My son stays up late to do a little stargazing with me.
It has been quite a while since my son took the time to look at the stars with me. He has had other interests lately, and with darkness happening later his bedtime forbids much of an opportunity anyway. But with a long weekend in front of us, I didn't think it would hurt so much if we pushed bedtime back by an hour so he could stargaze. And most importantly, he was ready, willing, and interested tonight.
He had wanted to see the line of four planets: Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter, plus the moon as they stretched all the way across the sky. We went out about a half hour after sunset and could see the moon and Venus easily, but nothing else yet. It was chilly out so I had him go inside and start some reading homework he had assigned while we waited for the sky to darken.
A little while later we went out and saw Saturn and noticed a bright star between Saturn and the Moon. I was getting ready to tell him what it was when he cut me off and said, "That must be Regulus." It was comforting to know that even when new hobbies intervened, he had not lost his astronomical knowledge.
There were high hazy clouds covering a swath of sky, making it very tricky to see certain targets. We were still waiting for Jupiter to rise in the East so we headed in and I let him look at the planetarium software. We then made several trips betweeen inside and outside, finding stars in the sky and running in to see which star we had spotted. One bright star he guessed was Spica but it turned out it was the bright star above Spica, Arcturus. When we returned outside he was able to see Spica in the still darkening sky and through the layer of haze. We found the bright star above Regulus that was Algieba, and then we spotted Denebola above the moon. Overhead lay the handle of the Big Dipper. Looking back in the west at Mercury we occasionally were able to glimpse a star just north of Mercury, winking in and out in the still light-blue sky. That star turned out to be Taurus' El Nath. Above it and brighter we spied Capella. We tried hard to spot Procyon forming a triangle with Venus and Saturn, but the clouds made it impossible to find.
We continually checked the southeast, looking for Jupiter to rise. The sky in that direction was not darker as it should have been with the sun last gracing the northwestern horizon. The big city of Milwaukee lies to the southeast of us, and its light pollution plus a possible combination with hazy clouds kept Jupiter or any other point of light from appearing. (Not counting numerous planes that were trying to fool us.) But tomorrow is another night.
As I tucked my son into bed I heard him whisper to himself, "That was awesome!" Yes, it was.
