Purple Haze

My daughter got a telescope for her birthday from her grandparents two years ago. Paul and I may forget things in the midst of the family craziness, but he manages to remember and follow through on astronomical-related events. Last night’s sighting is the most memorable as we got a threefer.

Spent a bit of time thinking of how to describe this, but the words don’t come. First, we see Jupiter with vertical lines, two moons above, and one below. I couldn’t imagine Venus coming close to that amazing sight. Surprisingly, Venus held her own.

When I first glanced at Venus, it looked like a crescent moon. Big deal. We have the moon with us all the time. Then, Paul switched eyepieces. There it was! A purple glow around the crescent, which is a reflection of Venus’ clouds.

We couldn’t find Saturn. After putting the kids to bed, Paul ventured out with telescope in hand to see what he could find. He waves for me to come out. I look in the telescope and just see a fleck of light. I am not impressed. The stars with my own eyes are just as exciting.

He looked again and adjusted it for me. Concentrating and again, I saw a speck… but I stay focused and finally a crystal clear view of Saturn appears with its famous rings! It was tiny, but WOW!