Something unusual is going on in our night skies at the moment, and it’s wonderful. And it’s a great way to start what will hopefully be a great year for astronomy, and my tenth year of doing astronomy. For the next few weeks, all of the planets except Mercury will be in the sky together at the same time. And in February, it will be in principle possible to see all of them in the sky at the same time, Mercury included, shortly after sunset.
I say “in principle” because Mercury is always a tricky customer to catch for viewing. It is positioned near the sun after all, so, during the day, it’s too bright to view Mercury, and after sunset, it’s very low in the sky, and then quite soon after, sinks below the horizon. Mercury is the only planet I’ve never observed with a telescope, saw it briefly with the naked eye once, and that was it.
What About Pluto?
I was born in 1985, a simpler time when Pluto was a planet. Usually when I write astronomy blogposts, I treat Pluto as not being a planet, because for good or bad that seems to be the general consensus among astronomers. Personally, while I have read the arguments for why Pluto was reclassified as a non-planet, and am open to the possibility that that was a mistake, I never felt emotionally invested in whether or not it’s a planet, all I ever cared about is that it’s a really amazing world and I’m glad New Horizons was able to successfully visit it and show us what that wonderful place looked like.
But in case you’re wondering, I did a quick look on Stellarium, my astronomy app, and no, it doesn’t look like Pluto will be visible in the sky at the same time as the other planets. In fact, Pluto will be mostly above the horizon during daylight, so I don’t think it’ll be possible to view it at all during this period, let alone at the same time as the other planets.
So, if you were hoping to see Pluto during this period, you will have to be content with the amazing high detail photographs New Horizon took in 2015, because you won’t be seeing it in the sky!
So What Did I See?
On the night of the 22nd January (2025 for clarity incase people still read this blog thousands of years in the future.) I saw Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. One of the advantages of our short days this time of year is you can do your astronomy early, then go inside and have dinner, as opposed to the Summer when you’re waiting half the night to do your astronomy and when the time comes you just say fuck it I’m going to bed anyway. I had all my astronomy done before 8 pm. And this is what I saw.
Venus
I started the night of astronomical wonder by sketching Venus. Venus is hard to sketch, because I always try to capture the rays of golden light that stream out from it in all directions, so my Venus sketches ending up looking more like a flower. Venus has phases, just like the moon does, and I don’t know how well this sketch depicts it, but I could see only half of Venus, the other half in darkness, and it was beautiful to see.
Saturn
Saturn’s rings are in a more “edge on” position at the moment, so you don’t see as much of the detail of its beautiful rings, but I think it still looks kind of cool, like a teapot with two handles! That tiny dot on the right is Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon. Titan is the only place in the solar system other than Earth with a liquid cycle, much like Earth’s water cycle, except, the liquid is methane. It’s so cold there that methane exists as a liquid there, and there is methane rain, methane lakes, and methane rivers. The fact that I’m not able to live there is one of the cruelest injustices of all time.
Jupiter
When I got my first telescope, that very night Jupiter was the second object I ever saw, after the moon. It’s so big, and, in universal terms, so close, that even my six inch telescope, and now my ten inch telescope, hardly the JWST either of them, can pull some amazing detail out of this planet. I can always see the equatorial belts with ease, and if it’s in the right position, I can often see the Great Red Spot. But one of my favourite things about viewing Jupiter is getting to see four of its charismatic moons. In the picture, from left to right, you can see Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto. If you observe Jupiter with your telescope, and come back a few hours later to do the same, you will see that these four moons will have changed position, having completed a greater portion of their never ending journey around Jupiter.
Mars
Usually I find it easier to sketch Mars with my charcoal pencils, but I couldn’t find them, so I used my pastel pencils instead and I think it still came out alright anyway. I pulled more detail out of it then I expected, during 2020 I saw the southern icecap and the volcanic rock on Mars’s surface, and while I did see a dark patch on Mars this time, it was so faint I’m having difficulty telling if I was seeing some of the volcanic rock again or if it was an optical illusion. This is something you always have to be careful of when doing astronomy sketching, unless it’s a very clear detail, like Jupiter’s equatorial belts or the rings of Saturn, it can be very difficult to tell whether you’re looking at an incredibly faint detail or whether or not your eyes are playing tricks on you.
What About Uranus and Neptune?
So, with the exception of Mercury which was below the horizon, the other two planets that were in the sky at the time were Uranus and Neptune. I did make an attempt to find them but sadly no luck.
On a previous astronomy session I managed to view and sketch Uranus. Before that, I saw Neptune, but before I could even get pen to paper, the clouds rolled in and that was that. So Neptune is the only planet I have viewed through the telescope, but have not sketched. The other planet I have had poor success with is Mercury, which I have neither sketched, or seen through a scope, just seen it with the naked eye.
I live near a football pitch, and when there’s a game going on, it pretty much makes it impossible to find any faint objects. Even without that issue, light pollution has gotten so bad over recent decades that I’ve all but given up on finding new galaxies even though that’s a passion of mine.
I suspect, though I don’t know for sure, that I would have found Uranus and Neptune that night if not for the dastardly dealings of light pollution.
But still, this was an amazing experience. To look at Venus, a minute later look at Saturn, a minute later look at Jupiter and a minute after that look at Mars. I’ve never witnessed all of these planets being in the sky at the same time before. I think sometimes we need a reminder that we don’t just live on Earth, we live in an entire solar system, with such amazing worlds. The dry deserts of Mars, the methane lakes of Titan, the dystopian pressure cooker of Venus and the ocean world of Europa. I know Earth is cool, it’s got washing machines and you can get a nice cup of tea there, but it’s important to remember there are so many other amazing places out there, and all we have to do is look up!
Ponderings Of An Autist 