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Mercury
Summer 2009 Table of Contents


Image courtesy of Akira Fujii / Sky & Telescope.
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by
Ken Hewitt-White
I'll
never forget my first "Galileo moment." It was January
15, 1966, and the sunset sky over Ottawa, Ontario, was crystal clear.
A novice stargazer, I was outside with my 2.4-inch refractor (a
telescope with a main lens 2.4 inches in diameter) that I'd bought
with the profits from my newspaper route. I wanted to see some planets
and on that particular evening I had a fielder's choice: Venus and
Mars were sinking in the west, Saturn was a bit higher, and Jupiter
was ascending in the east.
During
this summer of the International Year of Astronomy, I urge you to
head outside and stargaze. To help, I've selected a number
of targets you can explore with small optics (or just this article
and your imagination) that are visible from early summer to early
autumn. Ready? Let's gaze skyward.
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