There’s a great view of the planets at the moment, and over the next couple of weeks! I just spoke to BBC Radio Wales about what to see, and where and when to look. Here’s the current view:
Venus is the easiest to spot as it is so bright – it’s been visible since at least 5pm, probably earlier (but I didn’t look). Look over towards where the Sun set and you can’t miss it, it’s the brightest thing in the sky at the moment.
Look below Venus a bit, almost directly below but slightly to the right is a fainter object that isn’t twinkling – that’s Saturn. That’s the one with the ring system, but you can’t see the rings with the naked eye.
Moving round to your left, towards the South, you’ll see another bright object higher up than Venus – that’s Jupiter. This is the largest planet in our solar system, a gas giant without a solid surface, and has a plethora of moons accompanying it.
Move further round to your left, towards the East, and you’ll see an orange object – that’s Mars, the last of our naked-eye planets to see at the moment. Mars is quite striking with its very obvious colour, you can’t mistake it for anything else.
Other planets
But wait a minute, what about the other two, aren’t there supposed to be six planets visible right now? (Not counting Earth.) Well yes, there are another two, but they are quite a bit harder to see.
Uranus and Neptune are gas giants, like Jupiter and Saturn, but they are smaller and further away from us so they never look quite as bright. Uranus is to the right of Jupiter, forming a thin triangle with the Pleiades (aka the Seven Sisters) star cluster and at magnitude 5.8 is just visible to the naked eye if you have good eyesight, know just where to look and have a good dark sky. I know where it is, but I can’t see it without binoculars because of the light pollution here.
Neptune is even harder, and you won’t see it without a telescope because it is a lot fainter (~mag 8) and below the capabilities of the unaided eye. You definitely need a telescope for this one. But if you do have a telescope, you can find Neptune over in the region of sky where Venus and Saturn are located. I’d recommend using a planetarium program to be sure you’re looking at the right object.
What else can you see with binoculars or a telescope?
If you have a telescope or a good pair of binoculars and can hold them still you might be able to see that Venus doesn’t look like a circular disk, rather it has phases like the Moon. This is because it orbits between us and the Sun, so we often see the illuminated side of the planet from the side, making it look like a crescent.
Binoculars will also show you the brightest four moons of Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – the so-called Galilean moons after the astronomer Galileo who promoted the use of the telescope. You can see them with a telescope too, of course, but it’s possible with binoculars.
If you have a small telescope, do have a look at Saturn because you should be able to see the rings. A good pair of binoculars should be enough, but you’ll need to hold them still, so use a door frame or something to steady yourself for the best view.
Winter delights
Winter is a great time to go observing without a telescope as there are some bright stars and easy to find constellations. If you’re going out planet-spotting then do look around the sky. Orion is a good constellation to start with as it has lots of interesting stars, a great star-forming region (the Orion nebula) and the Pleiades not far away. If you have binoculars, do explore as there is a lot to see here.
Twinkle twinkle – not
How do you tell a star from a planet? Easy: planets don’t twinkle, stars do. This is because the stars are so far away that they appear as essentially point-like sources of light. As light from them passes through our turbulent atmosphere (particularly turbulent today, thanks Storm Éowyn) it gets bounced around and causes the stars to ever-so-slightly shift position from one instant to the next, causing them to appear to twinkle.
Planets are closer, so even though they are physically much smaller than the stars, they look bigger to us from our vantage point. Because they are bigger, the effects of the atmosphere are less obvious to the naked eye and they don’t appear to twinkle.
It’s cloudy! ????
If it’s cloudy where you are tonight, don’t panic. The view will change a little from night to night over the next few weeks, but you will hopefully have more opportunities to see the planets before they move too far.
Particularly good days to look will be January 31st when the very thin crescent Moon will be close to Venus and Saturn, and on February 9th when the Moon will be incredibly close to Mars – from some parts of the world the Moon will actually pass in front of Mars in what’s called an occultation.
So, lots more opportunities, and lots to see on any clear night over the next few weeks.
Enjoy the view!
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