August Planets and More

As August begins, watch low in the west just after sunset for not one, not two or three, but four planets visible to the unaided eye. Of these, Venus is by far the brightest. Up and to the left are Mars and Saturn. Mars has the distinctive red-orange color while Saturn is higher and to the right of Mars.

These three planets form a skinny triangle that points like an arrow to tiny, faint Mercury, almost lost in the glow of sunset. If you have a low western horizon without trees or buildings in the way, see if you can find this elusive planet. Scan the area with binoculars first. Once you find Mercury with binoculars, it will be easier to spot with just your own eyes.

Watch the motion and position of these planets over the next few weeks. The relative positions of the planets will change. They will also all set a little earlier every evening. As the month progresses, it will get harder and harder to spot all of these planets.

You can score a fifth planet if you stay out just a little later in the evening. Jupiter rises in the east by about 10:30 pm at the beginning of August or 8:30 pm by the end of the month.

If you want to search the sky for star pictures, your best bet this season is to start with the three bright stars of the Summer Triangle. Each of these stars is bright enough to see as soon as the sky begins to darken, even near city lights. With this star chart, you can use the triangle to help you find other nearby groups of stars. Also look for Scorpius the Scorpion and Sagittarius the Archer located low in the south.

Hundreds and Hundreds of Planets and Counting

During our planetarium show "Nine Planets and Counting", we discuss the planets of our own solar system and whether Pluto should be considered a planet or not. Toward the end of the show, though, we make reference to the number of known planets orbiting other stars, called "extrasolar planets". The number that you see during the show is not merely a placeholder or a near estimate. It’s the current official count as reported by NASA. This number has increased several times during the run of the show.

As we write this, the extrasolar planet count is 453. That's 453 planets orbiting around 385 different stars. All of these have been discovered in just the past twenty years thanks to advanced technology and new techniques for detecting these incredibly faint, distant worlds.

We expect this number will soon start to rise quickly as NASA's Kepler spacecraft carefully checks the precise brightness of over 150,000 stars, every 30 minutes. Regularly timed dips in a star’s brightness over time could be the result of a planet partially blocking out the light of its parent star every time it orbits. Kepler’s sensitive instruments may be able to detect planets as small as the Earth.

The stars Kepler has in its sights are all in the constellation Cygnus the Swan, which you can easily find in the evening sky this summer. This part of the sky has plenty of targets for Kepler. Under a dark summer night sky, you can see that Cygnus flies through the Milky Way, the dense band of stars that makes up the bulk of our home galaxy.

Since its launch in May 2009, Kepler has confirmed discoveries of five extrasolar planets. That may not sound like a lot, but it takes several months for the spacecraft to gather data, and many more for scientists on Earth to analyze and verify the results. Far more discoveries are expected in the coming months, and Kepler will continue gathering observations for at least three more years. This one orbiting observatory could discover hundreds of extrasolar planets.

Check out NASA's Kepler web site for more information. To keep an eye on the overall search for extrasolar planets, check out the NASA's PlanetQuest web site. There, you can find an extrasolar planet counter widget to put on your computer desktop so you can keep up with the count every day!

Apocoalypse 2010?

Debunking the Mayan myth of the end of the world

Does the end of the Mayan “Long Count Calendar” predict an apocalyptic end to our planet on December 21st, 2012? Find out at the next meeting of the Barnard-Seyfert Astronomical Society, Thursday, August 19 at 7:30 pm at Adventure Science Center. The meeting is free and open to the public.

Santos López, former BSAS president and amateur Mayan researcher, will explain facts about Mayan history and culture, their astonishing astronomical discoveries, and the link between 80's New Age beliefs and the current hysteria about the meaning of 2012.

Learn more about joining BSAS as a regular member at bsasnashville.com.

Super Summer Star Parties

The next FREE public star party is set for Saturday, August 14, at the Special Events Field at Edwin Warner Park from 8:30 to 10:30 pm. Early that night, the Moon and Saturn will be seen with Jupiter rising shortly before the end of the program. BSAS members will be there with telescopes for you to look through!

If the weather is cloudy, the star party will be cancelled. If the weather is questionable, call AstroLine at (615) 401-5092 or check our web site before traveling.