a light beam and tells you, “What’s Up,” in the sky. Well, for the third month, that guy has been me! I can hardly believe it - but now I’m able to share my passion for the night sky on 1-minute and 5-minute segments aired on over 90 TV stations around the globe. If you’d like to watch them, they’re on YouTube. I wrote Finding Direction in the Night Sky – where I get to tell my classic myth jokes. Check them out, “Like” them, and post comments please:

March 7-13 The Biggest Full Moon in 18 Years
5-minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eycsw-DZ9wg  
1-minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ng2wT3Azdw  

March 14-20 Finding Direction in the Night Sky
5-minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7-bTOKeCUE  
1-minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6AQAJ-pt9M  

March 21-27 Venus and the Moon at Dawn
5-minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsZAg7VnPh4  
1-minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n7lIM2ptro  

March 28-April 3 Arcturus and Saturn Join the Moon and Pleiades
5-minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqBioC7Fh4  
1-minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgHwMujAY2Q  


You can download all of your favorite Star Gazer programs at: http://www.jackstargazer.com/JHSG_DNLD.html

If you don’t get Star Gazer on local your PBS station – let them know about it. The program is free for anyone to broadcast. Spread the word!

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Big Week in Astronomy

I'm taking one week off from mythology to talk about the big week Astronomy had in the news last week.

1) A new, gigantically huge and diffuse ring was discovered around Saturn. Astronomers with the Spitzer Space Telescope discovered this ring by detecting its heat (just barely hotter than absolute zero). The ring ranges from 3.7 to 7.4 million miles from the planet technically making it the largest thing in the solar system. See: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-150

2) President Obama held the first ever Star Party on the White House lawn. Dozens of amateur astronomers brought telescopes to the White House and the first family saw Jupiter and other objects through the telescopes. The President delivered a great speech on the importance of science. Hopefully this will be the first of many such Star Parties. http://www.wisn.com/slideshow/slideshows/21233931/detail.html

3) Our attempt to blow up the Moon did not work out. The LCROSS mission slammed a rocket into the south pole of the Moon to see what water might come up. Although the event was not seen from Earth as expected, astronomers are still poring over the data and expect to share their findings soon. See: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html It wasn't nearly as destructive as when the evil Chairface Chippendale tried to write his name on the Moon in an animated episode of the Tick.
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