Dear Friends:
A great and easy skywatching opportunity this weekend: Shortly after sunset each evening, the planets Mercury, Venus, and Saturn will appear VERY close together in the sky — on Saturday evening, they’ll be so close that you could cover them all with your thumb at arm’s length, and then they’ll be even closer on Sunday and Monday evenings. The planets will be easy to spot if you look in the right place; the keys to finding them are: (1) look very soon after sunset, while the sky is still aglow with twilight, because the planets will set below the horizon by the time it is very dark; (2) Look to the west, since the planets will be following close behind the Sun. You can get more details from this NASA Science News article.
Also, while I have your attention: Thanks to so many of you for responding to my offer of 5,000 free copies of Max Goes to Mars for elementary schools. If you are still looking into the offer, please hurry — about 3,700 of the 5,000 books are already spoken for, with firm commitments for books to go to every public elementary school in Colorado, New York City, Houston, Ann Arbor, St. Paul, New Orleans, Sonoma County, Tucson, Nacogdoches TX, and more…
Thanks!
Jeff