ASP: Star-filled Nights and Galileo Moments

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Star-filled Nights and Galileo Moments

Mercury Summer 2009 Table of Contents

KHW opening page

Image courtesy of Akira Fujii / Sky & Telescope.

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.

If you enjoyed this excerpt from a feature article and would like to receive our quarterly Mercury magazine, we invite you to join the ASP and receive 4 issues a year.

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