Three Planets Racing this Weekend

William Robinson writes "This report asks you to keep your eyes on the skies this weekend, when a rare triple-planetary alignment is going to happen. It promises a stellar show for star-gazers. Scott Young of the Manitoba Museum Planetarium says the planets in question -- Mercury, Venus and Saturn -- are all big enough to be seen without a telescope."

Disharmonious Noncordance

[amstrad]

Some people are idiots [harmonicconcordance.com]. Other people are not [badastronomy.com].

Binoculars would be ideal

[NotQuiteReal]

If you are just starting, get some binoculars.

Binoculars and a star chart.

Re:I'm going to buy a telescope!

[Renegade Lisp]

What sort of telescope would be ideal for an amateur astronomer such as myself to view such a planetary event?

The event itself (meaning the triple-constellation) is probably best observed with the naked eye, or a simple pair of binoculars, because any decent telescope will have a smaller field of view than the area the three planets will be spread out over.

Even with binoculars (when mounted to a tripod), you will be able to see a faint indication of Saturn's rings (indicated by the fact that it doesn't look like a symmetric blob, but just a little stretched along the horizontal axis. Galileo, when he first saw this with similar equipment, thought he was seeing three bodies right next to each other). You will also see some of Saturn's moons, and the current phase of Venus.

Real astronomer's equipment can of course get you much much further.

An accurate story ...

[busman]

For some informative information on this "rare" event have a look
at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/conjunctio n_mercury_venus_saturn.html?2362005/ [universetoday.com]

Three planets are aligning?

[chriswaclawik]

Looks like it's time to cue "Also sprach Zarathustra," by Richard Strauss.

(for the ill-informed, it's the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey that goes: duhhhh....duhhh....DUHHHHHH... [dun dun dun dun dun dun])

Re:Are there any simulations available for viewing

[Junta]

Not specifically for this event, but a really awesome simulator for astronomy stuff in general is celestia. http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ [shatters.net]

Click on the earth, hit g (actually celestia starts you at earth), you can hit o to mark orbits to make it easier to find the planets (hit p to show labels to identify the planets themselves.)
I hit shift-g to go to the surface of earth and then find the planets. Can give you a good idea where to look really. Being on the surface isn't particularly important at first, don't want the planet being between you and your destination until you are sure it wouldn't be.

It doesn't always much like things really do, especially with atmospheric simulation not being particularly complex in celestia, but it is cool none the less. Particularly to click on one of the three planets close together, hit g, then look at everything from their perspective.

Re:Am I the only one wondering

[tomlouie]

From the article: "To catch the show, go outside after sunset today and find a spot with a clear view of the western horizon, Young said. As the sky darkens, Venus will be the first astral body to emerge, as it's the brightest object in the heavens after the sun and moon. Mercury and Saturn will show themselves soon afterward -- both being about as bright as the other, and shining with a pale, yellowish light."

Tom

Need a starchart?

[lethalwp]

Hello,

If you need a good starchart to find stars/constellations/planets, i have one big recommendation for you, it's called skymap:
http://skymap.com/products.htm [skymap.com]

you can use it in a demo version which is already very useful for a starter.

Way to go! =)

Astronomy over Astrology, Please

[PingXao]

I almost fell out of my chair when I RTFA. "Mercury is a planet few people, even astrologers, have ever seen." WTF? Is this Slashdot or the Nancy Reagan hotline [time.com]? There's a better article at Sky and Telescope [skyandtelescope.com] without any of the mumbo jumbo.

Imagine the orbits...

[mister_llah]

Well, assuming we are all in a straight line, 2D model... but not all orbits move on the same speed, and our only view of the heavenly sky isn't a direct path to the sun...

So imagine looking up from earth, towards the sun, then to the sun's 11:15, let's say... we have a line up...

They aren't all at the same "position" in their orbits, but they may line up...

Re:Are there any simulations available for viewing

[eclectro]

To see what it looks like you could go to APOD [nasa.gov], which is good for your little daily Astronomy fix/news.

Re:k, am I the onlyone who notices...

[close_wait]

that Earth is BETWEEN Saturn and Venus, there fore the only planet's we'll see lined up are Mercury and Venus?

