Welcome to a wonderful month for planet gazing!  I like it when the planets do cool things as they’re up there for an entire evening as a general rule, not just for a few minutes like a satellite pass.  They’re also pretty bright and easy to see.

If you’ve been visiting the website for the last few months, you know that both Mars and Saturn are in the western sky after sunset.  Mars moves much faster than Saturn, and it’s been closing on Saturn’s position for the last two or three months.  This month is when the god of war finally catches up with the god of time.  

Mars and Saturn are near a bright star, Regulus; the brightest star in Leo the Lion.  The three bright objects will change position relative to each other every night both this week and next week and are a fine way to show your kids how the planets move in the sky.

Go outside on Tuesday night 1 July at 7:50 p.m. (that’s one hour after sunset) and face west where the Sun disappeared.  Three fist-widths above due west, you’ll see two bright stars very close together with another brighter star about two finger-widths above them.  The upper ‘star’ is Saturn, and the right ‘star’ of the bottom pair is Mars.  The left star is a star, that’s Regulus.

If you look at the trio every night this week, you’ll watch Mars climb higher and higher in the sky.  On Saturday night, 5 July, the three bodies will look like Orion’s Belt with Mars in the middle.  You’ll also see a very thin crescent Moon, below them and to the left.  But the best is yet to come.  On Sunday night, that Moon will be just below the line of planets and star and the four of them will make a beautiful sight in the western sky.  Don’t miss it!

Of course, all that snow may make it a little difficult to stargaze.  Snow??  What snow?  What’s she talking about?  Well if you’re one of those people who think the Earth has seasons because of its distance from the Sun, you’d better prepare to get cold because your spaceship will be at its farthest distance from the Sun for the year on the Fourth of July.  And not only is that our farthest distance for the year, it’s the farthest distance for the decade and the second farthest for the entire century.

But don’t expect the Sun to look any smaller, or any snow to fall on Guam.  We’re only 8,000 miles farther away than we will be next year and when you compare 8,000 miles to Earth’s 93 million mile orbit, you realize that our orbit is so close to being a perfect circle, that our distance from the Sun doesn’t affect the weather or the seasons at all.

Of course, July means rainy season here and July’s clouds may prevent you from seeing the stars and planets.  But the rain keeps the salt haze down and the sky can be amazingly clear between the clouds.  Some things to look for are Crux the Southern Cross in the south and the Big Dipper opposite it in the northwest.  The Cross is beginning to tip toward the west and its two companions, Alpha and Beta Centauri, are high in the southern sky.  If you don’t recognize them, just look for the eyes in the south and you’ll see them.  Alpha Centauri is the third brightest star and Beta Centauri is the tenth.  And, of course, Alpha Centauri is the closest star to the Sun.  They are the brightest stars of Centaurus the Centaur, which arches over the Southern Cross.  The Milky Way runs through the whole area, making an astounding sight through binoculars.  Have a look tonight!
 
 
Would you like to be on the Planetarium e-mail list and receive a monthly reminder of the Planetarium shows and occasional notices of cool things in the sky?  Just send an e-mail to stars@guam.net requesting that you be added and I'll put you on the list!

Don't forget that you can hear this information on Guam's public radio station KPRG, 89.3 on your radio dial.  The program is called Tropical Skies and it airs twice on Monday, during the noon hour at 12:25 and at 6:01 in the evening.  Support your public radio station

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