Scheduled air date: 2002 Dec 30-2003 Jan 05
The ringed planet Saturn—at its best viewing in 30 years—and the giant
planet Jupiter currently make great targets for even a small telescope under
evening skies...
(Shown around 8:00 PM during the first couple of weeks of January for mid-Northern latitudes.)
...While the two planets whose orbits are closest to Earth's—Venus and
Mars—currently make great telescopic targets in the morning skies. Later
this year Mars will be making its best appearance in almost 60,000 years!
(Shown about an hour before sunrise during January and February for mid-Northern
latitudes. The inset shows Venus' changing phase and apparent size.)
If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.
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Illustrations on this page were created using
TheSky Astronomy
Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc. |