dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (08/21/85)
That bright "star" near the moon Wednesday and Thursday evening is the planet Saturn. More -- after this. August 21 Saturn and the Moon If you look outside Wednesday or Thursday evening, it's very easy to see a planet -- Saturn -- near Earth's companion moon. Saturn is now in an interesting place in the sky -- sandwiched in between some interesting stars. To the west of Saturn are the two brightest stars in the constellation Libra -- Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali -- named for the claws of Scorpius the scorpion -- back in a time when the stars of Libra were part of Scorpius. Libra is to the west. To the east of Saturn is a pattern of stars that's sometimes called the "crown of the scorpion." The crown consists simply of three stars that make a little curved line. Again, they're to Saturn's east -- and Saturn is easy to see because it's the brightest star in the moon's vicinity both Wednesday and Thursday evening. There are some other noticeable objects in that part of the evening sky. The bright red star Antares is located farther east of Saturn. And a second planet -- brighter than anything else besides the moon -- is east of Antares. This very bright planet -- in the southeast when Saturn is in the southwest -- is Jupiter. And three planets are in the morning sky now, but two are so faint they are probably impossible to see. Mercury and Mars are hiding in the haze above the eastern horizon before dawn. Meanwhile, Venus is high in the sky -- a blazing point of light -- impossible to miss in the east before dawn. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin