Astronomy Club of Augusta gives dozens of stargazers opportunity to see the 'Parade of Planets'
AIKEN, S.C. (WJBF) – A local astronomy group gathered Friday evening to see the 'Parade of the Planets'.
The Astronomy Club of Augusta gave dozens of stargazers the opportunity to see the rare celestial event.
Many brought their own telescopes and had chairs set up for the beautiful view of the night sky.
Seven planets will be visible in the sky. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Mars can be seen by the naked eye but you will need a telescope to be able to see Uranus and Neptune. Saturn is more difficult to see because of how low it is on the horizon.
Richard Cofer, Vice president of Programs for the Astronomy Club of Augusta, says, 'It's fairly rare that all of them are visible at the same time at night so we hope to enjoy some of those while they are up as well as whatever else people are interested in taking a look at.'
Along with viewing the Parade of the Planets, members were testing out new equipment and had some amazing sights.
President of the Astronomy Club of Augusta, Neil Miller, says it's important to have a clear view of the sky when viewing planets or stars.
'It gives you some perspective, the darker it is the objects that are fairly faint are going to show up easier, it's going to be easier to find them. It also gives our newest members a chance to practice with learning the constellations, how do you go from a star to a planet, how do you tell if its a planet or not, so there's a lot of things that we can help teach them and that's what we hope to do,' Miller says.
Miller also teaches courses in in physics and astronomy and USC Aiken and says it never gets old to see and learn about our galaxy.
Miller says, 'I think looking at any planet is fun, certain ones are easier to see and have more detail, more things going on, like Jupiter have 4 moons that you can see with just binoculars and it's the same ones that Galileo saw back in the early 1600's with his first telescope, so that's always fun to kind of put it into the historical perspective.'
This planetary alignment will not be visible again until 2040.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Welcome to the best month of the year for stargazing — expect killer views of the Milky Way, experts say
'Core season,' as the pros at NASA have dubbed it, is officially upon us. While the 'core' of the Milky Way galaxy is visible in the night sky across the Northern Hemisphere almost all summer long, experts have long recognized June as the ultimate time of year for stargazers. Preston Dyches, messaging strategist at NASA, confirms this astronomical phenomenon in the June release of his monthly video series. The Milky Way core 'is best observed from dark sky locations far from bright city lights, and appears as a faint, cloud-like band arching across the sky toward the south,' he informed viewers. The best news? Viewers in these prime locations don't need high-tech telescopes or even binoculars to stargaze this summer, though a closer view is often preferable for serious skygazers. The monumental sights spread across the cosmos this summer include several major constellations, ultra-bright stars, and seldom-seen planets. Remarkable as this year's full strawberry moon, visible on June 10 and early June 11, is slated to be, the new moon on June 25 offers the darkest night sky — which makes for the most vibrant stars and planets. Early risers can catch a glimpse of Venus and Saturn, which rise around 2 hours before the Sun. Venus casts low, intense light across eastern skies throughout mornings in the month of June, while Saturn can be identified by its massive size and characteristic rings alone. Meanwhile, Mars can be spotted towards the west, and remains a striking sight around sunset, as well as the hours that follow. Jupiter and Mercury continue to appear a bit more elusive, even in June. Jupiter is typically visible early in June, but it is expected to return as a fixture of the morning sky in July. In the last week of June, keep your eyes out for Mercury, which, per NASA, appears 'greyish-brown to the human eye,' and will be discernible as a fixture of the evening sky, around sunset, in late June. Other cosmic sights to behold include a slew of striking stars. Some seasoned stargazers take up viewing challenges during June and try to catch unique formations of stars alongside different planets. Regulus, the ultra-bright white 'heart' of the constellation Leo, will trail alongside Mars on June 16, while stars Castor and Pollux will form a line with Mercury on June 24, according to charts from EarthSky. Other visible constellations include the notable 'Summer Triangle,' which is made up of stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Longtime astronomer Patrick Moore originally coined the term, and said that not even the most 'myopic observer' could miss the cluster, which makes it a great starting point for beginner stargazers. By following these three bright stars, Milky Way viewers can spot Cygnus, Lyra, Aquila, Boötes, and Ursa Major. Observers on the East Coast of the United States are also expected to have especially unique skyward views as a result of recent Saharan dust movement, while stargazers closer to the northern border may have their sights obscured by drifting Canadian wildfire smoke.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Astronomers left puzzled by high-altitude clouds forming on young planet
Should humans ever venture to a particular planet that circles a sun-like star in the constellation of the fly, they would do well to keep an eye on the weather. The thick slabs of cloud that blot the planet's skies are mostly made from mineral dust, but astronomers suspect there may be iron in them, too, which would rain down on the world below when the clouds break. Astronomers spotted the high-altitude clouds when they trained the James Webb space telescope (JWST) on the young star system, which lies 307 light years away in the deep southern sky. The star, YSES-1, is a newbie by cosmic standards, a mere 1m years old compared with the 4.6bn-year-old sun. The star is circled by two gas giants, both still forming and both larger than Jupiter, the biggest planet in the solar system. Related: Astronomers find signal that gives 'unexpected' insight into early universe Dr Kielan Hoch, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, said the planetary system's youth made it a prime target for astronomers to learn more about the early evolution of planets around faraway stars. 'There's a small handful of multiplanet systems that have been directly imaged,' Hoch said. 'And they are a unique laboratory to test planet formation theories as they formed in the same environment.' 'Both planets are still forming, which is why they are still bright enough for us to detect,' she added. 'The light we are seeing is from their formation as they begin to shrink and condense.' When the team began their observations they were surprised to find both planets in the telescope's field of view, giving them information on two worlds for the price of one. The outer planet, YSES-1c, is the smaller of the two worlds, and about six times the mass of Jupiter. The telescope revealed high-altitude clouds in the planet's atmosphere, but instead of being made from water vapour as on Earth, the clouds consist of magnesium silicate dust grains and perhaps some iron. 'The iron would indeed precipitate out,' Hoch said. The astronomers described the observations as the first direct detection of such clouds on a planet circling a sun-like star. Further data revealed a disc of material made up of trillions of tonnes of dust particles around the larger inner world, YSES-1b, about 14 times the mass of Jupiter. The findings were published in Nature. Hoch said the disc around the inner planet was a 'puzzle for formation theories' since both planets must have formed in the same environment. 'Why did YSES-1b hold on to material around it while YSES-1c did not?' she said. An added mystery is why a 16m-year-old planet still has a disk of material swirling around it. Astronomers' theories of planet formation suggest that any encircling dust should have settled after the first 5m years. 'We wouldn't expect the planets to look so different from one another if they formed in the same protoplanetary disk,' Hoch said. 'JWST is providing an immense amount of data to continue to refine models and improve our understanding.' The $10bn telescope has transformed astronomy since it launched in December 2021 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The flagship mission has peered back to the first galaxies that lit up the cosmos, spied strange new worlds, and witnessed black holes colliding. It has even spotted tantalising, if controversial, hints of life beyond Earth.
New York Post
11 hours ago
- New York Post
Welcome to the best month of the year for stargazing — expect killer views of the Milky Way, experts say
'Core season,' as the pros at NASA have dubbed it, is officially upon us. While the 'core' of the Milky Way galaxy is visible in the night sky across the Northern Hemisphere almost all summer long, experts have long recognized June as the ultimate time of year for stargazers. Preston Dyches, messaging strategist at NASA, confirms this astronomical phenomenon in the June release of his monthly video series. The Milky Way core 'is best observed from dark sky locations far from bright city lights, and appears as a faint, cloud-like band arching across the sky toward the south,' he informed viewers. Advertisement This summer, skyward sights are particularly spectacular, partially thanks to the major lunar standstill impacting the moon's orbit. Paulista – The best news? Viewers in these prime locations don't need high-tech telescopes or even binoculars to stargaze this summer, though a closer view is often preferable for serious skygazers. The monumental sights spread across the cosmos this summer include several major constellations, ultra-bright stars, and seldom-seen planets. Advertisement Remarkable as this year's full strawberry moon, visible on June 10 and early June 11, is slated to be, the new moon on June 25 offers the darkest night sky — which makes for the most vibrant stars and planets. Early risers can catch a glimpse of Venus and Saturn, which rise around 2 hours before the Sun. Venus casts low, intense light across eastern skies throughout mornings in the month of June, while Saturn can be identified by its massive size and characteristic rings alone. Meanwhile, Mars can be spotted towards the west, and remains a striking sight around sunset, as well as the hours that follow. According to experts, the best places to stargaze in the Northern Hemisphere this summer are far, far away from major city lights. Anadolu via Getty Images Advertisement Jupiter and Mercury continue to appear a bit more elusive, even in June. Jupiter is typically visible early in June, but it is expected to return as a fixture of the morning sky in July. In the last week of June, keep your eyes out for Mercury, which, per NASA, appears 'greyish-brown to the human eye,' and will be discernible as a fixture of the evening sky, around sunset, in late June. Advertisement Other cosmic sights to behold include a slew of striking stars. Some seasoned stargazers take up viewing challenges during June and try to catch unique formations of stars alongside different planets. Regulus, the ultra-bright white 'heart' of the constellation Leo, will trail alongside Mars on June 16, while stars Castor and Pollux will form a line with Mercury on June 24, according to charts from EarthSky. Other visible constellations include the notable 'Summer Triangle,' which is made up of stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Longtime astronomer Patrick Moore originally coined the term, and said that not even the most 'myopic observer' could miss the cluster, which makes it a great starting point for beginner stargazers. By following these three bright stars, Milky Way viewers can spot Cygnus, Lyra, Aquila, Boötes, and Ursa Major. Observers on the East Coast of the United States are also expected to have especially unique skyward views as a result of recent Saharan dust movement, while stargazers closer to the northern border may have their sights obscured by drifting Canadian wildfire smoke.
