June 2010
Everything mentioned here can be seen with the naked eye.
The September night sky highlight is the planet Jupiter, which is the brightest it has ever been since 1963. Jupiter has sixty-four moons and if you have binoculars, you can spot four of the largest moons that are as big as planet Earth. Galileo was the first to see these four large moons and he named them Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto after the four lovers of the Greek god Zeus. Indeed, 'Jupiter' is the Roman name for Zeus. Also through binoculars, you will notice that the blue point of light just above Jupiter is the planet Uranus.
In the west just after dusk, a special night-sky triangle is created among three points of light: the planet Venus, the red planet Mars, and the red star Spica which is part of the constellation Virgo. Make sure to look for this special galactic triangle on September 10 and 11 as a beautiful crescent moon will appear next to the trio.
The full moon on Sept. 23 is the famous Harvest Moon because it is the full moon that occurs closest to the Fall Equinox. The light from this moon allows farmers to work late into the night harvesting their crops.
