Planets

Have a look at the Western sky, just after the sun has gone down, and you’ll see a pretty amazing sight… Both Jupiter and Mercury are sitting up there next to each other. In fact, the sky is still slightly blue andthese planets will probably be the only thing visible in the sky at that time.

Is it just me, or is it really cool to see and recognise planets amongst the 70 sextillion stars in the night sky (that’s 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, in a recent count by Australian astronomer Simon Driver).

A little tip for telling the difference between a planet and a star is, planets don’t really twinkle/sparkle, they just kinda glow. And don’t forget to check out Mars later on in the night – really, check it out from around 9pm any night as it rises in the East.

Imagine impressing that perfect he/she on a romantic Friday night by saying “See that red looking star up there, well it’s not actually a star, it’s the planet Mars, and it’s the closest it’s been to Earth in recorded human history.” Score!!!