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Flandrau: The UA Science Center, is hosting "An Evening with the Planets" on Friday and Saturday to coincide with the end of the Phoenix Mars Mission lander experiments and as Jupiter and Venus near one another.

By Michael Terenzoni, Flandrau: The UA Science Center
November 24, 2008

Venus and Jupiter, the two normally brightest planets in the sky, are moving closer in skies worldwide, and will group in the most spectacular conjunction of two planets seen in several years at the end of November.

So Flandrau: The UA Science Center is hosting "An Evening with the Planets" on Friday and Saturday to coincide with the event, and also with the closing of the Phoenix Mars Mission's lander experiments.

The public is invited to the events scheduled for Nov. 28 and 29. Flandrau, the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association and UA Students for the Exploration and Development of Space will be hosting a talk and free telescope viewings of Jupiter and Venus, in addition to other celestial objects.

Patrick Woida, the Phoenix Mars Mission scout mission senior engineer, will hold two special talks about the mission.

His Friday and Saturday lecture – both at 8 p.m. – will cover the recent Mars exploration and detailed what has been learned and what has yet to be understood. Woida will also describe and tie in to this spectacular planetary grouping, or conjunction, of the two planets.

The cost to attend is $7.50 and for children age 4 and above and covers exbhit entrance and a planetarium show to be held at 6:30 p.m. The telescope viewings are free and will be held on both days at 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Jupiter and Venus reach just over 2 degrees apart in the sky on Saturday and will be slightly closer on Sunday.

While whitish Jupiter is sinking into the glare of the sun, Venus will gradually gains altitude, moving out of the sun's glare. Jupiter, which has dominated the southwestern evening sky this fall for a few hours after sunset, will yield some prominence.

Though Jupiter, a distant gas giant, is much fainter than Venus, it is still bright and large in a telescope. Until Dec. 1 – when the two planets will be nearly parallel and when the crescent Moon joins the scene – look for bright, whitish Jupiter in the southwestern sky above brighter Venus. Beginning Dec. 2, Venus will appear above Jupiter.

Jupiter and Venus are both highest each evening in evening twilight but lose altitude early, setting in the west-southwest during the last week of November.

Uranus and Neptune Visible

Flandrau will also host viewing of Uranus and Neptune at the end of November and in early December.

During this time, the two distant planets are well situated in the night sky for evening viewing in Flandrau's 16-inch observatory telescope. In fact, Uranus will remain visible until early January. Watch nights are held Wednesdays through Saturdays.

Neptune and Uranus are 27 degrees apart – almost three fists held at arm's length – in the southern half of the sky for North America, and so can both be seen each evening at the same time.

Although both planets are invisible to the naked eye around Tucson, due to their great distance from Earth, Flandrau's computer-aided telescope can easily find both gas giants using special "Sky Pilot" software.

In the eyepiece, no detail is visible on either planet, but rather a small bluish disk is revealed. Uranus, being closer at 1.85 billion miles from Earth will appear larger and brighter than Neptune, which is currently about 2.8 billion miles away.

Flandrau's 16-inch telescope is available Wednesday through Saturday nights – weather permitting – year round for free public viewing of the night sky.

The telescope is the only free public telescope open on a regular basis in the state of Arizona and is normally open from 7 to 10 p.m.