Another Good Night to Go Outside and Look Up

Turn of your phone, iPad, computer or X-Box and go outside and look up tonight. 

There’s a full moon, but that’s not all. Look for the bright “star” to the Moon’s upper right - that’s Saturn. Saturn is noticeably yellow. You can’t see the rings without a good telescope, but you can picture them in your mind’s eye. Saturn is the most beautiful of the planets.

If you imagine a line running from the Moon straight through Saturn and continuing, it will come to a bright red “star.” That’s Mars. At this time, Mars is brilliantly red - it’s brighter than Saturn because of its relative position to Earth. It looks like a brilliant red ruby hanging in the sky.

Next, look toward the West. Low in the sky, you will spy a very bright “star.” This is Jupiter, the largest of all the planets. If you have binoculars, you can spot as many as four of Jupiter’s moons. These are the Galilean moons - name for their discoverer, Galileo Galilei.