When we look up at the night sky, all those pretty points of light we see are very, very far away. It would take 40,000 years just to reach the closest one. Most of them would take millions of years. But out of the thousands that we can see, there are seven that are different. Only seven. They aren't very far away at all. We can reach them in just a few months, or a few years at the most, and we have sent spacecraft to all of them. The ancient Greeks noticed that these special points of light slowly moved among the other points of light, and they called them the Greek word forWanderers, which is Planets.

Because they wander all over the sky, they are not always visible. Sometimes you see them, and sometimes you don't. So when you do see them, you should consider yourself lucky, and take a good look. And think about what you're looking at. That's where the thrill comes in. These are not just points of light. These are worlds. Worlds with mountains and oceans and seasons. Some with atmospheres. Some with the potential to harbour life!

Right now we have a pretty good view of two of these worlds in our night sky, Mars and Saturn. If you look at the Orrery on the Planets page, you can see why. Earth's orbit has brought it close to these planets, and the Sun is not in the way. As this week's sky map shows, by the time the sky is good and dark, both planets are almost directly overhead. If you look to the north you can also see the two pointer stars in the big dipper (part of Ursa Major) pointing directly to the North Star (Polaris), found at the end of the tail of the little bear, ( Ursa Minor), otherwise known as the little dipper.

Blood red Mars, named after the Roman god of war, is a very important world. It will be the first world after the Moon to be visited by Human Beings. Right now there is a flotilla of spacecraft studying Mars in preparation for its first Human visitors. Although the good spaceship Earth is slowly moving away from Mars, it still looks good in a backyard telescope. The incredibly detailed photo below was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of the spacecraft orbiting the red planet, showing gullies apparently formed by ancient rivers of water on Mars.

The other planet, and by far the most impressive sight in the night sky right now, is Saturn. With its spectacular ring system, Saturn is without a doubt the crown jewel of the solar system. And right now we are about as close to the ringed planet as we get, so this is a particularly opportune time to view it, especially through a telescope. Even after seeing the many awe inspiring photos we now have of Saturn, one never forgets the first time they see the planet in real time, through a telescope. Because you don't just see Saturn, you experience it. The photons of light that enter your eye and form the image of Saturn in your mind left the Sun over two hours before, travelling almost a billion miles to Saturn. When those photons collide with Saturn they are changed. In a very real, measurable way, the photons pick up some of the vibrations of the molecules that make up Saturn. They become a part of Saturn, connected to it at a sub-atomic level. These Saturnized photons are then reflected back towards Earth, captured by the mirror of your telescope, and enter your body through the iris of your eye, still vibrating with the energy they picked up from Saturn. Then you too become connected to the ringed planet at a sub-atomic level. In quantum physics it's called entanglement, and it is a very real process.

Our view of Saturn is changing, however. We are about to lose sight of its rings. Approximately every 15 years, the rings of Saturn are turned edge-on toward Earth, and since they are almost a billion miles away, and only about a mile thick, they virtually disappear, as illustrated in the photos below, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope the last time Saturn's rings were edge-on, in 1995.

Each day now, we see less and less of Saturn's rings, as they tilt towards us. By September 2009, they will be gone, and it will be almost a year before they are back. So enjoy them while you can.

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The Sun is in Aries.

Current Solar Flare (X-ray) activity : Current Status of Solar Geomagnetic Field :

(Updated every ten minutes from the NOAA Space Environment Center through n3kl.org.)

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	Sunday, April 27	Monday, April 28	Tuesday, April 29	Wednesday, April 30	Thursday, May 1	Friday, May 2	Saturday, May 3
Sunrise	7:04 am	7:03 am	7:03 am	7:02 am	7:02 am	7:01 am	7:01 am
Sunset	7:40 pm	7:40 pm	7:40 pm	7:40 pm	7:40 pm	7:41 pm	7:41 pm
Moonrise	1:06 am	1:50 am	2:32 am	3:12 am	3:52 am	4:32 am	5:15 am
Moonset	12:38 pm	1:31 pm	2:23 pm	3:15 pm	4:09 pm	5:04 pm	6:02 pm
Moon Phases

Current Morning Star:	Planet Jupiter (magnitude -2.6)	Current Evening Star:	Sirius - the dog star (magnitude -1.45)

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HOME PAGE - Weekly map of the night sky, and current astronomical events.	OUR PLACE - Weekly article on things terrestrial.
SOLAR SYSTEM - All Things Held Captive By The Sun	KEEP MEXICAN SKIES FREE - Ways you can help...
CONSTELLATIONS - Everything Else In The Universe	MUSIC - "The food of love..." Original songs, and more...
PLANET WATCH - Weekly update of the planets in our sky.	GUITAR TUTORIAL - Learn the basics of playing the guitar.
E. T. WATCH - The scientific search for extraterrestrial life.	HIGHWAY 61 - An original novel about polar bears, suicide bombers, and God.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER WATCH - Comets and asteroids heading our way.	PHOTO GALLERY - A collection of original observatory photos.
SHUTTLE WATCH - The exploits of NASA's Space Shuttle.	HUMOUR GALLERY - A collection of humour from the web.
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - The latest news from the first Human home in space.	THE FRANK GALBRAITH LEGACY - The legacy of a Cariboo musician.
FREE ASTRONOMY SOFTWARE - The best things in life really are free.	THE MEXICAN SKIES OBSERVATORY - Santa Elena, Oaxaca, Mexico.
ASTROLOGY - Astronomy's Evil Twin?	MEXICAN SKIES ARCHIVES - Selected articles from previous years.

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Previously in Mexican Skies...

Jan 6 Photos Of Saturn	Jan 20 Postcards From Messenger	March 23 Life In Our Solar System	March 30 Home Sweet Home	April 6 Ten New Planets Found
April 13 Fourth Earth-like Planet Found	April 20 Saturn And Mars

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