Humankind has been enamoured with the night sky for millennia. Early civilizations interwove tales of the constellations’ origins into their mythology. Beyond mythology, the stars held a practical purpose in the lives of mankind as maps. It was the stars that led explorers home from across unfamiliar terrain, and it was the stars that guided sailors across the seas. As technology progressed, scientists were able to learn more about the night sky with the help of telescopes. Yet, even though these pieces of technology have unearthed beautiful images and incredible pieces of knowledge, there is still something to be said for gazing up at the night sky unaided. Naked eye astronomy brings us back to our roots of gazing at the sky without any binoculars or telescopes.
WHAT IS NAKED-EYE ASTRONOMY?
Naked-eye astronomy refers to studying the night sky without the aid of any optic device like binoculars or a telescope. It is a thing which is just amazing!!
HOW TO START WITH IT?
Asking this? The answer would be just be: Go out on a cloudless night with maybe a book to note down what you observed. Take a mobile there with any Stargazing app, so that you will be able to identify the stars, planets or the constellations.
Let’s start questioning!
What Planets Are Visible By the Naked Eye?
The first step to identifying planets is to know which planets are possible to see without a telescope. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are the five brightest planets in our night sky and, therefore, observable by most people. Of this list, Mercury can be the hardest one to spot… it is the closest planet to the Sun and is never seen too far from the Sun, so its low altitude and the glare of the rising or setting sun can make it hard to pick out.
What Do Planets Look Like?
The easiest way to pick out planets is to remember this quick rule of thumb: stars twinkle and planets don’t. Seen with the naked eye, planets and stars both appear as pinpoints of light. When you observe a star, you’ll notice that it twinkles and the light may appear to change colors. Planets don’t appear to twinkle much at all. Why the difference? Stars are MUCH farther away from us than planets, so the beam of light from a star is affected more by passing through our atmosphere than the beam of light from a much closer planet. Our air is the cause of twinkling. If you were out in space, neither planets or stars would twinkle at all!
Are Planets Visible At the Same Time Each Year?
In short, no. It is important to note that while we can see the brightest planets fairly regularly, there isn’t a single time in every year that is best for a particular planet. Planets move around the Sun at different rates and the Earth moves around the Sun, so the combination of these movements means we see planets in the night sky at different times each year.
Do Planets Always Look the Same?
Not exactly. Depending on how far a planet is from the Earth, it might look brighter or dimmer in the sky as compared to another time. The change in brightness for Jupiter and Saturn, for example, isn’t a huge amount. They are far enough from Earth that if we are a little closer or farther away, it doesn’t affect their brightness all that much. Mars, on the other hand, can look quite different from one year to the next. In late July 2018, Mars was around 40 million miles from the Earth and appeared very bright orange in the early evening sky. Several months into 2019 however, Earth had moved enough in its orbit that Mars was almost on the opposite side of the Sun—more than 200 million miles away! It was quite a bit dimmer at this point.
How close the planet is to the horizon also has a huge effect on how bright it appears. When a planet is high above the horizon, you are looking through less air to see it. When a planet is closer to the horizon, you are looking through more air, and so the planet will appear dimmer than when it was higher up in the sky.
Planets are also different colors! Mercury is white-ish in color and Venus is bright white. Mars is a rust-orange color. (We know, it’s called the Red Planet—what can we say? It’s orange.) Jupiter is a light tan color and Saturn is a yellow-ish tan color.
How To Know Which Planets Are Visible Tonight
Now that you know which planets are visible and what they might look like, you’ll need to know which planets are visible in your night sky. As previously mentioned, this will vary throughout the year and from year to year. It’s also important to note that you may not necessarily be able to see all five planets at the same time or in one night.
To get started, you can enlist the help of one of the following online resources that help you know what’s visible in your sky tonight.
- Time and Date
- EarthSky
- Astronomy.com
- App I would suggest would be Star Walk 2. (This one will mostly tell you about celestial objects. Best one for Stargazing.)
- Another App would be Night Sky. (This one will mostly show you satellites.)
Using the resources above, you can plug in the date you’ll be observing as well as your location to get a list of which planets are visible in your area, at what times, and their location in the sky.
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