What do planets look like in the sky

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Distinguish stars from planets. Planets are usually much brighter than stars. They are closer to earth so they begin to look more like a disk, rather than a tiny dot. Look for the bright planets. Jupiter and Saturn will always be the easiest to see. Each planet reflects the light of the sun differently. Mercury: this planet twinkles, flashing a bright yellow color. Venus: Venus is often mistaken for a UFO because it is large and silver. Mars: this planet is a reddish color. Jupiter: Jupiter glows white throughout the night.

It is the second brightest point of light in the night sky. Part 2. Learn how the lights affect the sky. It is easier to see the stars and planets in the night sky if you live in a rural area. Try to find a spot away from stray light that shines off of buildings. Look in the right part of the sky. The planets are rarely near one another in the night sky. Knowing where to see them is very important. A great way to find them is to locate them when they appear as part of a constellation.

Mercury: Mercury will be visible near the Sun. Jupiter: Jupiter is always located very far away from the sun. Saturn: look low in the Libra constellation to see this bright planet. Take your position on Earth into consideration. The planets may have an apparition period but may earlier in the eastern hemisphere and later in the night in the western hemisphere. Part 3. The apparition period is the time that your planet is visible.

It can last anywhere from a few weeks to almost two years. You can look these up in most astronomy catalogues to figure out when your planets are visible. Know what time to look. Most of the planets are most visible as the sky gets dark dusk or as the sky begins to brighten again dawn. However, looking for them in the night sky is also possible.

You have to look very late at night, when it is incredibly dark out. Know when your planets are visible each night. Mercury: this planet is visible multiple times a year. Sign In Subscribe.

How can anyone understand a planet that is more than 1, times the size of our own? Or the 93 million miles between us and the sun?

And these are just measurements in our own solar system, a puny speck in the galaxy, to say nothing of the entire universe. Our intuitive sense of size, distance, and time are of little help when it comes to space.

The other thing Miller decides is how wide to make the entire picture. These planets are also at their brightest when at opposition, though the brightness differences aren't nearly as great for Jupiter and Saturn as they are for Mars.

The time interval between one opposition and the next is about days for Mars, days for Jupiter, and days for Saturn. Venus and Mercury, on the other hand, are never opposite the sun in our sky. Instead they stay relatively close to the sun: Venus within about 47 degrees and Mercury within about 28 degrees.

This means that these planets can be visible either in the western sky after sunset, or in the eastern sky before sunrise, but never near midnight. Mercury, in particular, is hard to observe over long periods because it is always so close to the sun. Retrograde motion, for either Mercury or Venus, occurs when the planet has been visible in our evening sky, then quickly approaches the sun from our perspective and later appears on its other side, in our morning sky.

The planet's forward motion then gradually carries it back toward the sun from the other side, and eventually back into our evening sky. This pattern repeats about every days for Venus and every days for Mercury. To help you visualize these motions, I've created a Whole Sky Applet that draws the planets on a map of the entire degree sky. Please spend some time playing with this applet, watching the forward and retrograde motions of each of the five planets.

Then use this applet or the Sky Motion Applet to answer the following questions. Question: Observe the forward and retrograde motions of Jupiter. About how long does each period of retrograde motion last? Question: As shown above, Mars was in the constellation Cancer during its retrograde motion in late and early Which constellation will Mars be in during most of its next retrograde motion, in early ?

The intricate motions of the planets were a wonder and a mystery to ancient people who took the time to observe and ponder them. It was natural that most ancient people considered the erratically moving planets to be deities, with wills of their own. It was also natural for people to conjecture that, like the sun and the moon, the planets might have noticeable effects on our daily lives here on earth.

This idea was developed into astrology , a subject that gets far more attention than astronomy even in today's newspapers and bookstores. Meanwhile, the ancient Greeks eventually attempted to devise mechanical models to explain and predict the complex motions of the planets.