Minnesota Starwatch

University of Minnesota

Department of Astronomy

Minnesota Starwatch for May 2005
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Starwatch Newsletter

Minnesota Starwatch is a newsletter describing the night sky in the Midwest.

It is updated monthly, and is produced by the
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota
116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Minnesota Starwatch for May 2005

Venus will be in the west this month, following right behind the setting Sun, with Saturn setting about three hours later. Venus is very bright and can still be seen down quite low to the horizon. At this point, Venus is being observed through a much longer path in the Earth's atmosphere than the stars overhead. All of the temperature and density fluctuations in the earth's lower atmosphere cause the image of Venus to appear to bounce around and change colors. The effect can be quite dramatic, and people often mistake Venus for something weird or unusual in the sky.

If you have a pair of binoculars, take a look at Saturn after sunset. You should be able to see it's rings. The rings of Saturn were discovered by Galileo almost 400 years ago, but his telescope was not good enough for him to tell they were actual rings around the planet. He described them as 'handles' on either side of the planet. Your binoculars are, in fact, much better than Galileo's telescope! The nature of the rings of Saturn remained a puzzle until late in the 20th century when astronomers determined they were composed of countless blocks of ice and ice covered rocks, about the size of the furniture in your living room, orbiting the planet like tiny moons.

For fun Astronomy Outreach programs check out our Public Outreach link, or if you're interested in how you can help build the new Minnesota Planetarium, please call 612-630-6151 or visit http://www.mplanetarium.org. Como Planetarium is offering fun family shows about astronomy on a limited basis; please call 651-293-5398 for more info! This has been a Minnesota Starwatch produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department.