Watching the Sky

I had these fabulous plans for this evening: last night I was driving home from a family get-together & it was so bright & clear outside about 9pm, and the moon was up (it's a waxing crescent right now) and it was really cool looking, cuz you could actually also see the dark part, but below it and a very little to the south was this very bright thing. Looked very bright & kinda big to be a star, so I came home & looked it up this morning. Turns out it was Venus. Orion's right there in the same neighborhood. Saw it last night too, although I didn't think a whole lot about it. Right above Orion is Taurus, which contains both the Crab Nebula & the Pleiades. Man was I ever looking forward to dark tonight! Gonna go watch the sky & see what I could see.

So, this afternoon, I go on a walk & even find a nice spot that would probably work for starwatching not too far from home. It's nice and open, and this afternoon it was filled with birds, including Red-wing Blackbirds, which I love to listen to. But as I'm coming back the clouds are rolling in... I doubt that I'd be able to see the moon, much less a planet or a Nebula. Bummer. But they'll probably still be there on Sunday (I'm too busy tomorrow to try it.) I should check the weather & see if that might be a better time to look at the sky.

Astronomy for Kids: Taurus
Astronomy for Kids: Venus
Weather Underground: last night's star chart