Planet list includes hard-to-find Uranus

When you go outside tonight, look high in the southwest for the rusty-colored "star" and think about (Mars rover) Spirit, and what it must be like to remotely control a robot so far away. This is one of those weeks we'd be glad to spend in Big Sky country — we have so much to look at.

First of all, the Mars rover Spirit should be taking its first road trip (the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory folks call this egress) to explore the Red Planet's surface.

Not since August, when Mars was at its closest approach to Earth and had just about everyone gazing in its direction, has the planet attracted so much media attention.

One of Spirit's most interesting tasks is to use an abrasion tool to scrape the outer surfaces of weathered rocks, exposing fresh interior surfaces for study. Imagine using a Dremel tool by remote control.

When you go outside tonight, look high in the southwest for the rusty-colored "star" and think about Spirit and what it must be like to remotely control a robot so far away.

Venus is the bright "star" to the right and below Mars. Venus sets almost three hours after the sun does.

Wednesday evening, Uranus can be found by centering your telescope on Venus, then nudging it up almost one degree north. Uranus appears as a dim blue-green "star."

It can be spotted in binoculars by keen-eyed and experienced observers with dark, country-sky conditions. Seeing it in the city will be a challenge.

Look high in the southeast after dark on any clear night to find the constellation Orion, the hunter. Orion has one of the most recognized star patterns in the sky.

It is home to Betelgeuse, a red giant star whose diameter is greater than the Earth's orbit around the sun. It's one of the few stars that have been seen as an actual disk rather than just a point of light. Betelgeuse can be found by looking to the upper left of the three evenly spaced bright stars making up Orion's belt.

To Orion's right is Taurus, the bull. A large V-pattern of stars makes up the charging bull's head, also known as the Hyades. I like to call the Hyades the "Good-Bye-A-Dees" because they're moving away from us in space. The bright-reddish star marking the upper left of the V is Aldebaran, the fiery eye of the bull.

Finally, look east of Taurus and Orion to find Saturn. It appears as a bright yellow "star."

Saturn is spectacular in a telescope. With the rings tilted almost at their greatest openness, their beauty is hypnotic.

If you don't have a telescope but want to see Saturn at its finest, the Scobee Planetarium at San Antonio College will be hosting a "Saturn Night Live!" event with the San Antonio Astronomical Association at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 31. It will be free and open to the public.

E-mail Becky Ramotowski at skywatch @beckster.cotse.net. Skywatch appears Mondays.

Cool (Free!) Astronomy-related Software:
Please FReepmail other suggestions

Celestia: (GET THIS ONE! -- m_f) A real-time space simulation that lets you experience our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. All travel in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.
Sky Screen Saver: Shows the sky above any location on Earth, including stars (from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue of more than 9000 stars to the 7th magnitude), the Moon in its correct phase and position in the sky, and the position of the Sun and all the planets in the sky.
Outlines, boundaries, and names of constellations can be displayed, as well as names and Bayer/Flamsteed designations of stars brighter than a given threshold. A database of more than 500 deep-sky objects, including all the Messier objects and bright NGC objects can be plotted to a given magnitude. The ecliptic and celestial equator can be plotted, complete with co-ordinates.
Home Planet: A comprehensive astronomy / space / satellite-tracking package for Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and above. Selected features:
- An earth map, showing day and night regions, location of the Moon and current phase, and position of a selected earth satellite. Earth maps can be customised and extended.Hposition and phase data for the Sun and Moon.
- Panel showing positions of planets and a selected asteroid or comet, both geocentric and from the observer's location.
- A sky map, based on either the Yale Bright Star Catalogue or the 256,000 star SAO catalogue, including rendering of spectral types, planets, earth satellites, asteroids and comets.
- Databases of the orbital elements of 5632 asteroids and principal periodic comets are included, allowing selection of any for tracking.
- A telescope window which can be aimed by clicking in the sky map or telescope itself, by entering coordinates, or by selecting an object in the Object Catalogue.
- A horizon window which shows the view toward the horizon at any given azimuth.
- Object Catalogue allows archiving images, sounds, and tabular data about celestial objects.
- Orrery allows viewing the solar system, including a selected asteroid or comet, from any vantage point in space, in a variety of projections.
- Satellite tracking panel. Select an Earth satellite from a database of two-line elements, and see its current position and altitude.
- View Earth From panel allows you to view a texture-mapped image of the Earth as seen from the Sun, Moon, a selected Earth satellite, above the observing location, or the antisolar point.
- Satellite database selection allows maintenance of multiple lists of satellites, for example TV broadcast, ham radio, low orbit, etc.
SETI@Home: A scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.