Astronomy Department
As evening twilight fades during February, the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, will highlight the sky as they come into view in the southwest. The best time to observe brilliant Venus with a telescope will be during twilight. The brightness of the sky will reduce the planet's glare, and it will be higher above the horizon than when the sky is completely dark, so its image will be sharper.
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The planets Venus and Jupiter will dominate the sky as darkness falls during January. Jupiter will be twice as bright as any star, and Venus will be four times brighter than Jupiter.
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Venus will be at its dazzling brightest as December begins, appearing in the southwestern sky after sunset. This beautiful "evening star" will set two hours after the sun on Dec. 1 and an hour later at month's end. Jupiter will come into view almost halfway up the southeastern sky as evening falls. It will be highest in the south around 8 p.m. local time and set in the early morning hours.
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Samir Salim has a lot of space to fit into a new NASA-funded database; about 11 million galaxies of it would be a ballpark estimate based on the number of galaxies for which distances can be estimated to about 3.5 billion light years, what astronomers still refer to as the relatively "local" universe. But the Indiana University astronomer and research scientist believes the vast archives produced by NASA space telescopes and ground-based observatories hold the right information to create the largest resource ever for the study of how star formation proceeds in galaxies.
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Jupiter will be easy to see in the east as night falls in November. The bright planet was at opposition on Oct. 29, so during November it will still be visible almost all night at its maximum brilliance. This is when you can get good telescopic views of Jupiter without staying up late, as it travels high across the sky from southeast to southwest. Jupiter's four brightest moons will be visible with binoculars.
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The Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy departments at Indiana University Bloomington are inviting everyone, young and old, to their annual open houses on Saturday, Nov. 5. The open houses are free and feature a wide range of activities.
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