No, Saturn is currently on the opposite side of the sun from us, so we are not between them.

Re:k, am I the onlyone who notices...

[Anonymous Coward]

Lost a planet, Master 5plicer has. How embarassing, how embarassing.
Overview of our current solar system: http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/CaseGvtgj/so larsytem.gif [photobucket.com]

Re:I'm going to buy a telescope!

[ZappaSoft]

Dobsonian telescopes are very easy to use, beginner models are not very expensive and at the same time, you get the most bang for your buck, because the morror sizes on dobsonian telescopes tend to be a lot bigger than on refractors you would get at department stores for the same price. You can get a 4.5" Orion SkyQuest dobsonian telescope for $199 and really see a lot with it, tyr this url http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailma in.jsp?itemID=364&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=4&iSub Cat=9&iProductID=364 [telescope.com]. You might find these at a near by planetarium. If you are in a big city, even a very big telescope won't help you much because of all the light pollution. But on clear skies in the middle of nowhere, the 4.5" dobsonian will really let you see lot's of things. Tonight, you should be able to see all three planets really well with a 35mm or 45mm eyepiece. If you don't want to spend the money on a telescope, get some binoculars, but a telescope is a lot more fun once you get into it. Also, before you go, open up KStars, if you have Linux, that will help you with finding where things are at in the sky. Good luck!

Re:I'm going to buy a telescope!

[1u3hr]

Is there a site that says what time U.S time zone the alignment might appear on. What exact direction on a compass?

There are lots of astronomical programs. One small, simple and free one is Starcalc [m31.spb.ru]. Just set it up with your latitude and longitude and it'll show you the sky at any time past present or future. Anyway, this shows that this is not a brief duration event like an eclipse but the three planets are very close over several days.

Re:Binoculars would be ideal

[basilpronoun]

Also, get the book 'Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe' by Terence Dickinson.

Re:Binoculars would be ideal

[joNDoty]

If you are just starting, it might also help if somebody told you where to look:
I'm new to stargazing but I downloaded Celestia (free [shatters.net]) and flew over to the upper hemisphere of earth and set the date to tonight (June 25). You can find the planets by watching where the sun sets. The planets will set at that same spot about 2 hours later. They will be moving down and to the right at almost exactly a 45 degree angle to the horizon. So that means that after sundown, you can look up and left of that spot to find the planets. Look relatively low in the sky.

Re:Binoculars would be ideal

[res ipsa loquitur]

" If you are just starting, get some binoculars."

As someone who has used both binoculars & telescopes as an amateur, I would like to second this advice. Here are some specific reasons why:

Movement. Telescopes all seem to have at least one direction reversed (in other words, to move the field to the right you need to move the telescope to the left. Or up/down is reversed.) This is not something that you get used to after 5 minutes - it's an ongoing frustration. And it's important because of:

Field of vision. Telescopes tend to have a smaller field of vision, often something like 2 degrees (I'm going from memory here.) That may not sound bad, but in practice it can become a major hassle as you have to constantly move the telescope to keep things in your field of view. Also, you often want to view larger areas of the sky at one time without having to move your telescope. And given the movement problem (above), you will find yourself adjusting the telescope the wrong way about half of the time. Stupid? Yes. Frustrating? Double-yes.

Ease of use. Telescopes require setup time. Binoculars require removal of the lens caps. This is one of those things that doesn't seem like a big deal in the store, but in real life it will quickly become a major issue (unless you leave you telescope planted in one place all of the time, which I don't think is an ideal situation for an amateur.) You want to be able to scan the sky with your bare eyes & then _immediately_ use your magnifying device to look at something specific. You do _not_ want to mess around with tripods and sighting scopes just to see the latest thing that caught your fancy. Binoculars win big here. Don't underestimate the usefulness of binoculars' quick reaction time. In my view, this is the most important factor to consider; if it isn't easy to use, you won't use it.

For the record, I'm an amateur who has owned and used both inexpensive binoculars and an inexpensive telescope. I would _hands down_ recommend the binoculars. Get practical experience, and _then_ shop for a telescope.

One more thing. Binoculars are much more kid-friendly than telescopes, so if you're a parent trying to interest your children in astronomy, add that to the above reasons.

I hope this helps.