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Observing planets and blue moons
Name: Rachael McCullough and Wildman Jackson
Status: Other
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
In my magazine Natural History, it said that it is possible to see Saturn,
Jupiter, and Mars. I have seen Venus, and is very easy to spot. Do you
have any tips on spotting the others without a telescope? Do you know when
the next blue moon will occur?
Replies:
WHERE IS JACK HORKHEIMER WHEN WE NEED HIM?!?!?!
Sorry about that. Jack does a 5 minute fill spot for amateur astronomers
that is broadcast on many PBS TV stations; he lives for questions like
these. As for observing the planets, look for bright stars that do not
twinkle, also, Mars is reddish. (extra-credit: Why do stars twinkle but
not planets?)
Hawley
Check out Astronomy and Sky & Telescope magazines (often available at the
public library) for directions on where to look for the planets month-by--
month. Mercury is currently in the glare of the Sun, so it cannot be seen
with the naked eye. It is seldom easy to spot anyway; you usually have to
know just where to look.
The expression "once in a blue moon" means "very seldom". It is not a
regular occurrence. According to Jearl Walker's book "The Flying Circus of
Physics", the Moon can appear bluish when the upper atmosphere contains dust
from a volcanic eruption, or smoke from a forest fire, with particles of a
size that preferentially scatter light from the red end of the spectrum,
leaving the remaining light relatively enriched in blue.
TC Winther
The dictionary definition of blue moon is when two full moons occur in a
single solar (secular) calendar month. This periodically occurs every 4 or
so years.
Nathan Unterman
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Update: June 2012
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